Yahoo News Rene Jones Is Helping Hollywood Give Back
When Rene Jones, a partner and chief of social impact at United Talent Agency, gets her colleagues involved in a project, she makes sure to call ahead.
“I’ve found that working at an agency, particularly with my colleagues who are all, as you can imagine, Type-A agents, they're always willing to lean in,” Jones says. “I say, ‘Hey, we're going to go do a habitat build,’ and they raise their hands. I have to tell an organization, ‘Be sure to have twice as much work [as you think we’ll do] because otherwise they'll be on their phones. We’re doers, and we're going to put a roof on today.”
Jones came to UTA, where she launched its namesake foundation, 20 years ago after working as a member of the pilot program for AmeriCorps, the national service and volunteer agency, and a staffer in the U.S. Senate. “It was a bit about being in the right place at the right time, and having a unique background that made sense,” she says. “I had come from my first real job working in the U.S. Senate and then on political campaigns across the country, so I was able to really see a lot of the issues up close. I had also worked on the nonprofit side, so I was able to understand how they operate from the inside. When we started the foundation, the company was much different: We were probably about 250 people and we had offices in Los Angeles, now we are now over 2,200 people, and we have offices in London, New York, Atlanta, Nashville, and Los Angeles. Also, when I first started, the concept of working with our clients on causes that was meaningful to them was very new.”
The idea of philanthropy in Hollywood wasn’t new—think of Bob Hope and the USO or Audrey Hepburn and UNICEF—but harnessing modern stardom to do good was a nut that hadn’t been quite cracked. “There was no blueprint, there was no job description,” Jones says. “Very much in the UTA way, it was, ‘Use your entrepreneurial spirit and figure it out.”
In the two decades since she began her job, Jones has certainly figured it out. During her tenure, she’s launched programs including Project Impact, a day of service for UTA employees, and Live Inspired, a sabbatical designed to encourage employees to pursue their philanthropic objectives; she’s partnered with causes including the mental health-focused Hollywood & Mind, U.S.VETS, and Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity; held events tied to the White House Correspondents Dinner and the United Nations General Assembly’s Climate Week; and worked with UTA’s clients—a who’s who of talent from actors to athletes, broadcast journalists, and beyond—to identify their philanthropic objectives and assist them in aligning with and supporting causes.
“Having launched the Foundation 20 years ago,” UTA president David Kramer says, “Rene has expertly navigated our rapidly growing, now global company, and not only manages to engage every employee, but she also infiltrates every department—meeting clients where they’re at and finding ways to either uplift their work or match their passions within the philanthropic space.”
That can sometimes mean saying no to the kind of people who don’t often hear the word. “There are clients who do start their own foundation, but for the most part, we actually discourage them from starting one until they're at a place where it makes sense,” Jones says. “What we try to do is take inventory with them and educate them on the landscape of the issue they want to lean into and decide, does it make more sense to align you with an organization you can help uplift that’s already doing great work?”
For a client like actor, producer, and author Wilmer Valderrama, who’s a global ambassador for the USO and co-founder of the non-profit Harness, her guidance has been essential. “I’m inspired by her sense of the now,” Valderrama says. “Rene has a unique talent for inviting community to share in the greater conversation. She’s not shy about making a phone call. Often that’s all it takes to create a small movement.”
Another client who has benefitted from her expertise is Paris Hilton. “Paris made a documentary, and she was not going to talk about the abuse that happened to her when she was in congregate care,” Jones says. “The things she wanted to lean into before the documentary were things that she cared about, but after she really shifted into activism; she has helped pass bills in multiple states and has federal legislation, the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, before Congress. There’s real good that comes out of that, and she’s changing laws that will benefit children.”
Clients aren’t the only ones whose efforts have made a difference, however. Earlier this year, Jones was honored by Chief with its New Era of Leadership award for Leading with Purpose, and she also serves on the boards of the International Women’s Media Foundation, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Impact Guild, and OneGreenThing, as well as the national advisory councils for Hollywood & Mind and the Kids Mental Health Foundation.
Despite the accolades and the obvious fruits of her labor, however, Jones doesn’t feel as if her work is close to finished.
“We have our tentacles everywhere, and a lot of sweat equity went into that,” she says. “For me, it’s all about that connective tissue: with our clients, with the nonprofit community. I always knew in my core we could make a difference, but seeing it play out has been tremendous. I’ve been here 20 years and still think this is a dream job, but really I’m excited about how much more there is that we have to accomplish.”
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