Row360 Talks to New USRowing CEO Amanda Kraus

Last week, USRowing announced that it has partnered with Row360 to provide all individual Championship Members with a digital subscription to this leading global rowing magazine. Row360 is an entirely independent publication, seeking only to cover the most inspiring and engaging stories, events, and individuals in the sport of rowing. In the latest issue of the magazine, our new CEO Amanda Kraus laid out her vision for the organization moving forward.

Below is a part of that interview. A link to the full interview and instructions on how to activate this member benefit is listed below.

What made you want to switch paths and take the USRowing job?

I think the real answer is that I didn't create Row New York for me to run it for the rest of my life. I created Row New York because I wanted it to exist. And I learned a lot in those 18 years and felt so privileged to be able to play that role in running it – but it's good now, it's grown up. It's kind of funny that it's turned 18. It's like when the kids head off to college, and that's sort of what it felt like. I've done what I can and now it's time to send them off. Maybe then I should have just retired or something, but I'm probably too young to do that and I needed a job. When the USRowing job opened up again, and a couple of board members reached out to me, I thought, that sounds insane. But I also kind of like that. I like puzzles, and I like difficult things. There certainly are moments where I'm like, "Oh, my God, this is insane", but that is what I signed up for. I like trying to solve things and make things better. I am not saying that I'm going to be able to fix everything. But I'm really up for the challenge. And I feel like there's so many good people in this country. Good, smart people, and there's so much goodwill. If I can figure out where all the pieces go, then we might be able to do amazing things for the sport. I think all the ingredients are there. We just need a good chef. I know people love this sport. And I know there's so much good energy out there. We just need more resources.

What is your approach to fundraising at USRowing going to be? Do you have a tried and tested formula?

Some ground rules in fundraising are always the same and some best practices are always the same. I know it's a cliche, but it's really about relationship building. People will give money to something because they believe in the leadership behind it, or they believe in the work. Or both. Ideally both. With USRowing I want people to believe in my leadership and trust that I can steer this ship well. And then independent of my leadership, I want people to feel good about where their money will go. So, we're working really hard now on identifying those initiatives, so if we're a $10 million organization, and somebody gives us $1,000 or $10,000 or $10, they know where that money is going. Nobody wants to feel like they're just feeding the machine.

And so, I think it's our responsibility as good stewards to say, "Okay, these are the initiatives we're focused on. We're homing in on that", but we're not yet ready to present that. There are three things that we'll be talking about.

Firstly, coaching education. What we're hearing from the membership is that people want to get help on that front. People want better coaches, people want to become better coaches, people want to be coached by better coaches. That's the feedback we've gotten. So how can we be a better resource to coaches in this country, which is something I love to think about, and we have some great staff with incredible ideas on that front. And from adaptive coaching to national team level coaching too. How do you teach a middle schooler how to row? How do you teach a 50-year-old woman how to row?

The second initiative is diversity, equity and inclusion in rowing. We want to hire someone full-time to lead the outreach around the country. Helping clubs and boathouses, whether it's a college boathouse, or a club in a city or elsewhere that wants to make their boathouse more diverse and more inclusive. We can help guide them through that. Because ultimately, most people have the same questions. How do we get kids from different backgrounds involved? How do we work on retention? What do we do if we have kids who can't swim? It's the same questions over and over. I want us to be a resource for boat houses around the country, and eventually be able to raise and give money to clubs that are just starting that work.

The third is a fundraising initiative around the national team. One thing I'm learning already is that there's so much we're doing, and it's expensive. You have a lot of athletes traveling around the world multiple times a year. Top level training is really costly. And we just don't get enough money. Currently, with the revenue streams, it just doesn't add up. It's simple math. So, we need to fundraise. We need people who believe in Team USA, who want to help support the junior national team, the senior national team, our fantastic para team.

So, to answer your question, it's about saying here are the things we want to do really well and telling those stories. And then it's about getting the people involved and connecting them with what we're doing and building those relationships. So they can trust that whatever they give, whether it's $100 or $100,000, or a million dollars, it's going to go towards those initiatives.

To read the full interview, you can visit Row360's website to read all of 'State Of The Union'. If you are an individual Championship, Lifetime or Legacy Member of

USRowing, you can activate your Row360 subscription using these instructions:

iPhone or iPad:

1. Download the Row360 app through the App Store

2. Launch the app and swipe through the welcome screens. Tap either option ('I'm an existing subscriber' or 'I'm a new reader')

3. Tap 'I am a member of USRowing' or 'USRowing members click here'

4. Enter USRowing member ID and last name and click activate

5. The latest issue will now be available to download, and in 'My Library'

6. New issues will be added to the My Library section when they are released for the duration of USRowing membership

Android mobile or tablet:

1. Download the Row360 app through Google Play

2. Launch the app and swipe through the welcome screens. Tap either option ('I'm an existing subscriber' or 'I'm a new reader')

3. Tap 'I am a member of USRowing' or 'USRowing members click here'