CEO Stories with Gabrielle Kurlander, All Stars Project

WRITING A NEW SCRIPT

Performance, says Kurlander, allows people to create new versions of themselves.  For people growing up in underserved areas with limited opportunities, the All Stars Project gives them a tool to help them see possibilities and feel confident pursuing new opportunities. For someone who has never been in a corporate setting but now has an internship, performance gives them a chance to “practice” being at home in an unfamiliar situation.

CREATING HER OWN ROLE

Kurlander knows from experience how important and powerful a tool performance can be. She had to “practice” becoming a CEO herself and being the person who could into corporations and ask CEOs to contribute resources, including people, and money. “What performance helped me do is create a version of who I wanted to be as a CEO that was both true to who I am and true to something that I wanted to create so I could go to these new places,” she recalls.

UNDERSTANDING PHILANTHROPY

The textbook definition of philanthropy is to “exert oneself on behalf of others.” Rather than looking to government grants to help the All Stars Project grow, Kurlander chose to hew to the true spirit of philanthropy. “We wanted to go to people because we could be more innovative, we could be more entrepreneurial, we could actually create new connections between people with money and people with less money.”