Day 4 was in the reverse order of the previous days. We started the day off with a site visit to Vina Capital Foundation, then lunch, and then attended language class and lecture at UEF in the afternoon.
Vina Capital Foundation was a particularly interesting site visit. As stated in my introduction, I am not exactly sure what job career I want to do, but I am 100% sure that I want my job to have an impact that goes beyond profit. Therefore, this site visit was right up my alley. Like all the other site visits, I went into it with minimal expectations because I believe expectations can lead to disappointment. Overall, I liked the setup of this presentation. We were provided an overview of the foundation and then were able to have a Q&A session with the CEO Rad Kivette who actually grew up in North Carolina and played football at UNC. The Q&A style site visit allowed us as a group to lead the conversation and get out of it what we wanted.
The program that Vina Capital Foundation runs to educate girls on their rights to their body has similar initiatives to some organizations and clubs in the United States. For example, at Pitt I am a part of Strong Women, Strong Girls. In this club, groups of students once a week go into underserved schools and teach 3rd-5th grade girls lessons on empowerment and try to set a good example of what a healthy relationship looks like. This club is operated through volunteering and grants which is the same way Vina Capital Foundation is. While the initiatives of the Vietnamese and American foundation are similar it is implemented differently. In Vietnam, the program is starting from step 1 of simply just informing girls of their legal rights. In Pittsburgh, the program is reinforcing knowledge that is known by most but abused by some.
Going forward, Vina Capital Foundation needs to address the challenge of the age of their CEO. He said multiple times during our time with him that he needs to be “cloned” so someone can take over for him. There needs to be a plan for who will take over the company after him, to ensure the longevity of the work the foundation does. Furthermore, during the Q&A I asked Mr. Kivette where most of the funds for Vina Capital Foundation come from and how they are allocated to the different grassroots programs. He said that the funds come from a multitude of different companies (small and big) and from individuals. He also said unlike most companies they are able to take 100% of the funds and put them into the program the companies/individuals choose. They are able to do that because one extremely generous donor pays for their office building. While that is an incredibly fortunate financial situation to be in as a foundation, what happens when the generous donor passes away? Or if the generous donor for whatever reason is no longer able to pay the bill? I really think this is a possible challenge that should be addressed before it happens. Maybe there is a plan in place but due to the time constraints of a site visit it wasn’t discussed.
All in all, this site visit was one of my favorites so far and the work Vina Capital Foundation does is truly incredible!
