Spreading The Word Of Justice
If a person’s name can foretell his future, Alex Moore ’07—whose middle name is Justice—has chosen a fitting line of work
“I reluctantly took this class called Proposals, Grants, and Reports [with the writing department’s Patricia Spencer],” he says. Planning ahead for a semester he wanted to spend in Washington, D.C., the politics major hoped the skills he learned in the class might help him net an internship at an economic think tank.
“I emailed and asked for an internship. Six weeks later, I was down in D.C. writing grants for them."
Instead, it changed the trajectory of his career. Some of his assigned readings included the nonprofit management text Begging for Change by Robert Egger, founder of DC Central Kitchen, a community kitchen that also trains ex-convicts in culinary arts or, as Moore puts it, “shortens the city’s line of hungry people by the way they’re fed.”
“I said, I have to meet this guy,” says Moore, after reading Egger’s book. “I emailed and asked for an internship.” Egger personally responded. “Six weeks later, I was down in D.C. writing grants for them.”
After graduating from IC, Moore returned to DC Central Kitchen as grant manager. Now, as chief development officer, he leads all of the group’s fundraising efforts, mentoring other grant writers— including several IC interns.
His grant-writing team’s efforts have paid off, doubling the grants received in recent years for a working budget of more than $12 million. His book chronicling DC Central Kitchen’s endeavors, The Food Fighters, was released earlier in 2014. The text is now required reading for Spencer’s proposals class.
For more stories in the Faces of Changes series visit:
0 Comments