Why I Give: Ryan Coaxum
Ryan Coaxum is Senior Vice President and Community Development and External Affairs Officer at Moody Bank. A lifelong Austin resident, Ryan earned his degree in Business Administration and Management from Huston-Tillotson University. He is actively involved in organizations such as Ballet Austin, Adderley School for the Performing Arts, and the University of Texas at Austin College of Fine Arts, and maintains professional affiliations with the Texas Bankers Association and American Bankers Association. Outside of work, Ryan enjoys travel, arts, and the unique character of Austin.
What are some of your favorite ways to give back?
My absolutely favorite way to give back is mentorship.
Now that I am a bank Sr. Vice President Ryan, I have lots of people offering to be my mentor. Thank you for that. But it was when I was bank teller Ryan that I really needed the mentorship; I could have really used some help coming up.
I really don’t think that the people coming up before me did the best job of proactively offering mentorship. I wish that someone would have taken me aside and offered some guidance. For example, look at your classes and talk about which classes make you happy, which you might use in your actual life. I wish that I had someone in my life that would have asked me about current events, for example how the Nolan Wells case really makes me feel.
So if I wanted these things from someone else, I realized I should offer those to others. I did not think that I would ever be a mentor, but I have some great mentees right now - it is so much fun and so challenging to work with them. My mentees are from the University of Memphis, Austin Community College, Dartmouth, and all great in their own right. I love going out with them and and talking with them, showing them what I do, taking them to lots of lunches.
What are some of your favorite causes or local nonprofits to support?
On the Moody Bank side of my giving, we focus on workforce, economic development, affordable housing, and financial literacy.
On the personal side, I support the causes where the rubber truly hits the road - support for families, support for people. For example, people are not getting the nutrition they need, so the organizations that are helping with getting people good food and medication.
My 3 Cs of giving are:
Capital (anything that gives small businesses and families a chance to thrive in terms of their financial goals);
Community (anything that helps the community thrive); and
Culture (ballet or zach or contemporary or the cultural district)
What inspires you to give back?
I grew up in the church - my dad has been a pastor in Pflugerville for 31 years. When you have parents that are in ministry and have given their whole life to serving people, when you are in close proximity to that, you can really lean in. When you see your parents get up in the middle of the night to be with people who have lost someone, you know that they are truly called to help others. It was just such a great example. People’s parents do a bunch of cool things in life, but having parents in ministry you see real leaders in giving back.
Church, and especially the Black church, is such a great gathering place for all things - community, politics, taking care of others - it is all in the church. But it is all about loving others and wanting others to succeed. That is just so yummy to me. I just love it.
What do you love about your job?
Every day is completely different.
Some days it is working on community development, some days it is helping to fill a small funding gap for a local business, some days it is advising a childcare center on their finances….
Sometimes Moody can help on their own and sometimes we work with others. But our overarching goal is to serve the community by building relationships, creating opportunities, and helping families and small businesses thrive.
For example, Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are a big part of my life. I went to Huston-Tillotson, and, like many HBCUs, they are regularly underfunded. But now I can give back. An HBCU like HTU contacts me with a problem and I can then reach out to the braintrust I have developed and together we can get it pretty much solved. I am so grateful to work for a bank that supports me and so many of these issues.
How do you and your wife get to approach philanthropy together?
My wife, Laura, is director of learning and leadership at Eanes Independent School District. She works with the district leadership to make sure that Eanes is a leader in Fine Arts. But how do you make that happen?
Well, I am on the board of the UT College of Fine Arts. And our relationship and our connections made it a perfect opportunity for UT and Eanes to work together. So Laura and I facilitated a dinner and introduced the leadership from each side. At that dinner, we talked about how to raise up students, and left with a concrete plan for collaboration.
I love that we brought our two issues together.
What is the biggest way that people can give back?
I just wrote an op ed about the business of banking and giving back - To be honest, HEB’s whole model is what I try to emulate at Moody. Yes, we LOVE shopping at HEB - but we also really love that they give back to our community, our city, our state. And that is what I love to do.
When people ask me about the biggest way they can give back or help ME to give back, I tell people to come bank with Moody Bank; not only are we a great bank, but then you can also be a part of the work that we do giving back. I want to make sure that Moody is a key part of the conversation about people giving back. Look at the huge ways that they are giving back - $150M to Huston-Tillotson, the creation of the Moody School of Education at Baylor University, and so much more.
This is a great segue into our last question. As leaders in the local giving space, how are you approaching others to join you in giving back?
Give back in your own type of way. There is not one template for how to give back. I learned that when I was on the board of directors for I Live Here I Give Here - we wanted people to come to giving back in their own style.
Everyone needs to find the best way to give for them - if you have secret accounting skills, go help a small nonprofit with their finances. If you have an hour a week to give, volunteer.
And if you do not know how, always ask questions. If you go up to a person and say, “I would love to take you to coffee and ask you questions about yourself,” they will generally say yes. People like to talk about themselves!
For me, I like to get a bunch of different examples and adjust those to my own giving back. One great example is Gary Farmer of Heritage Title who is known for giving back. And so I decided I wanted to know everything about him - who he is, what he eats for breakfast, etc. So I meet him every quarter to learn all about him, then adjust/mimic what he does to work for my own life.
The bottom line for me is:
I just keep saying yes.
I keep being blessed.
And I continue to go to bed with thankfulness in my heart.
From all of us at I Live Here I Give Here, thank you, Ryan. Thank you for talking with us today and thank you for all you do to give back to our community!
