Community giving: 5 Minutes With ... Jay Kim

Name: Jay Kim

Title: Executive director, Foundation for MetroWest

Age: 50

Education: Bachelor’s degree, psychology, Brandeis University, 1992

Residence: Sherborn

Jay Kim knew at an early age he wanted to dedicate his life to helping others. The son of Korean immigrants, Kim and his family experienced a lot racism while he was growing up in Connecticut. “At home, my family talked often about injustices and the racism we saw,” recalls Kim, whose mother was a homemaker and whose father was a math professor at the University of Connecticut. “It sort of made me want to help others in life, to help move people forward.”

And that’s exactly what he’s done since college, working over the years at City Year, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and corporate philanthropy at Target Corp. Most recently, Kim was a fundraiser at The Boston Foundation. In January, Kim was appointed executive director of the Foundation for MetroWest, one of 17 nonprofit community foundations in the state that serve the charitable needs of specific geographic regions of the Bay State. With about $27 million in assets and nine employees, the Natick-based foundation serves 33 towns and cities west of Boston.

Think of the foundation as a sort of charity for the charitable – helping other nonprofits fund projects, assisting individuals and businesses achieve their philanthropic goals, training nonprofit professionals on how to better run their organizations, managing assets for other nonprofits, and, of course, making its own direct grants to those in need. The foundation also commissions studies on social problems and recently established an interactive website featuring a trove of data specific to MetroWest communities.

Kim recently spoke with BBJ correspondent Jay Fitzgerald about how the foundation and philanthropy in general have fared during the pandemic, his goals for the foundation and other matters. 

The pandemic has hit just about every sector of society hard. How has the pandemic impacted philanthropy over the past year?

Certainly, the pandemic has influenced philanthropy significantly in terms of focusing more resources towards directly addressing the challenges that have emerged for our most vulnerable residents. As an example, a lot of resources have been dedicated towards things like food insecurity and housing insecurity, obviously in reaction to the pandemic. And now we’re seeing the emergence of mental health support that’s needed and then potentially we’re looking at learning loss among young people.

Moving forward, what do you think is the top challenge facing the philanthropic community as we enter the post-pandemic recovery stage?

The biggest challenge is going to be just understanding how the philanthropic center can best support our communities. It’s going to require a lot of coordination and communication with our nonprofit partners that are directly serving people and with others, such as state and municipal leaders. It’s about trying to understand where there could be gaps in government funding efforts and where philanthropy can plug in the holes.

What’s the greatest challenge ahead for the Foundation for MetroWest?

 The greatest challenge is similar to what the philanthropic community will face in general. How do we support our communities? How do we address what’s going to come out of this pandemic? There are already significant disparities between the haves and have-nots. I think that’s going to be exacerbated by the pandemic.

Is there a goal, or hope, of increasing the foundation’s own assets in terms of dollars? By how much? 

Our goal is to build assets, of course, so that we can continue to be a permanent resource for our region for years to come. But I would say a major goal is about getting more people and businesses in our community engaged around their own philanthropy in general and getting them to understand that they can partner with entities like the foundation. We can make it easy for people to get involved to help their neighbors.

You’re new to the job as head of the foundation. Is there a project or field of philanthropic work you really want to tackle over the next few years? 

As a community foundation, again, I really want to just engage more people and our business community in philanthropy. I want to bring more awareness to the needs and challenges in this western region of Greater Boston. And I want to convey that partnering with the foundation is actually a great option if you want to help impact your community in a positive way.

The Foundation for MetroWest has released studies in the past on economic and racial-equity issues. Do you see the foundation as a sort think tank, for lack of other words, the way The Boston Foundation commissions studies on a wide range of topics?

I wouldn’t say a "think tank" as much as we believe our role is to educate and provide information to our communities, specifically around the strengths and challenges we face as a region.

Switching gears, you’re an Asian-American — and it hasn’t been easy for Asian-Americans lately due to the pandemic. Have you yourself experienced hostility or have any friends or loved ones experienced hostility tied to the pandemic? 

That’s a very important question. As it relates to the pandemic, myself, friends and family have not received any direct hostility. But what the recent attention and spotlight on racism against Asians highlight for me is that there is a continued fight and struggle that Asian Americans face to legitimize the idea that we face discrimination. What has happened during the pandemic has heightened that racism. But, honestly, as an Asian person who has lived in mostly white environments my entire life, incidents of racism have always been there for me and my family and are now being recognized and acknowledged.

Is this an area that the foundation might focus on?

In general, the foundation would like to continue to look at racial-equity issues. We have a lot of data on it. We plan to look at all the data, along with having conversations with stakeholders and others to decide where we might want to focus some attention to address some really stark disparities that exist in our region.

When not working, what do you do to relax? A hobby? A passion?

It’s recently been March Madness. I’m a big UConn Huskies fan, both of the men’s and women’s basketball teams. I enjoy following them. And, of course, I love spending time with my family and watching my kids play sports.

Did you play basketball as a youth? 

I did play a lot of basketball, both in high school and in college. Do you know who Jim Calhoun is (the former UConn men’s basketball coach)? Jim Calhoun’s son was a teammate of mine in high school, and then I did go on to play Division 3 at Brandeis.

What’s the last book you read? Did you enjoy it?

Maybe you’re looking for me to share this groundbreaking book that’s changed my life. But what I’ve been reading is, "Is this Anything?" by Jerry Seinfeld. Frankly, I’ve needed some comic relief during these challenging times. We need to all find time for a good laugh. I certainly like his humor and all the little stories. They just make me laugh.

After the pandemic, what’s one thing you really want to do that you couldn’t do during the coronavirus crisis? Travel? Go to restaurants? What?

It’s just being able to see my family and have a barbecue and really just hang out without masks and social distancing. Just being able to enjoy time with my family.