We Can Always Do a Little Bit Better
James E. “Jim” Casey coined the phrase “constructive dissatisfaction” while steering United Parcel Service (now UPS) to becoming one of the world’s most successful companies. His dissatisfaction drove him to outpace the competition as he developed innovative transportation strategies, implemented advanced management practices and constantly broke new ground.
Constructive dissatisfaction “means no matter how good a job you’re doing, you can always do a little better,” says Mike Eskew, chair of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Board of Trustees and the retired chairman and CEO of UPS. “It’s that ability to transform, to evolve and to execute on those transformations that makes organizations successful.”
Those two powerfully motivating words resonate throughout the Casey Foundation. When Jim Casey and his siblings — George, Harry and Marguerite — created the Foundation in 1948 and named it in honor of their mother, they wanted their philanthropy to continually strive to do better.
Seven decades later, that attitude still pushes our Foundation toward perpetual improvement — no matter how well we think we are doing. It enables us to remain steeped in our legacy while working toward our ambitious goal: to create a brighter future for every single child in America. We seek to accomplish that through grants and initiatives that support families, build strong communities and broaden pathways to opportunity.
We focus relentlessly on data in all of our work. We hold ourselves accountable for making a measurable difference for the largest number of children and families possible by pursuing strategies backed by solid evidence.
Our best known body of work is the KIDS COUNT project. This year, we will publish our 27th KIDS COUNT Data Book, and we support children’s advocates across the country as they raise awareness of the challenges kids and families are facing and press for policy changes. State and national grantees access four million data points through our KIDS COUNT Data Center to inform and enhance their efforts.
The Foundation has worked for more than two decades to improve juvenile justice and child welfare. Our call for states to close youth prisons is rooted in our conviction that these factories of failures are destroying the lives of too many children.
We’ve launched a series of initiatives to improve the odds of success for youth and young adults who are neither employed nor in school. These initiatives focus on skill development, education and career success.
In our work over the years, we have always understood that race matters. By almost every indicator of child well-being, kids of color face the longest odds on the path to success. More than ever, we are intentional about applying a race-equity lens to our work. Indeed, if our nation is to succeed in creating a brighter future for every child, we must change the odds for children of color.
Our constructive dissatisfaction has driven our progress and innovation over the years. While we have seen progress in some indicators of child well-being, we will continue working with our partners to get better and better until all children are able to reach their full potential.
Patrick McCarthy is President and CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
