First Person of Color to lead Climate Focused Nonprofit secures $12M

Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School

Jul 5, 2024

Sylvia McKinney wakes up every day hoping to steer another young person of color away from poverty and toward a sustainable future.

Last year, McKinney became the first person of color to lead Thompson Island Outward Bound, a more-than 200-year-old nonprofit that focuses on climate education. Under her leadership, the organization secured its largest donation of all time: a $12 million gift from the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation. The nonprofit was renamed the Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School, but the mission remained the same.

“A constant theme throughout the organization’s lifespan has been supporting young people who need more resources,” said McKinney. “And I want to devote my life to working with organizations who want to change the course for young people born in poverty.” McKinney’s path to Outward Bound began when she was looking for an opportunity to come back to Boston, the city where she earned her graduate degree in urban planning and found her feet as a changemaker.

“A search firm called me asking if I would move back to Boston, and the answer was, ‘Oh my god, yes!” said McKinney. “I was told the Outward Bound board was looking for a social justice-driven program. They were speaking my language.”

Prior to joining Outward Bound, McKinney was a nonprofit executive in Philadelphia, where she led the Network for Teaching About Entrepreneurship and Summer Search, two organizations dedicated to improving opportunities for underserved children.

“I don’t think that there is a day that goes by that I don’t meet someone who hasn’t talked about how wonderful their experience was on the island,” said McKinney.

This year alone, the nonprofit served more than 1,900 students from elementary to high school age, the majority of them people of color from Boston. McKinney oversees programs that help young people from impoverished backgrounds to understand the importance of preserving the environment and building up their confidence.

“We have an obligation, because we are on the harbor, to make sure that young people understand what their options are and fields that they might go into that they haven’t even imagined,” said McKinney.

Under McKinney’s leadership, the next project that the nonprofit’s executive team is undertaking is a reimagining of the island’s architecture.

“What we want to do going forward is tell the indigenous narrative along with the African American and Latinx narratives,” said McKinney, emphasizing the importance of recognizing history alongside environmental degradation.

McKinney has emphasized partnerships to uplift the Island’s history and the various communities it has served over the years. She leads conversations with the National Park Service, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and indigenous community members who have taught her that the island was always known as a time of peace.

“More and more of our children of color are coming from other countries where they had to leave because of climate change. Haiti is the perfect example of that,” said McKinney. “We want the island to be that place of continued peace.”