WORLD VIEW
W
hen Dr. William F. Schulz became executive director of Amnesty International USA in April 1994, he assumed leadership of an organization struggling to define itself in a changing world. Images of Chinese students protesting in Tiananmen Square and the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had inspired human rights activists across America. The ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and the genocide of an estimated 1 million Tutsi and moderate Hutus in Rwanda had appalled them. But AIUSA was not in prime form to help realize human rights gains following these developments. Membership had begun to decline after considerable growth in the 1980s. Fundraising had leveled off. The organization was divided about how best to combine grassroots leadership with staff and volunteer expertise. The largest national section of one of the world’s most pre-eminent human rights organizations was at a crossroads. AIUSA needed more than a strong new director with a commitment to social justice. It needed a visionary with the expertise in organizational growth, management, fundraising and public relations to rebuild its foundation. And it needed an inspirational leader who would build bridges and heal wounds. Schulz, then the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association and a former minister, was well-prepared to take AIUSA forward.
The Dalai Lama and Bill Schulz mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Carter Center in Atlanta Ga., in 1988.
Schulz admits bridging
the organizational divide was a major early challenge. “Being responsive to staff needs that are often very diverse, hearing all the members pushing Amnesty in different directions, and then trying to balance them with the international movement’s own needs and priorities is always a complex challenge,” he says. “I was surprised there was as much tension between staff and volunteers as I found when I got here. So I tried to be a bridge-builder…to not take a radical position. I think everyone, no matter what their perspective on the organizational issues, was deeply committed to the human rights agenda. Calling people back to that agenda and reminding them why we were all in this together was very important.”
Schulz next to AIUSA’s Advocacy Director for Europe and Eurasia Maureen Greenwood, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and a delegation of the Algerian Mothers of the Disappeared.
After an initial tour of AIUSA, Schulz decided quickly to build a staff of some of the most talented individuals in the human rights field and a dynamic senior management team. He also prioritized dramatically increasing revenues. “I knew no matter what else we did right, if we didn’t have enough money the organization would be at odds with itself…constantly fighting about financial priorities” and diminishing its capacity to fulfill its core mission.
Schulz’s strategies worked. Since 1994 the staff has grown from 80 to 160. Many are experts in their fields. Between 1996 and 2005 the dues-paying membership grew by nearly 30 percent. The organization has doubled its budget to $42 million. Gifts of $5,000 or more have grown from a total of $500,000 a year to more than $5 million a year. This enormous increase in major gift-giving has provided a base for AIUSA’s first comprehensive capital campaign, now in Phase 1, and supported the development
Mohan Seneviratne is a freelance writer and web designer in New York City.
spring 2006
amnesty international 05
