Seun Owolabi

Can you tell us about your employer and job responsibilities?

I work in development and fundraising at North Star Fund. As a social justice organization and community foundation, we provide grants in New York City and the Hudson Valley. In my role, I manage operations, making sure that the backend of our development runs smoothly and accurately. We raise funds from individuals who are aligned with our mission to fund those most impacted by injustices. We’re a community foundation, but we operate a little differently from most funders. Marginalized communities are those that make the decisions for our grantmaking, not staff or trustees. North Star Fund’s Community Funding Committees are run by community leaders who read grant applications, conduct site visits, and decide where the grants go. They award millions of dollars in grants every year. Many of our grantees are first-time recipients of grants, so they're local, small grassroots organizations working on topics ranging from immigration support to street vendor coalitions. Our support extends beyond dollars - we support movement building through training, network building, and convening our grantees across issue areas and regions to connect causes with one another. We were an early funder for the GreenLight Coalition, for example, who recently landed a big win by making sure that all New Yorkers who are of age, regardless of their immigration status, can qualify for a driver's license. African Communities Together, a coalition based in Harlem, provides resources to African immigrants. And a few years ago, we supported Hunger Solutions New York who pushed legislation ensuring free school lunches for all NY kids, regardless of their families’ income.

What were you doing before you came to NYU Wagner?

I was working as a development & events associate at the National Black Arts Festival, a Black-led nonprofit in Atlanta. That was my first time being immersed in a Black-led and Black-leaning organization. I got to be with Black folks showing up as their authentic selves to lift awareness around Black arts. It was there that I learned I could have a viable career in the nonprofit sector. As a Nigerian, when I told my family that I wanted to do an MPA in nonprofit management, they said: “You don’t want to make a profit?” I assured them that I knew what I was doing, that I had a vision. I'm so glad that I did because 2020 lifted up the need for philanthropy in the world - that's how we survived the pandemic. I knew I wanted to advance in the nonprofit world, and I knew that it was important work. I wanted to get the skill set and the leadership experience to further contribute to nonprofits. Ultimately, I felt that I could either work my way up slowly and possibly be burnt out by the time I get to a certain level, or I could further my education and take a leap plus sustain my energy.

How did your experiences at NYU Wagner prepare you for your career?

Wagner prepared me to not only move faster but with more intentionality in my work. Wagner put me around brilliant minds doing brilliant things. Working on my capstone and having classes where my point of view was valuable to the discussions and where all these brilliant minds around me appreciated my contributions, affirmed that I had something important to say. I was one of them! It also helped me learn how to manage those brilliant minds because I wanted to be of service to nonprofit leaders and those organizing the front lines. Learning how to bring people together for a common objective was crucial. Exposure to amazing professors like Sonia Ospina shifted my perspective. Her course on Leadership and Social Transformation was a game changer. Working as her teaching assistant in my second year at Wagner allowed me to explore topics I didn’t know about, or if I did, didn’t know the name of, like complexity theory and how integral complexity theory and bottom-up decision-making were in social justice work and grassroots organizing. Engaging with classmates and professors who were either like-minded or with a completely different perspective challenged me in all the right ways.

How did you find your first post-NYU Wagner job?

I'm a volleyball coach and love playing volleyball. I'm obsessed with sports as a tool for youth development. It impacts what individuals become because team camaraderie can go a long way. When young people learn early on that their success individually doesn't matter if those around them aren't successful, it makes them a different kind of leader. That has the possibility of changing the trajectory of our communities. Initially, I had planned to do sports-based youth development work after graduating from Wagner. During my capstone, I worked with Harlem Leadership and Lacrosse, a sports-based youth development organization. During that process, we did a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis to determine their next move. Should they expand? Should they keep doubling down on what they're doing? Should they do more work or more curriculum development for their students? We interviewed students, coaches, parents, and peer organizations - one of which was Row New York. My classmate who interviewed them said that I had to connect with their executive director (ED), who was a very impressive lady. I did and we had a great conversation about operations, capturing metrics, and the impact on its target audience. A few months later, my classmate flagged a job posting at Row New York to me, which aligned really well. It included many of the things that I had spoken to the ED about a few months before! I applied and got the job. I got my first and my current job fully from networking and from my relationship building. In undergrad, I worked full time and schooled full time, so I didn’t have much time to build relationships. But I made it a priority when I came to Wagner. I joined the Wagner Student Alliance for Africa and eventually served on its board. I was an assistant coach on NYU’s volleyball team. I immersed myself in the student experience. Wagner helped me flex my networking muscle and I see the benefit of that. Through networking, I talk about my interests, and I listen to others talk about theirs. So whenever I hear about something that will be useful to them, I share it with them.

Credits: Interview conducted in April 2024 by Ugochi Obidiegwu, an MPA-PNP 2024 student at NYU Wagner.