Dana Pownall was midway through law school when she recognized what kind of career she wanted to have—and it wasn’t in the legal profession. “I realized bringing people together and inspiring enthusiasm in them for a shared cause was more enjoyable to me,” she said. “By the time I graduated, I knew I was going to go into fundraising.”
As the head of philanthropy at Beyond Housing, Pownall is in her element. Her fundraising addresses a shared cause she and many St. Louisans are passionate about: a comprehensive approach to community development.
“Addressing the systemic disinvestment and all of the other things that come from living in a community with a disproportionate concentration of poverty was really attractive to me,” she explained. In her previous role, she was with a legal aid society that also took a holistic approach to those it served, but she came to realize that “by the time people come into contact with the criminal justice system, it’s usually after a lifetime of suffering from differentials.” She wanted to do something about the factors that caused them to be justice involved in the first place.
Pownall’s family moved to University City in 1984, and she remembers anchor institutions like Blueberry Hill and Cicero’s keeping The Loop worth visiting. She also remembers that “when I was 10, it was implicitly understood that I was not to head to the convenience store after dark without adult supervision.”
Today, The Loop is thriving, and spokes of community redevelopment are extending from it in all directions, taking hold and changing neighborhoods. Pownall is thrilled to see it. Yet she’s simultaneously troubled by decades’ worth of trends in the opposite direction—including near the home she purchased in the Central West End and in the 24:1 Community.
“What’s happening in the 24:1 is a natural extension of what’s happening in the City of St. Louis overall. It’s a sort of rolling wave of disinvestment and concentration of poverty from the cratered industrial and commercial core of St. Louis to the west and north.”
— Dana Pownall
Whereas The Loop had the benefit of well-heeled residents and institutions in close geographic proximity, that’s not necessarily the case in North St. Louis County. There are pockets of economic strength and residential stability, but the area is also home to the greatest concentration of poverty in St. Louis County. “It’s not a monolith,” Pownall said. “It’s a spectrum of experiences.”
Portraying all the nuances of the 24:1 Community to strangers through a lens of opportunity comes naturally to Pownall. Even before law school, she had inklings that her competitive advantage was institutional advancement. She didn’t shrink from solicitations or sales, and she dove right into networking opportunities. As a St. Louis native who has lived in cities such as Atlanta and Chicago, she has a perspective on the factors that metro regions face. She has seen enough examples of blight to appreciate the types of intentional placemaking that Beyond Housing incorporates into every aspect of its work, starting with its headquarters in the former Garfield School.
“I love the fact that Beyond Housing has been able to take a community cornerstone and keep it thriving as part of the community. Another example is the beautification at the intersection near Barack Obama Elementary School, which went from a concrete jungle to a rainwater basin.”
— Dana Pownall
When a community development officer at a local bank told Pownall that the 24:1 footprint is one of the few areas that’s truly affordable for first-time homebuyers, she thought about how even in neighborhoods that are struggling, there is pride in homeownership. That was reinforced during a windshield tour with Beyond Housing’s President and CEO Chris Krehmeyer just a few days into her new job, when he pointed out a house where the nonprofit had helped with tree removal for an elderly resident who wouldn’t have been able to afford the project on her own.
“There are whole cohorts of organizations trying to address the issues that plague our communities, but none are as comprehensive as Beyond Housing,” Pownall said. “There’s a lot of deep, long-term commitment among the staff and supporters.” There’s also an authentic desire to involve 24:1 residents in every facet of work because “the neighbors will be the spark.”
From that unified foundation, Pownall said, it becomes easier to introduce new people to Beyond Housing’s methodology and approach and to ask them to contribute. “As the Once and for All initiative says, if we choose to come together, we can address the issues that have been plaguing the St. Louis region—once and for all.”
