(upbeat music) - We are honored to be joined by Calvin R. Ledford Jr., President, PSEG Foundation, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at PSEG, one of our longtime underwriters.

Good to see you, Calvin.

- You as well.

Good to see you.

Happy to be here and thanks for having me.

- Always, and you've been a great partner for many years.

Question, I've been asking people about their leadership journey to be where they are right now.

Identify one, possibly two key mentors in your life that have helped you become the corporate philanthropic leader you are today, Calvin.

- So if I go back early in my career, unfortunately he's no longer with us, but he was a manager at PSEG.

A gentleman by the name of Jerry Valvano, who was a manager in the billing organization.

And when I was a bargaining unit employee at PSEG, we took to one another as a mentor-mentee relationship.

And he provided a lot of guidance over the years.

And so I'm very thankful to some of the early lessons that he taught.

And I have to be honest with you, in recent years, it's been Rick Thigpen.

- Rick, our good friend Rick.

How so?

How so, Calvin?

- So when I first came out of operations and started working for Rick back in 2013, although I had done a stint on the Newark School Board and the planning board, Rick was able to introduce me to the larger political game of our cities, counties in the state.

And coming from operations, I had much more of a PSEG-driven focus and trying to accomplish the needs of the business.

And Rick helped me to learn very earlier in coming into governmental affairs, how that needed to be balanced with the needs of the community, the needs of elected officials.

And between those two, I'm very thankful.

- And you continue to be a mentor to others today.

- Absolutely.

You know, you pass it on, pass it on.

So whether it's through coming and speaking to youth in groups, there's times I get reached out to and find out about a young man or a young lady who is struggling with a personal issue and I get asked to partner with them.

And I'm always available to do that.

And I look forward to continuing to do that.

It's about passing on the skills to the future leaders.

- The other side of that is interesting because the PSEG Foundation, and by the way, the website will be up right now, look up the foundation, look up who they've provided grants to, not-for-profits, organizations like ours, others.

I'm curious about the question of nonprofit leadership.

And you and I have talked about this offline as well.

When you and your team have to make very tough decisions, what kind of 'leadership' in the not-for-profit community are you looking for?

I may put it a different way.

What are the top two or three leadership tools a nonprofit leader or leadership and organization has to be in place in order for you to write, you and your team to write a big check because they're spending that foundation money?

Please, Calvin.

- Well, so it starts with does that organization, does that leader, is the mission of that organization aligned with the pillars of the foundation?

I mean, you know yourself, right?

We're not in a position to fund everybody just because they happen to be a nonprofit, right?

So our pillars are environmental sustainability, social justice and equity and economic empowerment.

So alignment is first.

The second major decision is driven by past performance with regards to impact.

Are you having an impact in the communities that you serve?

Do other nonprofits, do community leaders, do leaders in the municipality or county see your nonprofit organization as one of the pillars of the community because of the impact that you have and what's your mission?

And those are the two key drivers.

- What about the fiscal stuff, the bottom line, the money stuff, how they manage their money?

- So that's a part of the impact, right?

Part of our process is twice a year, we look for impact reports.

So the impact reports are not just about who you served and the response to you serving them.

It's also did you use the resources in the way that you told us that you would?

Show that to us.

Let it see that.

Are you an organization that if you learn during the course of your mission for that year, you really didn't need as much money as you asked for and we may have provided to you?

Do you come back and say, "We have extra resources.

"Is it okay to reallocate or repurpose those resources "or PSEG Foundation, would you like those resources back?"

Those are key drivers.

- Last question on this.

Your greatest satisfaction, 'cause you've been in different roles as a leader, and now in the philanthropic world, the corporate philanthropic world, what is the most significant positive benefit that you get?

Meaning the greatest satisfaction you get from the work you do every day with your colleagues at the foundation?

- It starts out as a partnership behind a mutually beneficial concept.

When a nonprofit has a mission that aligns with our pillars, but also aligns with something very important to PSEG as an enterprise.

I've just shared with you, environmental sustainability is one of our key pillars.

Equity and economic empowerment, right?

But I can't very well speak to an individual who may not be gainfully employed, who may be going through a period of time of food insecurity, about purchasing some newer appliances that will help you save and reduce the amount of energy.

- That's right.

- That's not your focus right now.

So for us, if you're an organization that's into workforce development and we're able to fund you, and that leads to some impact and outcomes where you've increased the viability of some families' lives, they're now positioned to be open to a conversation about environmental sustainability and using less energy, which we all know is better for our world.

So when there's a mutually beneficial strategy and the outcomes align.

- Well said, Calvin Ledford Jr.

President, PSEG Foundation, Director of Corporate and Social Responsibility.

Calvin, thank you.

Not just for this interview, but the support that you and your colleagues at the foundation provide to not-for-profits like ours and so many others tied to the pillars that you described.

Thank you, Calvin.

- Thank you for having me, Steve.

- Always.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Valley Bank.

Stockton University.

The North Ward Center.

The Adubado Center for Media Leadership.

South Jersey Industries.

And by EJI, Excellence in Medicine Awards.

A New Jersey health foundation program.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by BestofNJ.com.

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