Dee Dee Chesley is on the Board of Directors for Christopher House, a family of schools located in Chicago. She discusses the organization’s unique birth to eighth grade continuum model, the challenges of relying solely on the board for private funding and philanthropy as well as navigating government funding programs. A certain expertise is needed to make sure you’re allocating the right funds to the programs and goals that return the greatest social impact. The challenges in navigating funding, Chesley says, have given her a lot of experience in the industry. Keeping great employees is extremely important, Chesley says, because early childhood teachers are severely underpaid and a lot of people are doing it of a deep commitment to equity and social justice. Giving the same amount of care and consideration to employees as clients is a sure way to make sure employee retention is high. To learn more about Christopher House and Chesley, watch the full BizCastHQ video.
