Aaron Dorfman – Executive Director, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)
NCRP is a research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. NCRP works to ensure America’s grantmakers are responsive to the needs of those with the least wealth, opportunity and power. Before joining NCRP in 2007, Dorfman served for 15 years as a community organizer with two national organizing networks, spearheading grassroots campaigns to improve public education, expand public transportation for low-income residents and improve access to affordable housing. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Carleton College (where he studied under the late Senator Paul Wellstone) and a master’s degree in philanthropic studies from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Dorfman frequently speaks and writes about the importance of diversity in philanthropy, the benefits of foundation funding for advocacy and community organizing, and the need for greater accountability and transparency in the philanthropic sector. (Read More)
Alana Conner, PhD – Senior Editor, Stanford Social Innovation Review
Alana Conner, PhD is a social science writer, editor, and consultant whose specialty is cultural psychology. She received her doctorate in social psychology from Stanford University and her postdoctoral certificate in psychology and medicine from the University of California, San Francisco. Her award-winning research explores class and cultural differences in decision making and health. By day, she works as the head curator of The Tech Museum, the spellbinding hands-on science and technology center in San Jose, Calif., where my job is to kindle love affairs with science. By night, she writes about culture, psychology, and health for a variety of venues, which have included The New York Times Magazine, EDGE.org, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, where she served as senior editor for five years. You can read her latest nocturnal scribblings on my blog, Actual Miles. She also speaks and consults about culture, health, and social innovation. (Read More)
Frank J. Omowale Satterwhite, Ph.D., National Community Development Institute
Frank J. Omowale Satterwhite is a community-builder who completed an undergraduate degree at Howard University, a Master’s Degree at Southern Illinois University and a doctoral degree at Stanford University. Omowale founded the National Community Development Institute (NCDI) in 2000 and shaped the mission, methodology, and values of the organization through his role as President and CEO. In 2007, Omowale shifted his role to Founder and Senior Advisor, allowing him to devote a greater amount of his time to field work, writing, public speaking and community engagement.
In a typical year, Omowale provides management services to over 50 social justice, health/human service, community development and philanthropic organizations around the country; he conducts training programs for about 100 organizational leaders, resident leaders/activists and consultants working in urban and rural communities of color; he works with comprehensive community initiatives in several cities; and he serves on the boards of local, regional and national organizations in the community-building field. This last includes: Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management headquartered in Washington, D.C. (Read More)
Jan Masaoka, Blue Avocado
Jan Masaoka is the Director and Editor-in-Chief of Blue Avocado, and writes our Board Café column, which she originated 10 years ago at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Jan was Executive Director of CompassPoint for 14 years, a consulting and training firm for nonprofits based in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and which is a Blue Avocado charter partner.
Jan is an eight-time designee as one of the nonprofit nation’s “Fifty Most Influential People,” and in 2003 she was named “Nonprofit Executive of the Year” by Nonprofit Times. In 2005 she was named “California Community Leader of the Year” by Leadership California.
Jan’s community activities include serving as Chair of the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, and a board member of the Community Initiative Funds of the San Francisco Foundation. She is an Advisory Board member for Stanford Social Innovation Review, and was a member of the Governance and Fiduciary Working Group of the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector convened to advise the US Senate Finance Committee. Jan lives in San Francisco and likes avocados of any color halved, with a little soy sauce poured into the center, and eaten with a spoon. (Read More)
Michael Gilbert, The Gilbert Center & Nonprofit Online News
Michael Gilbert is an internationally known consultant to foundations and nonprofits, an innovator in the field of nonprofit communication, an influential author, and a social entrepreneur.
He is the principal consultant, research director, contributing editor, and instructor for The Gilbert Center, as well as the author or editor of numerous publications, including Nonprofit Online News. He is often credited with helping ignite a revolution in nonprofit communication with his Email Manifesto and he is well known for his provocative and incise commentary. He is equally well known for his challenging and inspiring speeches.
Mr. Gilbert has directed several groundbreaking research projects, and has served as Executive Director or Chief Executive of six organizations, as a board member or officer of more than thirty, and as a communication and management consultant to over 1000 organizations in more than 20 countries over the last 25 years. He was born in Sweden, lives and works in Seattle, and counts Berlin as his home away from home. In his spare time, he’s a tango dancer. (Read More)
Pablo Eisenberg, Georgetown University
Pablo Eisenberg is Senior Fellow in Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. He served for 23 years as Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a national technical assistance and advocacy organization working with low-income constituencies nationwide. He has actively contributed to national discourse on government accountability and reform, the role of philanthropy, and the achievements and problems of the nonprofit sector.
Eisenberg has published numerous articles and chapters of books and has a regular monthly column in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He has held senior positions with the U.S. Information Agency in Africa, Operation Crossroads Africa, Office for Economic Opportunity, and the National Urban Coalition. He is a founder and Vice-Chair of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and President of Friends of VISTA. He serves on prominent national boards, such as the Environmental Support Center, The Nonprofit Sector Research Fund of the Aspen Institute, and Eureka Communities. In 1998, The Nonprofit Times selected Eisenberg as one of the 50 most influential people in the American nonprofit sector. That same year, he was the recipient of the national John Gardner Leadership Award sponsored by the Independent Sector. (Read More)
Priscilla Hung, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training/GIFT
GIFT provides fundraising resources, training, and analysis to organizations nationwide, especially those that are working for social justice and are based in communities of color. GIFT also publishes Grassroots Fundraising Journal founded by Kim Klein, and organizes Raising Change: A Social Justice Fundraising Conference. Priscilla is Executive Director of GIFT and she got started in fundraising almost ten years ago as a GIFT intern at the Center for Third World Organizing. She has been a fundraiser, trainer, and teacher. She is on the boards of National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. (Read More)
Rick Cohen, The Nonprofit Quarterly
Rick Cohen is the Nonprofit Quarterly’s National Correspondent; he also writes a column on public policy for Blue Avocado. He is known for his special investigations and analysis on the sometimes quite odd intersections between politics and nonprofits. Rick’s background includes community organizing, municipal government, executive positions at LISC, Jersey City government, and the Enterprise Foundation, and eight years as Executive Director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. He writes The Cohen Report for Nonprofit Quarterly, and lives in Washington, D.C. (Read More)
Robert Egger, DC Central Kitchen
Robert Egger is the Founder and President of the DC Central Kitchen, the nation’s first “community kitchen”, where unemployed men and women learn marketable culinary skills while donated food is converted into balanced meals. Since opening in 1989, the DCCK has distributed over 22 million meals and helped 750 men and women gain full-time employment. Robert served as the Co-Convener of the first Nonprofit Congress in 2006, and now leads the V3 Campaign, which seeks to have the Voice, Value and Votes of the nonprofit sector recognized in every election. (Read More)
Rosetta Thurman – Writer, Speaker, Professor, Consultant
Rosetta is a creative nonprofit leader of color who has been working in the nonprofit community for over seven years with expertise in fundraising, human resources, financial management, leadership development, diversity training and marketing and communications. Rosetta is a writer, speaker, professor, and organizational development consultant who has been featured in articles about the nonprofit sector in the Washington Post, DC Examiner, Nonprofit Quarterly, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. In addition to her work as a practitioner, Rosetta teaches graduate courses in nonprofit management as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Professional Studies at Trinity University in DC. She is also a prolific nonprofit blogger, Change.org and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In 2008, Rosetta was named a “New Leader in Philanthropy” by Greater DC Cares. Rosetta is an active member of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network DC, and the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). (Read More)
Ruth McCambridge, The Nonprofit Quarterly
Editor in Chief, Ruth McCambridge, transformed the Nonprofit Quarterly into a national journal in 1999. Her background includes 35 years of experience in nonprofits, primarily in organizations that mix grassroots community work with policy change. Beginning in the late 1990s McCambridge spent a decade at the Boston Foundation developing and implementing its diverse capacity building programs. She has spoken and published extensively on nonprofit management and governance. (Read More)
Ted Lord, Philanthropy Sherpas
Some of the roads Ted Lord has traveled as guide and porter include serving as Executive Director of Humanities Washington, the statewide affiliate of the NEH, from 2006-2008. He worked for five years as a partner in Philanthropy Northwest’s Giving Practice, working with foundations, families and businesses as they establish or retool their giving programs. Prior to that he served as Seattle University‘s Interim Director of the Masters in Nonprofit Leadership and as adjunct faculty in the Masters in Public Administration. From 1992 through 2000 Ted was Executive Director of the Pride Foundation where he helped increase grants and scholarships from $35,000 to over $600,000 annually. Ted has served on community boards including United Way, Executive Alliance, and the Northwest Development Officers Association. The Greater Seattle Business Association named him Community Leader of the Year in 1999, and he was an inaugural New Ventures in Philanthropy Fellow for 2003. A practicing poet, his work appears in over 40 literary magazines. (Read More)
