Vera: What has been your foundation's biggest challenge?
Jeffrey: Raising money and gathering board members. There’s a couple of aspects in terms of board members. One challenge is that, I was incarcerated for 16 years so I don’t have a cohort of people that came up the ranks professionally with me who I can go to in order to look for board members. I don’t have that. The challenge is that I have to find people who can serve as connectors in their networks, so that has proven to be a challenge. Another challenge has been a lot of people are already serving on boards and so they and their networks are tapped out. So, I have to find new people who are successful and professional people of means who know people who are similar to them who haven’t already gotten involved with nonprofit work. Another issue is the competition. Do you want to contribute to The Deskovic Foundation that’s been around for 6 years and has 7 people out started by an exoneree with a law degree or do you want to contribute to the organization that has a 14 million dollar budget that’s been around for 22 years that’s helped get maybe 150 people out. The frustrating thing is that some people are in a financial position where they don’t have to pick one or the other the could support both if they chose to. But, they look at it like it’s work in the same area so they pick one over the other. But we do things in different ways.
Vera: What does a normal day look like for you?
Jeffrey: There’s doing emails, phone calls, scheduling, media interviews, presentations, meeting with elected officials, there’s more emails. Checking in with lawyers, reading summaries from case analysts, connecting with all the volunteers. There are about 22 volunteers working with the foundation, so I need to connect with them. Doing quality control on what the volunteers are working on. There’s a lot of different sides, creative, technical, legal. All this comes while I simultaneously have gone through law school.
Vera: Out of everything you've done, what has been your proudest accomplishment?
Jeffrey: Well, you’re asking me to pick between the first person we exonerated, William Lopez, and getting the legislation passed that has taken us 7 years to get passed that resulted in the country’s first law that sets up an independent oversight board on prosecutorial misconduct. It’s the only one in the country that exists. You can’t choose one.
Vera: What's next for The Deskovic Foundation? What are your goals?
Jeffrey: My first goal as an individual is passing the Bar Exam. I’m studying for that now. But, after that my goal is to add new board members, build out the donor base of financial support. My goal is to get money in the door to be able to hire employees so that our volunteers are supplemental and not the main body of work force. So, while I’m preparing for the Bar I have someone putting together promotional materials so that we can get the funds to hire time employees. I’m hoping that having the law degree is going to give an additional level of credibility and then I can represent clients personally and negotiate with lawyers. I have an advantage over other lawyers, I have a draw.
Vera: How can people get involved with The Deskovic Foundation?
Jeffrey: Our offices are in the Bronx and we do have an intern program so people can get involved that way. We accept volunteers, we are in the process of digitizing our files so there’s a mountain of work there. Within their profession, there is always a skill you can provide to a non-profit setting like us
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I want to thank Jeffrey for taking the time to chat with me. Please visit his foundation's website to see how you can get involved.
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