Todd and Ruth share an underlying belief in empowerment. They feel their efforts are best concentrated where they have a multiplicative effect at a high level, and they saw education as the prime place to do that.

Philanthropy: a family affair for Ruth and Todd Warren

Engaged dinner table conversations
Alex Otsu | Reprinted with permission of the Microsoft Alumni Network.

Todd and Ruth Warren look right at home sipping espresso in bicycling shoes, but they are preparing for a drastic change in scenery come this September. Together with their daughter, they will be living in Ghana until December to work with Ashesi University and its founder, fellow Microsoft alumnus and Integral Fellow Patrick Awuah. Though they have been active in the university’s development since its inception, they are taking their commitment to the next level as Todd takes a teaching position, Ruth contributes to a book project that Patrick Awuah is writing about Ashesi, and their daughter Rachel volunteers as a teaching assistant in the Ashesi computer science department. Their passion for the school has clearly made an impact on their children, which truly makes giving a matter of the whole family.

“There are certainly a lot of talks around the dinner table, and our kids have grown up with the family values of not just giving back, but also empowering,” Todd said. “They’ve grown up seeing that we take this work seriously.” “Ashesi empowers young Africans to develop their own solutions to Africa’s challenges,” Ruth added. “Walking our talk is something we try to live by.”

Both Todd and Ruth sit on the Ashesi Board of Trustees, where each contributes in their own unique and impactful manner. Todd uses his background in computer science, teaching, and business to help advise and direct the board as its chairman. Ruth, in addition to her board duties, takes a more direct approach in her work by doing graphic design, writing, and other hands-on endeavors.

“We’re doing different things, but it’s really fun to have a shared passion where we can brainstorm on a strategic level,” Todd said. “We have very different duties in what we do on a ground level, but when it comes to strategy and fundraising, we can collaborate and be a team.”

A leveraged change

Todd and Ruth share an underlying belief in empowerment. They feel their efforts are best concentrated where they have a multiplicative effect at a high level, and they saw education as the prime place to do that. Accordingly, their support for Ashesi stems largely from the impact it has on the African community at large, with its graduates’ near limitless potential to grow the local economy, raise ethical standards, and create new solutions to local challenges.

“There’s only so much I, individually, can do,” Ruth said. “Soon there will be 1,000 Ashesi graduates that will dedicate their lives to exactly the kind of work I want to see done. I can’t do what 1,000 highly skilled people can do. We are working on a cultural shift among the most talented and ambitious young people so that they will be part of creating a better Africa.”

Where many people would be intimidated by the sheer ambition of Ashesi University, to empower young Africans to transform Africa, the Warrens are no strangers to the sweeping impact that can come from small, highly skilled and focused teams. Their years at Microsoft taught them to think big while maintaining tangible goals, and that experience is precisely what makes them such influential contributors. Todd said when Ashesi founder Patrick Awuah first approached him with his plan, he was impressed with the level of thought and research that had gone into it. In fact, it was better than many of the for-profit business plans he had seen. This prompted him to become one of the first investors in the school, and its mission has kept him on the board for the last 12 years.

Different passions, same goal

Todd also has a passion for teaching, having spent time during a leave of absence from Microsoft in 2001 as an adjunct professor in computer science at his alma mater, Northwestern University. Later, he was approached by the head of Northwestern’s Entrepreneurship Center to co-develop NUvention web, in which teams of students from business, computer science and other disciplines work together to design, plan, and run a web-based product or service. Todd’s interests and experiences in computers, business, and teaching will all converge when they spend the fall semester at Ashesi.

“At Microsoft you see tech and business teams working together, at Northwestern you see the same, and you can create this value.” Todd said. “It’s a sensible step for us to see that young Africans can be doing the same thing. We’ve seen the power of entrepreneurship in the US, and we know it can be just as powerful in Africa.”

Todd doesn’t just teach entrepreneurship, he also provides funding and guidance to help entrepreneurial companies grow in his role as a managing director of Divergent Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Seattle. By contrast, Ruth chooses to immerse herself wholly in work for Ashesi. After years of creating the annual reports Ashesi sends out, she has taught a young employee to take over that role. This gives Ruth more time to focus on strategic fundraising. Ruth’s efforts are critical in securing money the organization can use to grow. Although all her work is technically as a volunteer, she says she treats it like a job, which helps her maintain her engagement and keep a clear focus.

“I was very thoughtful in picking Ashesi. I feel like it’s an extraordinarily leveraged use of my time,” Ruth said. “Once I gave myself permission to see myself as a valuable employee that chooses to work pro bono, I realized the value I get out of doing this far exceeds the paycheck I’d be getting.”

As Ashesi grows, the Warrens have every intention of continuing with it to make sure it remains sustainable and impactful. By contributing to the education of some of Africa’s brightest young minds, they are investing in future business, philanthropy, and community leaders.

To support the organization they believe so whole-heartedly, visit www.ashesi.org. With this kind of leverage, even a little can go a long way.

Alex Otsu is a Marketing and Communications Intern with the Microsoft Alumni Network. He can be reached on Twitter @AlexOtsu.