Adam Torres and Paul Dumars discuss the Milken Institute Global Conference.
Listen to Milken Institute Global Conference coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Paul Dumars, CFO & COO at The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, explore the current philanthropy/fundraising landscape and the Milken Institute Global Conference.
About Paul Dumars
Paul E. Dumars, Jr is the Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (CBCF). He will provide financial and operational leadership to advance the mission, goals, and purposes of CBCF.
With more than 19 years of experience in accounting, corporate finance, information technology, operations and human resources, Mr. Dumars’ background includes roles at nonprofits, private businesses, and for-profit corporations. He has spent the past 15 years ensuring the long-term viability of a multi-million-dollar companies. He considers himself an innovator in corporate structure, growth and expansion strategy, mergers & acquisitions capital funding and debt financing, as well as non-profit finance. He has proven his ability to challenge, change and better existing processes, procedures, and systems. He is equipped with excellent communication skills and the ability to communicate with a high level of professionalism with clients and colleagues that span the financial spectrum.
About The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. (CBCF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy, research and educational institute that aims to help improve the socioeconomic circumstances of African Americans and other underserved communities.
Founded in 1976 and based in Washington, D.C., CBCF envisions a world in which the black community is free of all disparities and able to contribute fully to advancing the common good. Its mission is to advance the global black community by developing leaders, informing policy and educating the public.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to mission matters.com and click on BR Guest to apply. All right, so today’s guest is Paul Dumars, and he is a CFO and COO over at the Congressional Black.
Caucus Foundation. Today’s interview is part of our Milken Institute Global Conference 2025 series where we’re highlighting and featuring some of the guests that attended the conference. First thing, first, Paul, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Appreciate it. So, Paul I gotta ask so you’re at the conference this year, I know, in Beverly Hills the Milken conference.
how did it go? talk to me about your experience. My experience was great. Just attending a lot of the sessions and getting to see some of the experts in their field as far as finance, investments technology was, was a great experience for me. Yeah. Now this is my I think going on fourth year now.
have you been to the conference before or is this the first year? Just curious. This was my first year, so I didn’t know what to expect. I love get, I love getting somebody with, they’re on the, on the show when it’s their first year. Like I, I’m sure you’ve been to many, conferences in the past and other things.
And what stuck out about this? Like what made it unique to you? I think the way they dig into the subject matter a lot of other conferences I’ve been through are, have been through some of those sessions. They’re really on a surface level. They don’t get really into the weeds. But there’s so many different sessions at the conference over many different subject matters that when you get into a session, they’re talking exactly about what the session title is and they get deep, they do a deep dive in what the, subject matter is.
So, yeah. I had a guest guest to this show. They were like, man, the brain candy. And I’m like, yeah, you’re right. That’s what it is. It’s like my, these are my words, not yours. I’m like, man, mind blown in session after session. I’m just like, what? What? Wow. This is going on, or this is it? Just whenever I’m there, it feels so cutting edge.
Almost like I’m getting a reboot or, or a download I should say, of what’s been going on in the world over the last year. Right. Absolutely. Paul, well, let’s spend some time talking about what you’re working on right now. So the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Maybe start by telling us a little bit about the organization.
Absolutely. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has been around for next year in 2026 will be our 50th year anniversary, and it was started by, it was pioneered and started by the the African American members of Congress back in the seventies. So we have a mission to further causes of our young people, so to speak.
We have an internship program, a fellowship program, and a scholarship program. So that’s the main purpose of recommendation is to advance the talent of tomorrow. Wow. Did you give an idea? I’m just curious about what, that’s like when you’re on, you’re hand to work in that situation where you’re to where you’re giving out scholarships and you’re, progressing a mission like that.
Like what does that mean to you? That means everything to me. I mean, because the work is mission based. I’ve been in you know, private finance and in other roles in a market based situation. But moving to philanthropy in a nonprofit setting has been fulfilling to me because you get to see the outcomes of the work that you put in day in and day out.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. That’s pretty cool. And talk to me, so I mean, you have a unique, unique, you have a unique vantage point there just on what you’re working on day to day. Like what, what do you, the current philanthropic or fundraising landscape, I mean, in the current geopolitical environment?
Like, like, what’s that look like? I. It’s still good. You know, I don’t want to phrase this as it as, as it been challenging according to what’s going on right now. But there has been some pullback across different corporations, across different other organizations as far as philanthropy, but however we remain vigilant and sticking to our mission.
We’re nonpartisan. We’re a nonprofit, so our, work is to advance, great outcomes for our students. And nothing political on the political spectrum or nothing in a partisan manner. We focus on making sure the talent tomorrow get the opportunities they need to advance their career. Yeah. let’s, speaking of your partners , and your investment partners, people that do give to the endowment, how will a successful investment strategy like benefit nonprofits and private endowments.
So, you know. A lot of endowments are non-profit organizations are, heavily relying on corporate sponsorship. Mm-hmm. The purpose of an endowment is to really diversify your funding. Who are you getting money for and what you’re doing to invest that money to advance your mission. So the investment strategy is really key here to be able to sustain your organization over the next 10, 15 years if you have the right investment managers, if you have the right investment policy statement, if you have the right investment strategy.
So that’s all key about being a sustainable organization and showing that the people that invest in your organization, that the purpose of the investment is to further the mission. And if they believe in their mission, and if your mission is front and center, they don’t have an issue investing in you.
The next step is making sure the investments that you make within the organization go for far enough to sustain the organization into the future. Yeah. And it’s interesting to me to see how organizations are affected, and again, not getting political, but just by different environments and, and what different individuals or, or I should say, what different political landscapes are coming are about.
And right now I, I’ve heard. Similar things as what you’re saying. So, you know, it’s been a little bit of pushback, but it’s still, you know, it’s still moving forward. And, and you said, you mentioned, can you remind me again how many years now you said the endowment’s been around like 70 years. How many years did you say?
I missed the organization’s Been around 50 years. The endowment has been around a short amount of time. This is our first four way into an endowment. And, and we understand that, moving toward an endowment environment is the way to sustain the organization. And to your point I think what other administration that you faces or political happens that you’re facing, if you focus on your mission and what your purpose is always consider contingencies, always consider the upcoming risk regarding investment regarding, mm-hmm.
You know, giving philanthropy, you always have to take that into account, but if you focus on your mission and move forward in a mission-based atmosphere, I think you will be successful. Yeah, yeah. Now you mentioned the and you don’t have to say by name if, if it’s not appropriate, but you mentioned even scholarships and things like that.
Like, can you give some examples of like, either just, I don’t know, numbers or, you know people that have been helped? Like, again, you don’t have to say anybody’s name specifically, but any, any stories you could share? Absolute. So the, the great thing about some of our scholarships are that they’re, they’re multiyear and they’re sustaining.
When a student starts an undergrad and if they go to law school or if they go to medical school, we make sure those scholarships follow them through their post-secondary education. Oh, wow. Where they, it’s in grad school or doctoral school, so they always have our support in some form or fashion. Monetarily and in an environmental where.
we create an environment to where we have an alumni focus where they’re able to give back and come back and do things with our current students that are going through the same process that you did. But the, as far as scholarship giving last year we gave over $4 million in scholarships to students from all walks of life needs based academic space those type of students that benefit.
They wouldn’t have the normal opportunity to get the kind of money that we give out and be able to go to school, go to grad school, or go to medical school. So it’s very important for us to, to continue this work. That’s amazing. That’s, that’s an extremely significant amount of money. And looking at like, what, how many, how many, and you don’t have an exact number, not a big deal, but since how many lives have been affected would you say?
Or how many, or I should say students have been affected. Well, last year alone, we gave over 600 scholarships. Wow. The previous year we were at four. So every year it’s grown. and that’s the purpose of fundraising. It’s a purpose of philanthropy. Cultivating donors that really understand that they’re affecting lives, they’re affecting outcomes, they’re affecting people that are going to be positive citizens or productive citizens in, in this country.
What do you think are some of the reasons that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has been so successful in really, you know, fulfilling and living out its mission? ’cause 600, I mean, scholarships. That’s significant. We we’re talking, giving away millions of dollars. What do you think is, are some of the reasons it’s been so successful?
Because we, you know, we really formulate this program to scour the nation to look at who deserves it, who, who has the grades. And they may have superior grades, but might, may not have the financial backing. That’s a need space, or they are, so gifted into what they’re doing that they are already have plans to go to medical school or they already have plans to go to school and invest in.
The students are going to. Built the foundation in the future because those are the people that are gonna come back and spread the word about the support that we’ve given them. So they turn around, in turn, give us the same support in return for the investment that we made into those people, those young people.
That model has really taken us up and beyond to what we, our initial goals were. We are blown, blown past our initial goals over the last three years. And you know, regardless of the adversary, we’re gonna continue this work and continue to grow this foundation so we can affect more lives.
Yeah, that’s wonderful. And we need you. I think it’s great. I think it’s a great mission. One of the reasons I was excited to, bring you on the show and to learn more how do people get involved, Paul? Like whether it’s as donors, whether it’s as applicants, like how do people connect with the organization overall and get involved, like what’s needed?
They can certainly go to our website to look at all of the aspects of all the departments that we have. Cbc, FI c.org is our website. They can also, when they go to that website we have on a literature that goes out on an annual basis to say how people getting involved. We we’re happy to send that out to whatever people that are in contact with us.
And that’s really how the main, charge that we do, the, donor literature spells out exactly what you’re given to, exactly what is going to, how it’s gonna be beneficial to the foundation and Exactly. Previous and prior outcomes. As a testament to say, your, your money counts, your involvement counts ’cause we’re just not looking for, for people to give money.
And our internship program, we host a professional development series ’cause we host three cohorts a year. So we host over 140 interns annually. Oh. What’s different? Different about our internship program? We pay for their housing and we pay them a stipend when they’re in our internship program and they get professional development.
So the people that are our donor base, we actually have them involved into coming in and talking and teaching these students about how to be professional, how to present themselves, how to do interviews and so forth and so on. So they get the benefit of not only just a somebody that’s giving money, but the.
Professional experience that donor has, we invite them in to talk to our interns as well. Hmm. That’s amazing. And can you do me a favor and give, that website one more time ’cause I definitely want my listeners to have a chance to, to go check it out. Absolutely. The website is https://www.cbcfinc.org/
Fantastic. And now for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links to the website in the show notes so that you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet. Hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button. And Paul, really this has been a pleasure having you on the show today. I’m, I’m definitely more educated on the great work that the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation is doing, and I’m sure my audience is as well.
So, Paul, thank you for all the great work that you’re out there doing out and living your mission. Thank you, Adam. Thank you for having me. It’s been a privilege.
