Photography by Megan Mumford
It’s impossible to talk about Paul Collins-Hackett’s involvement in one nonprofit without talking about all the other organizations he’s played a role in shaping. By day, he’s the executive director of The RED Bookshelf, an organization with the simple mission to inspire children to read. By night, he’s Batman, an underprivileged kid who grew up to save Gotham. Except in this case, Gotham is Albany, and Batman has a LinkedIn page.
“My father passed away when I was three, and my mother’s blind, so I grew up reliant on community services,” says Collins-Hackett, who often goes by Batman. “I benefited directly from people who cared about me when they didn’t have to.”
One such community member was Jim Snyder, the founder of Siena College’s Mentoring Program.
“Because I was in the Mentoring Program since I was 7, Jim literally watched me grow up,” Collins-Hackett says. “When I failed chemistry, he brought me into his office and was like, ‘Hackett, what the hell’s going on with chemistry?’ And when my car broke down, he was like, ‘What? Why didn’t you get your oil changed?’ But then he helped me find a new car.”
When Snyder passed away in 2014, Collins-Hackett teamed up with a few friends who’d also been through the Siena Mentoring Program to found Tru Heart, Inc. in his honor. The Tru Heart mission gets at the core of Collins-Hackett’s overarching life mission: to create opportunities for youth from marginalized communities. To date, Tru Heart has funded T-ball teams and community dinners, volunteered at the Schuyler Inn homeless shelter, teamed up with likeminded local nonprofits on dozens of different initiatives, and started its own mentorship program called the Titans.
“It’s not about the ‘Pew-pew’ and the aliens and the ‘Pow! Ker-splash!’” Collins-Hackett says of the Batman facade. “It’s about a guy who had an early childhood tragedy and turned it into a dedication to helping other people.”
And while Collins-Hackett doesn’t have superpowers, he has something even better. “Improvements to our city are not a matter of chance,” he says. “They’re a matter of will.”
