What Happened: From January-August 2024, Mountaintop made several logistical errors both related to the Leadership Institute and related to other programs. This includes:

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1. Due to a time zone mixup, missing an appointment with a class of students from Martin Luther King Jr. Institute (MALUKU Institute), an organization in our Impact Fund portfolio.

2. Setting up an online speaker event with a recurring Zoom meeting link, which caused the registration page to not function properly.

3. Overlooking the need to book a hotel for a specific night of the Leadership Institute, leading to a last-minute booking that was likely more expensive than if it had been booked months in advance.

4. Leaving a key card inside the Edmond & Lily Safra Center, locking out the staff and inconveniencing the Safra Center staff to provide an additional key card after hours.

5. Marking two emails from partners as "read," causing a delay in response of several weeks.

6. Paying an individual a full monthly amount as opposed to the more accurate prorated amount, causing temporary confusion.

7. Submitting some receipts during the Leadership Institute late, and misplacing a small number of receipts, requiring a written report of what the expenses were for.

8. Discussing unrelated topics in a private Zoom meeting with an AI "note-taking bot" that was taking notes for people who were not supposed to be privy to the conversation.

 

How Mountaintop Responded: Where appropriate, Mountaintop apologized for its mistakes. Mountaintop hired a Program Officer to reduce staff administrative burden and has built policies and procedures to reduce mistakes across the board. Most importantly, Mountaintop continues to record its mistakes, debrief what went wrong, and commit to learning to avoid the same mistakes in the future.​

 

Mountaintop's Learning and Commitment: Mountaintop has learned that logistical mistakes are inevitable when too much is being done by too few people with too little time. Mountaintop is committed to building up staff capacity while also setting reasonable timelines and growth plans to ensure we are running a world class, high quality program.