Leader Profile:

Frank Dirks graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.

Frank Dirks grew up in Washington, D.C. After college, Dirks taught history, literature, government, and how to be responsible citizens to students in middle and high school. Dirks also took students who studied government on field trips to nonprofit organizations, and upon returning home, recognized that they had no way to continue that civic engagement. This realization motivated a career change, and in 1990, Dirks joined Youth Service America as a field organizer. In this position, Dirks connected with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and became involved in the 1991 formation of the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC).

“I think that everybody worked together. I think that everybody tried to take a 30,000-foot view and then see where other people could fit in and complement that. I don’t think that there was ever a reaction of ‘Well we don’t need that’ or ‘That doesn’t fit here.’ I think that Dottie, for instance, she would certainly look and see how what we were talking about related to community foundations and the Community Foundation Youth Project and was very supportive of that, willing to help out with that.”

In 1992, Dirks worked as a program director for the Close Up Foundation. Close Up educates students to become active and informed citizens who understand the rights and responsibilities of living in a democracy. In 1994, Dirks served as executive director of MCSC until 1997.

After moving to South Carolina to be with his wife, Dirks worked with the South Carolina Commission and the South Carolina Association for Nonprofit Organizations, hoping to use lessons learned in Michigan and to recreate some of the successes. However, he was largely met with resistance, and lacked the support and infrastructure found in Michigan.

Dirks didn’t see the progress he had hoped for, and in 2004, began working with UBS Financial Services. Time spent within South Carolina’s nonprofit sector was not for naught however, and many of the changes and tactics Dirks suggested are slowly being implemented there.

Dirks’ greatest contribution to Michigan philanthropy was very likely his unflagging efforts in helping to create the Michigan Community Service Commission (MCSC) while employed with Youth Service America. One of the first steps was to convene the First Youth Service Michigan Conference in response to the National and Community Service Act of 1990. This conference meeting included the K-12 community service projects, Campus Compact, Michigan Conservation Corps, and other youth and education-based service facilitators. Nearly all were grantees of the Philanthropy and Volunteerism programming area at the Kellogg Foundation, coordinated by Joel Orosz since 1988.

“Kellogg was truly invested. They were not just financially invested, they were institutionally and culturally invested in the state and what they were doing … Russ Mawby would be personally invested in what the Kellogg Foundation was investing financially in.”

Dirks communicated with the various parties and wrote suggestions for running the conference. This conference demonstrated interest in creating a commission entity, a project that quickly received support from a large number of foundations and interest groups throughout the state. Dirks also helped gain the support and involvement of Gov. John Engler, his staff, and first lady Michelle Engler.

In October 1991, Gov. Engler signed Executive Order 1991-25 establishing MCSC, after nearly a year of hard work by Dirks and numerous Michigan supporters, especially the Council of Michigan Foundations. It was one of the first state commissions in the nation, formed in anticipation of federal legislation that would create commissions in each of the 50 states. Michelle Engler agreed to serve as the first chair of the commission. From 1991 through the election of Gov. Rick Snyder, the first lady or first gentleman (representing both the Republican and the Democratic Parties) has served as the chair of MCSC (although retired W.K. Kellogg Foundation CEO and Chairman Russell Mawby served as chair during the interregnum between the Engler and Granholm administrations).

This did not signal the end of Dirks’ labors on the project. In November 1991, Dirks penned a report to the newly formed MCSC proposing a framework for objectives, membership, and initial projects. This framework was met with a generally positive response and was used in developing MCSC and for constructing its grant application. Dirks later acted as executive director of MCSC from 1994 to 1997, and served on its Learning Leadership Council and Staff Advisory Council.

Since its establishment in 1991, MCSC has earned its place as one of the primary infrastructure organizations in the state through its promotion of volunteerism and retention of volunteers, securing and granting of federal funds, facilitating communication between volunteer organizations, and the volunteer-centered research and evaluation it conducts. Since 1991, it has granted more than $100 million in public and private funds, and leveraged over $85 million in local resources to support community volunteer initiatives.

Dirks was interviewed regarding insights and experiences in working with Michigan’s philanthropic community and the Our State of Generosity (OSoG) partners. The following quotes relate to the five organizing themes of the OSoG project.

Philanthropy and Public Policy

“We see this in our public policy now, that unless there is unhesitating, strong, private sector leadership that also can write a check, it’s hard to get going. That gives government, either by design or by default, leverage over the whole process which can ultimately distort it from what it all started out to be, which is ‘how do we make communities a better place for kids through voluntary and philanthropic activities.’”
“If government is to be effective as a partner, it has to be a capital investor who’s willing to walk away and let people do what they need to do in their own communities. If government doesn’t, then government runs the show, and then people don’t have to step up and take that lead. That’s the dilemma.”

National & Global Implications

“We also used the experience of Michigan to try to leverage more resources so we could work with other states and we actually did. So I spent a lot of time in addition to what I was doing in Michigan, traveling around, trying to get other states interested in it. Kansas was another state that put together, through this kind of competitive process — that was the hook. We were trying to get people to get engaged, use the allure of this federal start-up money through this competitive application process, and the relative codification of these commission entities.”

Practical Wisdom

“It requires a certain degree of discipline and hard-heartedness, for lack of a better word, when you’re out there motivated to save the world. ‘I want to help kids. I want to do this. I want to bring philanthropy. I want to get people volunteering. What I’m doing is good.’ Well, it may not be efficient. It may not be cost-effective. It may not be the best use of the public dime. All of that stuff gets tossed out the window because you’re kind of caught up in what it’s about. That creates a dynamic where you create institutional dependency.”