A Word with Toby West

Recently, EMpower’s President & CEO, Cynthia Steele, had a conversation with Toby West, Global Director of Marketing at MarketAxess and member of our UK Board of Directors. They discussed the unique elements of the EMpower approach, the role of purposeful philanthropy in the finance community, and more.

 From your perspective as a marketing & communications professional, what do you think are the elements of the EMpower approach/model that have particular appeal?

• The firm belief that long-term structured investment and support is the only way to bring about real sustained, positive change to young lives. A child takes years to grow; marginalised young people can’t wave magic wands and change their futures overnight. They need support that lasts years, not months. The EMpower “patient capital” model – building 10-year, performance-based funding and support programmes for grantee partners – does just that.  
• A model that ensures that 100% of funds raised go directly to on-the-ground projects and communities. EMpower has always operated a lean, project-and-partner-centric organisation, and the underwriting model means that funds raised can go quickly and directly to their grantees. Many people simply don’t realise just how unique this is. 
• And the intelligence, experience and humility with which the EMpower team support their 165+ grantee partners across the world. In global NGO terms, EMpower is not large. But the strength of its team, and the composition of its regional boards, is incredible. It’s like the “Avengers Assemble” of emerging market NGOs. 

I have been pitched many times, by different charities and NGOs, big and small. I’ve heard many great stories of impact and change. But in marketing, you quickly learn the difference between a good story and a good product. The EMpower product is what makes it unique. And it’s what drew me and MarketAxess in. 

What would you love for your colleagues in the finance community to know about EMpower? 

That it exists. That with more support, the 1 million lives that it has already positively impacted can become 10 million. That, collectively as an industry, we don’t give enough or do enough to support and give back to the communities in which we work. The proportion of revenues we allocate to purposeful philanthropy is small – much smaller than it should be if we’re to think of our roles as stewards of a sustainable economic future. 

And this role is one we should all embrace. I would point my colleagues to the interview you had with Mary-Therese Barton a few weeks ago. The points made about “human capital” are compelling – in respect to opening the investment lens to encompass the development of the human capital that will drive the economies of the markets in which we invest for years to come. What it says to me is that purposeful philanthropy approached using responsible, long-term investment principles – i.e. the EMpower way – is supportive of, and ultimately fundamental to, the fiduciary duties we have to investors and financial performance. 

In a world full of grim events, how do you balance communicating optimism with realism? 

Ah, this is a genuinely tricky question. Storytelling is an art. Go too far, you risk losing the reader. Don’t go far enough, you risk never bringing them into the story in the first place. 

Every EMpower story is a human one, and I think that’s the key. There are humans at the center of the stories – and humans reading them. Each have the capacity to project resilience, and hope, and optimism. If we tell the human story objectively and clearly, the resilience and hope of the subject will naturally shine through. And if we give the reader of the story something to do – an action to take, a contribution to make – then we drive their optimism that they can make a positive impact on the next chapter in that story, or stories like it. The reality - the context in which the story is told and the actions taken - is never lost. 

In a world full of grim events, then, we just need many more EMpower stories to tell.