years I’ve learned to enjoy other sports, as well.” Aside from Luther Burbank Park, Peter said some of his other favorite Mercer Island haunts include Pioneer Park and the coffee shop where he and Jen will meet about every other work to discuss Grow Further’s progress, successes, and the road ahead. Jennifer Dine is a transplant from the East Coast. “I moved here nine years ago,” she explained. “Mercer Island was recommended by a real estate agent who also lived on the island, but showed other areas of Seattle, as well. The laid-back community feel, green spaces, water, and great schools for my kids were what drew me here.” Jen said she found the opening at Grow Further through a website where women in the nonprofit sector can network and share information and advice. She had no true background in agriculture or agricultural research, but saw it as an opportunity to learn. Jen explained that she already had an interest in global food security matters and found the approach that Grow Further is aiming for intriguing. “I was looking for a mission-driven role,” she recalled. “I wanted to leverage my previous relationship management and partnerships experience and use them in a role that I believe would have a beneficial impact on society.” She called the Grow Further model of donor membership-driven project scrutiny and selection something “that I had never seen before in philanthropy.” The member-driven approach wasn’t the only aspect that attracted Jen to the opportunity to become Grow Further’s first Membership Director. Grow Further solicits input from smallholder farmers directly in a bid to better understand their needs and whether or not a project that a research team at some nearby university is working on (and seeking a grant for) might actually be of any benefit or use to the farmers. When Peter traveled to Ghana and Tanzania on a due diligence mission, he not only met with the people applying for research grants, but he also ventured into the fields to see what the farmers themselves made of these potential innovative approaches to growing more food. For more information on Grow Further, and their events, scan here. That attitude and approach particularly drew Jen to Grow Further, she explained. “Grow Further’s angle on contributing to global food security issues by investing in agricultural R&D projects that include farmer participation and are carried out in universities in the grantee’s home country, essentially a bottom-up approach to international development, made a lot of sense to me,” she said. The membership-driven model means that the role of a membership director involves a lot more than simply soliciting individual and corporate donations, a feature that also appeals to Jen. “I had spent many years as a relationship manager and worked in partnership development, and enjoyed the relationships that came from that line of work,” she explained. “The fact that donors were engaged heavily in the organization made me more interested in the fundraising aspects of the role, as it meant I would get to spend more time building long relationships, which is a priority of the organization.” Grow Further’s nationwide search for a membership director was competitive. Jen ultimately decided to throw her hat into the ring, confident that she could excel in the position. In the end, it paid off. “After several interviews with a recruiter and Advisory Committee member, I was asked to meet with the founder,” she recalled. “At that point, it was shared with me that Peter also lived on Mercer Island, which was a funny and nice coincidence.” “I was a little surprised, though not shocked,” he said, recalling his reaction when the search agency informed him that the top candidate for the role of Grow Further Membership Director is also a Mercer Islander. “The Seattle area is a hotbed of innovative approaches to philanthropy, and Mercer Island is where many movers and shakers live.” Jen quickly hit the ground running. More institutional partners have come on board since, and the number of individual Grow Further donormembers is expanding at a nice clip. When Grow Further rolled out its first call for proposals the response was astounding—more than 700 applications came in, even though there were initially only enough resources to fund two. About 200 research proposals met the initial criteria. After a few more months of application reviews, ten of the best applications were put before the donor-members. The Ghana and Tanzania projects ultimately won out. Jen and Peter both traveled to Des Moines, Iowa last October, where Grow Further organized a distinguished panel to discuss the recently announced grants. The Borlaug Dialogue, the preeminent global agriculture and food security conference famed for its annual selection of the World Food Prize recipient, was something of a coming-out party for Grow Further. Locally, Jen and Peter will host a “meet Grow Further” event in Seattle on May 14 featuring former refugee, quinoa breeder, and inspirational speaker Cedric Habiyaremye and a reception with staff and members. Everyone is invited, they said, including fellow Mercer Islanders. All of the details can be found on their website, growfurther.org/events. Jen said she and Peter instantly hit it off when they first met. “I was excited by the idea of joining his effort,” she said. “Our 30-minute interview lasted about an hour and a half or more chatting through all of the details. I was impressed he didn’t rush me and spent the time answering all of my questions, which I thought was a good sign for a future boss.” Greet Mercer Island 17
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