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Bio:
Randi Shade is the Executive Director of the Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation (www.takestock.org). Backed by the local venture capital community, AEF has established a simple, standard procedure to assist growing companies to contribute equity to benefit the charitable causes of their choice. Randi is responsible for the day-to-day management of the foundation and serves on its board of directors. She is also the founder of Charitygift (www.charitygift.com) a company she launched in 1999 to create a new gift category ? one that uses the Internet to allow people to conveniently make a donation to charity as a gift to honor someone else. Within a year of its inception Randi sold Charitygift to the largest venture capital-backed e-Philanthropy company. When the buyer closed its doors in 2001, Randi organized her original team to do a buy-back of Charitygift and re-launch it in time for the 2001 holiday season. The team was awarded a patent for the Charitygift process in February of 2003.
Randi began her career at Procter and Gamble. She later worked for Texas Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush serving as the founding Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service where she was responsible for launching AmeriCorps in Texas and coordinating the Governor?s Annual Volunteer Conference. Under Randi?s leadership Texas was awarded $55 million ? more funding for community service initiatives than any other state. Recently, Governor Rick Perry appointed Randi to serve as a member of the Commission through 2005. Randi has also worked as the Director of National Development for City Year, a multi-city domestic Peace Corps, and she was awarded an Echoing Green Foundation-Harvard Public Management Fellowship to work for Teach for America in its inaugural year. Randi earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in the Plan II Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin where she served as student body president.
Community involvement:
Randi is an active community volunteer. She serves on several community boards and committees and is very active in alumni activities at the University of Texas and Harvard Business School. She is a member of the board of directors of the Austin Community Development Corporation, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Better Business Bureau of Central Texas, and the University of Texas Hillel Foundation. She is on the Advisory Boards of Austin Partners in Education, Austin FreeNet, Association of Women in Technology - Austin, and the United Way Capital Area's Volunteer Center Council. She also serves on the Committee of the Board of the Foundation for Women's Resources, the Policy Committee of the Austin Clean Energy Initiative, and is a member of the UT Commission on 125.
Person most admired:
Former Texas Governor, Ann Richards has demonstrated the importance of humor, long lasting friendships, and the constant pursuit of improvement. She has re-invented herself countless times, but always remained true to herself and genuine at the same time.
Favorite book:
NUTS is the story of Southwest Airlines. It is the best management book I've read, made even better by the fact that it covers a company that in my opinion has been the best led company in American history.
What I enjoy most about my work:
I like connecting the dots that others might not see should be connected.
Greatest accomplishment:
Greatest professional accomplishment to date was successfully launching AmeriCorps in Texas so that more money was funneled to Texas to support community initiatives than was the case in any other state ---- for three years in a row.
Greatest challenge:
Selling Charitygift to the largest VC-backed company in our industry felt like a success then within a year it felt like a disaster when that company died. Riding on that roller coaster and continuing to try to create value from the Charitygift deal remains a passion and a challenge. Sure Charitygift had success, but from a financial return standpoint it is still a failure-- one my partners and I continue to work to resolve. I have learned true value takes years to create and even longer to sustain.
Advances I envision in my field over the next 10 years:
The donor advised fund will be the most common financial vehicle individuals use for charitable giving.
Strategies to maintain balance in my life:
The most important thing for me has been to maintain friendships and a sense of humor. Friends especially from childhood keep you grounded.
Advice for emerging entrepreneurs:
This came from a friend to me, but seems to be good advice: use what you've got, do what you love, learn as you go.
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