It’s Not the Numbers, It’s the People

Jocelyn D. Larkin, Executive Director - The Impact Fund

As I prepare to turn over the reins of the Impact Fund to Lindsay, I cannot help but reflect on some of the turning points in the organization’s history and some important people who have made the organization what it is.  I write to highlight just a few of those moments and individuals, although I feel that I could fill a book with stories of the many talented people who are or have been part of our Impact Fund family over the past 30 years.

I begin, of course, with our founder Brad Seligman (now Judge Seligman).  An experienced civil rights class action lawyer, he understood the need for funding to assist non-profit organizations and small firms to challenge systemic wrongdoing through litigation. In an act of extraordinary generosity, he both created the organization to provide this support and donated the original funding.  He recruited a group of experienced public interest litigators, experts in a variety of legal specialties, to advise the organization about which potential cases to fund.  And so it began — the first of its kind, a non-profit litigation funder for good.

Impact Fund founder, Brad Seligman, c. 1992.

That original gift would have been quickly disbursed to the many worthwhile cases that were funded in those early years but for the brilliant suggestion of one of those advisors, the legendary Ralph Abascal.   Ralph suggested that, if a case that we supported was successful and the grantees recovered their court costs and fees, the grant should be paid back plus a small amount of interest.  If no costs and fees were recovered, then nothing was owed.  Those repaid grants, when they eventually started trickling in, helped us to continue making more grants.  

Ralph would also bring to the Impact Fund community another key individual, Luke Cole.  Just out of law school, Luke, together with Ralph, would found the Center for Race, Poverty, and the Environment in the Central Valley.  The organization put a focus on environmental degradation that directly impacted farm workers and rural communities of color.  Luke was a passionate advocate for the environmental justice movement and, when he joined the Impact Fund Grant Advisory Board, his singular vision inspired his fellow grant advisors and our staff.  Luke died at the age 47 in a traffic accident, but he left his mark on the organization’s heart.

Patti Cary, outside Impact Fund offices, Berkeley Marina, August 2012.

Another key moment in our history occurred within weeks of my joining the organization in 1999.  I had been hired on a part-time basis to build our training program in support of our grantees and the larger civil rights class action bar.  Brad, who had not been litigating for a number of years, ducked his head in my office and said one word:  “Wal-Mart.” Long-time Impact Fund friend and supporter, Amy Oppenheimer, had been working as an expert witness for a lawyer in New Mexico, litigating individual sexual harassment cases against the retailer.  He suspected there might be a systemic problem with gender discrimination at the company and Amy told him: “call Brad Seligman.”  With that crucial referral, we launched a year-long investigation and then decade-long litigation against the corporate behemoth, challenging patterns of pay and promotion discrimination against its female workforce.  While the class litigation was ultimately stymied by a single vote in the U.S. Supreme Court, the case resulted in widespread change at Wal-Mart and improved pay and opportunities for its women workers.

Lindsay Nako, at the most recent Impact Fund Class Action Training Institute, September 2023.

Not long after the Supreme Court decision, Brad was elevated to the Alameda County Superior Court bench and it became my job to chart the future of the organization.  I understood that I needed to recruit top talent to expand key programs going forward.  I turned to Patti Cary, our indefatigable office manager, to take on these critical searches.  Always a keen judge of character, Patti found Teddy Basham-Witherington, now our Deputy Director, responsible for development and communications, and Amy Daniewicz, our Grant Program Director.  More than eight years later, both continue every day to lead their teams with passion and empathy, improving the organization and ensuring that we remain true to our mission. (Taking a page out of Patti’s book, Amy and Teddy have in turn hired excellent team members.)  I still thank Patti for identifying and recruiting these “ringers” without whom we could not have built today’s Impact Fund.

The most recent turning point, of course, was the day that Lindsay agreed to submit her name to the Board of Directors for appointment as our new Executive Director.  At that moment, I knew that I would not need to worry about the future of the organization nor that its past would be forgotten.