Lessons in Lift, Lessons in Leadership

A few weeks ago, I told you about a business trip we took to Central Florida.

We were there to check out other foundations on what we call a “What’s Possible Tour.” The trips are designed to expose us to different types of thinking and models that we may customize and bring home with us.

While in the Orlando area, we visited a number of successful philanthropies and a few innovative programs.

In a trip full of stand-out experiences our visit to Lift Orlando stood out.

Lift is part of the “Purpose Built Communities” movement, an effort to lift distressed communities and help them meet the hopes and dreams of their residents.

The Carl Angus DeSantis Foundation recently invested in a “Purpose Built Community” in West Palm Beach called Northend Rise. We are bullish about the future of the Coleman Park neighborhood and believe strongly in the formula honed by Purpose Built Communities. What I like most about their model is that the needs, hopes and aspirations of residents come first; frankly it’s the only way you can be successful.

So, we visited Lift Orlando armed with excitement to see what we can learn from a community that has been hard at work since 2013.

What we saw was remarkable.

Unfortunately, when we visited, the president of Lift Orlando, Eddy Moratin, was on vacation. His talented team took great care of us, but everywhere we went in Central Florida people were talking about Eddy. I wanted to meet him.

Recently, we made it happen, via Zoom.

It was worth the wait.

Eddy is a dynamic, energetic leader willing and eager to share his insights. He’s one of those guys who has an intangible quality—yes he’s charismatic, passionate and smart. But there’s something else too. He has what our founder Mr. DeSantis called the “it” factor. In short, he’s a leader.

Anyway, the Lift Orlando experience contains lessons for communities trying to achieve lasting and sustainable change in neighborhoods that have been plagued by neglect, crime, blight and bad health outcomes.

On our Zoom call, we reviewed five takeaways Eddy learned from his Lift experience. I thought I’d share.

Take it away Eddy…

“After $100M in Community Building Investments, here’s “Five Things I’ve Learned About Community Leadership.

Twelve years ago, we set out to do something that felt impossible:

Build a movement of business leaders and residents working together to create generational cycles of prosperity in neighborhoods.

Fast forward more than a decade…

• Hundreds of safe, beautiful homes built.
• Jobs created.
• Children educated and given scholarships
• A proud community celebrated

It’s been an incredible journey—and one that’s taught me countless lessons about what it takes to make lasting difference.

But perhaps the most important realization?

The best way to multiply our impact is by helping others do the same.

1. Doing the Impossible Is Often Easier Than Doing the Reasonable

Big, bold visions are magnetic.

People want to believe in something transformative.

But trying to get buy-in for “good enough” ideas? That’s where the real resistance lies.

 

2. The World Is Malleable When You Have a Clear and Compelling Vision

People don’t follow spreadsheets, they follow stories.

Cast a vision so clear and hopeful that it feels inevitable, and back it up with the spreadsheets.

You’ll find that moving mountains is easier than you thought, with the right partners.

 

3. Everyone Talks About Collaboration—But We Don’t All Mean the Same Thing

True collaboration requires shared sacrifice for there to be shared wins and shared credit.

The most successful partnerships come from clarity and humility-not convenience.

 

4. Caring More About Impact Than Credit Can Be a Superpower

 The less you focus on getting the credit, the more trust you’ll earn.

The more clearly you’ll see the path.

The more opportunities you’ll attract.

And the more lasting change you’ll create.

 

5. Your Greatest Influence Comes From Your Hardest Lessons

It’s the missteps, the failures, and the moments of doubt that shape the wisdom others need most.

Don’t hide them—share them. That’s how we help others do more, better, faster.”

 

It’s me again, I’m back.

Isn’t that great?! Thanks Eddy!

When we toured the many triumphs of Lift Orlando, I couldn’t help but think about my leadership experience in Delray.

In the early 2000s, we created a bold, transformational vision for our downtown. We called it Downtown Master Plan.

The plan was a success, because we invited the community to the table and they showed up in record numbers. It was the most gratifying policy experience of my brief career in local politics.

One of the animating ideas of the process was the redefinition of the boundaries of our downtown. Traditionally, East Atlantic Avenue from Swinton to A1A was thought of as the downtown. But the master plan expanded those boundaries to  include West Atlantic Avenue and a few blocks north and south of the Avenue, all the way to I-95.

It was a simple but important distinction. We were seeking to erase the invisible dividing line in Delray. We were trying to achieve what we called “community unity.”

We invested in sidewalks, decorative lighting and landscaping all the way to the interstate. And we added a “welcome” feature at the I-95 exchange to signal to everyone that you were entering  a special place. That’s the entrance feature you see today, which if you slow down, depicts the rich history of Delray Beach and the diverse cultures that shaped our community.

There was also an investment in trying to restore some vibrancy to Northwest and Southwest 5^th Avenue, a traditional hub of commerce.

An artist worked with the community on sidewalk art, the historic La France Hotel was redeveloped into senior housing and there was city support for a grassroots effort to create the S.D. Spady Museum. We also saw the first significant private investment in the corridor—the Atlantic Grove development—which today is home to offices, housing and great restaurants like Ziree. That development was led by a private sector developer, New Urban Communities, and two local nonprofits that shared financially in the success of the project.

Running parallel to the master plan was an effort called the “southwest plan”, a grassroots effort by neighbors to revitalize the southwest neighborhood located south of West Atlantic. That effort yielded a plan that led to the creation of The Village Academy, the first new school to open in the neighborhood in decades. Later, that plan would be updated into the Set Transformation Plan, another grassroots effort to revitalize neighborhoods north and south of West Atlantic. Tens of millions of dollars were invested in neglected neighborhoods, building sidewalks, paving dirt roads and investing in projects to improve water pressure. A new splash park was built and named after the first female mayor of Delray, Catherine Strong.

I was reminded of those days when we toured Lift Orlando. When the tour was over, we spent time with Lift’s Board, staff and area residents. At that time, I shared that what I saw in Orlando reminded me of what I failed to see in Delray when I was involved as a commissioner and mayor.

We really were making progress. We had a great CRA, a committed city staff, residents who were engaged and a supportive business community and so I thought that momentum would continue. I was wrong.

Things change. Elected officials come and go. Key staff, come and go. The CRA, once independent and focused, was taken over by the commission which has a big enough job looking at the whole city meaning that the independent, somewhat apolitical focus of a volunteer board gets replaced by elected officials, who are naturally concerned with politics.

Our unity, once rock solid, developed cracks and then fissures.

The Set Transformation Plan became embroiled in politics, a great many items in the downtown master plan and southwest plan got done, but those efforts were never replaced with a new plan.

My great lesson as an elected official was the work of building community, nurturing a city, is never done. You can never declare victory, you must wake up a little scared and constantly take stock of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Complacency is a killer, so is division.

I missed all that and thought the efforts would keep going. I shared with my Lift Orlando friends my hard learned lesson, and I commended them for seeing what I missed.

Lift built an infrastructure and a model that moves them forward regardless of the politics. They move forward whether friends or enemies or those who simply don’t engage are in office. They have relationships with funders, donors, business leaders that are long term and rock solid.

They understand that success is a game of addition and so they add new friends along the way.

I never had a sustainability plan, neither did my colleagues, we just had assumptions that things would go on.

I am not one for regrets, I find it a useless emotion. But I do like to learn from mistakes and see if there is a way to apply those lessons to what I’m doing today.

So as we invest in purpose-built communities and root for those good people trying to lift up Coleman Park, I will see these efforts through the lens of experience. And I will ask those we invest in to think about a time when support wavers. It’s hard enough to make change when everyone is rowing in the same direction, but it’s very hard when the pillars you rely on fray or crumble. You have to think about what you’ll do when, not if, that happens.

Community building is like a retirement portfolio–you must diversify.