Ryan Donovan: CUNA’s Chief Persuader

CUNA Chief Advocacy Officer Ryan Donovan has had politics on his mind since he was in middle school.

Growing up in St. Louis, Donovan even kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about Congressman Dick Gephardt, who was running for president in 1988. “I followed that campaign pretty closely,” he said. “I think that helped me get really into my social studies class; I remember being disappointed when I didn’t have a chance to discuss the Tiananmen Square protests with my social studies teacher, because they happened about a week after our school year concluded.”

It’s probably no surprise, then, that Donovan went on to major in political science in college, earned a master’s degree in government, and worked for Dick Gephardt after college. Donovan was also a member of the congressional staff of Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and director of federal government affairs at the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues before joining CUNA as vice president of legislative affairs in 2007. He became CUNA’s chief advocacy officer in January 2015.

In this second installment of CU Times’ new monthly Q&A feature “Spending Time With …” Donovan talked about what it’s like to lobby for a living, the industry’s inroads in government advocacy, raising kids and what he’s got his eye on next.

CU Times: Some people are skeptical about lobbyists. Where do you think that skepticism comes from, and how do you respond to skeptics?

Donovan: In terms of addressing the skepticism, I think it comes from a misunderstanding of what lobbying is and what it isn’t. I think the profession is maligned because there’s a perception that special interests are pulling the levers of government. But if you really step back and think about it, the truth of the matter is that most people probably have a whole host of personal and professional interests that are represented by advocates in Washington or their state capital. I think if I talked to anybody on the street just for a few minutes, I could probably figure out a half dozen to a dozen lobbyists that are working here to try to make the interest that they care about a little bit better.

CU Times: People in your line of work have to be good at persuading people to do things. It’s a skill many people would like to have. What’s your advice for making a good argument in a short amount of time to someone you don’t know well?

Donovan: The best way to persuade somebody to do something you need them to do is convince them that it was their idea. In order to do that, you really have to understand what keeps them up at night and what gets them out of bed. So if you can key in on what they’re worried about, what they’re passionate about, then you can begin to put together a case that they’re going to respond to. This doesn’t just work on politicians, it really is applicable to all aspects of life.

CU Times: What part of your job gives you the most trouble?

Donovan: What gives me the most trouble is resisting the urge to dive into the day-to-day of the functions that I’m responsible for. So sometimes I think the best thing that I can do is to try and get out of the way and let good people do good work. Ultimately, my job is about working with our members, working with our leagues to develop the broader strategy to set that strategic direction, and then helping the CUNA League team execute the plan. I will tell you that I really love writing letters. I love going to the Hill and meeting with folks, and sometimes I just can’t resist that urge to get in there and do that.

CU Times: Since you’ve joined CUNA, how do you think the credit union industry has progressed in terms of government advocacy – and what still needs to be done?

Donovan: When I came to CUNA, the credit union system was rightly recognized as a grassroots powerhouse. I’m not sure we had, at the time, a true north star in terms of what our advocacy efforts were all about. You know, our goal – while we never articulated it this way – it felt like it was more about getting a Rose Garden ceremony than really trying to affect things for credit unions. I always would hear, ‘We need a big win … ” and would sort of scratch my head and think, well, I think what we really need to do is try to improve the operating environment for credit unions. We were also really siloed in how we approached things here at CUNA. You take an issue like data security and, you know, really prior to 2015 we had four different people working on data security at CUNA reporting up for four different senior vice presidents, and they didn’t talk to each other, and their efforts weren’t coordinated.

What we’ve been able to do, particularly over the last five years, is try to set a new course. First we established an advocacy goal, which is to revolutionize the operating environment for credit unions through the removal of regulatory barriers and the expansion of powers. The second thing we’ve done is kind of wild and crazy for a trade association to do: We listen to our members as we put together our advocacy agenda, and we try to engage our league partners as well to develop and implement that agenda.

The third thing is we really do work very hard on strengthening that connection with the leagues. The fourth thing that we’ve done here is recommit ourselves to grassroots by developing and executing on the membership activation program, which is really designed to get credit union members involved in our advocacy. And then the last thing we’ve done is realigned internally in order to be successful.

When I think about what more we could do, there are really two things. The first is we need more credit union member engagement in our advocacy efforts. Second, we’ve got to make an effort to tell the credit union story together better.

CU Times: Everybody has job stress. A lot of it’s related to packed schedules. How do you manage the stress of a busy schedule?

Donovan: I’m really not just saying this, but I have the best executive assistant in the world. She keeps things from slipping through the cracks, and really I can’t overstate the importance of her to my work or the work that we do here. On a personal level, I think there’s two things that really help me manage the stress. First, over the last 10 years or so, personal fitness has become more and more important to me. I run; I enjoy taking spin classes – just doing something active every day keeps me feeling good and staying positive. I’ve got an Apple watch … I have a 390-day streak right now. I think I’ve missed two days on my activity ring in the last three years. The other thing is I try not to sweat the small stuff and to suffer fools gladly.

CU Times: You’ve got two daughters, ages 13 and 9. How do you handle raising kids while you’re climbing the ladder?

Donovan: One of the things that really helps me is that my wife works for a consulting firm that serves associations, and she’s able to do her job from home. So she does a lot of the daily work of getting the girls off to school, being there when they’re home, and helping to shepherd them to their activities. But when I am with them, the thing that I really sort of key on is making sure that the time that we spend together is great quality. What’s really been neat, especially over the last couple of years, is just watching them develop personalities and, at times, kind of even seeing myself in them.

CU Times: What personal goals are you looking forward to meeting this year?

Donovan: My sister, who lives in Florida, began to do some long-distance running. We actually ran a half marathon together. We had a lot of fun doing it, and so we’ve talked about doing a half marathon together in May in Maryland, near D.C., and then maybe a full marathon in our hometown in Missouri in October. So I think I’m going to keep at that and I’m looking forward to sharing that with my younger sister.