Intro: This is the third of our interviews with nonprofit leaders around the Western North Carolina region.  Through this feature, we want you to get to know the person, their passion, and how they are working to strengthen our community. 

WAYNESVILLE – David Erickson followed a winding path around the world from corporate executive to gallery owner to board chair of HandMade in America.  In the process, he learned a lot about nonprofits and about himself.

Erickson brings an easy-going attitude, broad smile and a wealth of business experience to his nonprofit leadership role.  He had an intense globe-trotting career in human resource management with International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) before returning to his Pacific Northwest home, where he married a potter and ran an art gallery.  His merchandising stint landed him a top position with Coldwater Creek, where he helped build their catalogue business from $7 million to over $50 million in sales and grew the staff from 30 to over 300.

When Erickson finished his corporate tenure and “was able to go anywhere,” he and his wife chose Haywood County as a place to enjoy the arts and the mountains.  They operated Twigs & Leaves gallery in a century-old building in downtown Waynesville until recently. 

Erickson joined the HandMade in America board seven years ago and is now in his second year as chairman.  The organization has been in a period of transition “from the founding executive director being the driving force to a situation where the board will call the shots and monitor the new director’s performance.”  While he does not take credit for them, Erickson is proud of the fact that two key needs have been addressed during his leadership term:  acquiring a spacious new home for the HandMade offices, and conducting a high quality search for a new executive director.  HandMade in America’s mission is promoting craft and culture for community and economic development in western North Carolina.

Among the many lessons he has learned, Erickson counts:

• Build a strong board structure.  It’s very important how you structure your board.  You must look for people with relevant experience, including fundraising, management, evaluating proposals, marketing, and technology.
• Run a good business.  Even though a lot of nonprofits don’t realize it, they are running a business – they have customers, products and services they deliver, and they must be accountable.
• Funding is the biggest challenge.  After being dependent on grants for many years, HandMade is now seeking streams of revenue from intellectual properties, fee for service, and active fundraising.  “Most people don’t seem to like fundraising,” Erickson acknowledged, “but it’s a necessity.  It’s a matter of finding the people who enjoy supporting organizations and acquainting them with your mission.”
  

The key ingredient for leadership, according to Erickson, is “Being able to reach out to other board members, to tap the skills they bring, to get them fully engaged in the management of the organization.  What does it take to do that?  It begins with having a good board of motivated individuals.” 

As far as leadership style, Erickson said, “I’m not the sort of guy who has all the answers.  I depend heavily on the ideas of everyone else, and act as the facilitator – putting the pieces together.”

His advice to other nonprofit leaders?  “Keep your ears open.  You have to be a good listener, and hear beyond the words being spoken to the meaning and emotion.”

Erickson said he thinks about accountability all the time, and notes recent examples of severe mismanagement in nonprofits right in his home county of Haywood.  He takes fiscal matters very seriously and conveys this to his board: “Not one of our board members can say they don’t know what’s going on financially.” 

The perennial challenge, Erickson said, is whether an organization is driven by mission or funding, and the trick is come up with a healthy blend.  “It’s easy and tempting to get swept up with an idea or a program that sounds exciting but the caveat always has to be: Does it match your mission?”

Since coming to Western North Carolina, Erickson has been a volunteer with the Haywood Literacy Council and the Downtown Waynesville Association, but his main passion has been the leadership of HandMade.  He said he has “always felt it is important to be involved as a leader.  I’ve received so much from the communities I’ve lived in.  It’s very important to me to give back.”  In the little free time he has during his “retirement,” Erickson enjoys gardening, meditation and spiritual journey work at his home in the rural area of Iron Duff outside Waynesville.