Meet Duncan McDougall

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Duncan McDougall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Duncan, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I grew up a fairly shy, timid boy. I was quiet around others, and didn’t mind being by myself. But from a young age, I fervently wanted to be adventurous, outgoing, brave, and confident. Books helped show me the way. For years I read every book I could get my hands on about real or imaginary characters who embodied those traits — explorers, scouts, soldiers, prospectors, politicians, and pirates. Those stories gave me a sense of what it felt like to be Marco Polo, the Hardy Boys, Amelia Earhart, Sir Edmund Hillary, Black Beard, or Winston Churchill. And I learned that many of them started off (and in some cases, always remained) shy and timid people who overcame those traits because they had a passion. That passion made them willing to speak in front of crowds, explore the next frontier, or jump into the fray. So I started looking for what I really cared about, and I faked the confidence I didn’t quite have until I finally did. And since then, I’ve been able to enjoy some of the very adventures I read about when I was a kid. I’ve always loved a quote I saw at a youth hostel in New Zealand: “Thou shalt not worry, for he that worrieth hath no pleasure. Few things are ever fatal.”

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

In 1998, I founded the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF), a nonprofit that nurtures a love or reading and writing among under-resourced children from birth to age 12 throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. In those two states, roughly 75 percent of fourth graders from low income families do not read or write proficiently. Many of these children have never met a professional author, most have few or no books of their own at home, and many are at risk of dropping out of school and living in poverty.

CLiF partners with 50 professional presenters — local children’s book authors, illustrators, poets, storytellers, and graphic novelists — and pays them to travel around the Twin states giving hundreds of inspiring presentations about the power and pleasure of books, stories, reading and writing. After every event children are able to select new, high-quality children’s books from hundreds of titles from a wide range of subjects and genres. Since our founding, CLiF has served more than 400,000 young readers and writers in 425 communities and given away more than $12 million in new books to children who need them the most. All our programs are free. We receive no state or federal funds. Our work is completely supported by individuals, foundations, companies, and social organizations, and we have donors from more than 30 states.

CLiF works in schools, libraries, shelters, affordable housing communities, childcare and after-school programs. We work with refugee, foster, and migrant children as well as families with substance challenges, and we hold free conferences for educators and librarians, and free workshops for parents and caregivers.

CLiF also spends a lot of time in prisons. Nationally, roughly 70% of incarcerated adults have low literacy skills, and their children are at high risk of struggling in that area. Last week, for example, I conducted seminars with a few hundred residents in a women’s prison in S. Burlington, VT, and at men’s and women’s prisons in Concord, NH. The CLiF seminars focus on why it’s vitally important to read with a child on a regular basis, the positive impact sharing books with a child has on their development, and ways to make reading fun and easy even if a parent is not a strong or confident reader.

Following each seminar, every adult is able to select two new, high-quality books for each of their children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews from a large and wide-ranging collection CLiF provides. They write a personal note in each book, and CLiF pays to mail all these books to the respective children. The men and women can also record children’s books onto CD or MP3 and send the books and recordings home to their children. CLiF has donated the recording equipment as well as all the books.

The impact of this program is truly remarkable. A survey of program participants showed 98% of the incarcerated adults reported that the CLiF program helped strengthen the connection between them and their children, 97% are now more comfortable sharing books with their children, and 91% said the CLiF program helped their children become more interested in books and stories.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Here are three tips I can offer for running a nonprofit:

— You can never accomplish all that’s on your list, so continually prioritize your tasks and complete the ones that are most helpful in accomplishing your mission. Do what you can, when you can. You can’t help anyone if you and your staff burn out.

— Speaking of mission, do everything you can to avoid mission creep. Lots of people will have great ideas on what you can add to your organization’s plate, even if they are tangential to the organization’s mission. Don’t do it, even if they offer to help fund it. You will ultimately have a much greater impact by focusing on what makes your nonprofit effective and different.

— Don’t just share statistics. SHOW your supporters the positive impact their gifts are having. Invite them to see your work in action. Write them notes and send them photos and stories. Make your work come alive for them, and they will continue to make your good work possible.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

We have been wanting to expand the Children’s Literacy Foundation’s work in prisons in New Hampshire and Vermont. Supporters are always greatly appreciated. They can visit the CLiF website to make a donation.

We also would be happy to share our program model and any suggestions with anyone who would like to start a similar program in their home state connecting incarcerated adults and the children in their lives through books and stories. You would need to raise your own funds and operate the program yourself, but we could walk you through how we conduct our work, and we could send you a video so you can see our work in action.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.clifonline.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clifonline/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cliforg
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cliforg