▲ Ko Young is explaining the importance of talent donation coordinators’ roles in our society. Photographed by Song You Jin.

As our generation was becoming better off, people were starting to take the time to look around and see the problems in our society. As people began to finally identify the problems, the desire for solutions was let out, and as a means of solving them, talent donation gained popularity. This rising popularity is what caused the talent donation coordinators to spring into action.

Talent donation may sound familiar, but that might not be the case with talent donation coordinators. Not only is the concept of talent donation a relatively new thing, coordinating talent donation and doing it as a career is probably fairly new to many. What a talent donation coordinator does is almost self-explanatory, however. “There are just two things you will need to consider— people in need of help and people who can help. A talent donation coordinator occupies the role of brilliantly matching up the two groups of people,” said Ko Young (’96, Political Science and International Relations).

Ko was the first person to bring the concept of coordinating talent donations to Korea. Also, he is the CEO of Social Consulting Group (SCG), the first organization established with the sole goal of matching up talent donators with those seeking help. “People used to look for places to donate their talents on their own,” explained Ko.

The first time the concept of talent donation coordinating really became known in Korea was near the beginning of 2013. Anchors started to donate their voices for narrations, and as talent donation became vitalized, ordinary citizens started to take interest. People started to wish for a specialist who could help with talent donations, and these specialists came to be known as talent donation coordinators.

A talent donation coordinator needs to know the country’s system, issues, and its resources, especially the ones pertaining to their area of expertise. “He or she needs to construct a network by visiting conferences, forums, and organizations,” said Ko. “At the same time, he or she needs to visit local government and take a look at any civil complaints that can be incorporated into the constructed network.”

Ko also emphasized the importance of the coordinator having solved a problem through talent donation himself. Ko explained that you can understand the steps once you have taken a problem under your own wing and agonized over the solution. “You will start to think, ‘I should bring this person at a certain time to a certain place and entrust them with a particular task. I should build a process that can guide the helping hand.’” At the very moment, according to Ko, the person secures the competence and capability as a talent donation coordinator.

Ko had his own story about solving a problem too, of course, and this incident paved the first path to his becoming a talent donation coordinator. To start with, he was good at identifying problems and making efforts to solve it. It was he, as an undergraduate student, who started the campaign for collecting litter after The Annual Ko-Yon Games—this is how we have come to cheer with the red garbage bags now.

As the story implies, Ko was an active person even in years back, and during his years at Korea University (KU), Ko coincidentally visited Young Chul Burger and met Lee Young Chul, the owner of the restaurant. Suddenly Ko had a new project before him to solve, so he became a business consultant for Young Chul Burger. Ko also had a team of friends to help out with this project.

The rest is history. As we all know, Young Chul Burger has now grown into a large franchise and the restaurant that all KU students know. What Ko wants to emphasize through his story are the following indispensable factors for becoming a talent donation coordinator—awareness, ability to think, teamwork, and team leadership.

Right now, retired professionals are the ones who are taking interest in being talent donation coordinators. When you consider the nature of the work that a coordinator does, this is not a surprise, as retired professionals have a large network as a given. However, it does not require a certificate to work as one, and Ko suggested that university students try working as a talent donation coordinators. “The experience will let you clarify your future careers,” Ko said.

“As our world develops and our social infrastructure starts to depend more and more on interdisciplinary IT and fusion, the role of talent donation coordinator is bound to become more important,” said Ko. The talent donation coordinator is a career of fusion itself and has the potential to become the hub of all complicated networks. For those who want to do good deeds but find that it is difficult to do them alone, this hub, with the coordinator at the core, is needed.

According to Ko, coaches and counselors can potentially transform into talent donation coordinators in the future as they realize how much impact they can have by connecting different people. Of those, there will appear coordinators who can financially support their careers. It would only be a matter of time before specific platforms and communities are found—an organization of retired lawyers perhaps.

“What we need in Korea today is ‘sharing.’ People are not yet comfortable with that,” explained Ko. What Ko is talking about is not just simple asking, or offering help. Rather than the unilateral benefits, it is the mutual sharing that Ko wants to emphasize in our society today, as a talent donation coordinator.