Who We Are

Founder

Elizabeth has been helping donors and nonprofits increase the impact of their work in communities worldwide for over ten years. Among the private clients she has worked with are the Isabel Allende Foundation, Khaled Hosseini Foundation, The Chez Panisse Foundation, Grace Family Foundation and Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation.

Prior to founding her own philanthropic advisory practice, Elizabeth was a  financial analyst in the capital equipment leasing industry, pricing leases, limited partnerships and leveraged buyouts. She also enjoyed ten years serving as the Vice President of the Autodesk Foundation, a publicly supported 501(c)(3) associated with Autodesk, Inc., the nation’s fifth largest software manufacturer. In that role, she gained direct executive experience overseeing the nonprofit’s operations and finances, and collaborated with the president on major programmatic, strategic, personnel and funding decisions. During her tenure there she facilitated a network of corporate funders (e.g., Sun Microsystems, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Charles Schwab, Arthur Andersen) that, as a result, were able to share crucial information and develop collaboratively funded philanthropic initiatives.
 
Elizabeth began her career in 1979 as a social worker, having graduated with a major in social work from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1996-2002 Elizabeth served as a board member of CompassPoint, the premier technical assistance provider to San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley nonprofits. In that role, she led the organization’s board/staff Technology Task Force for three years and played a key role in the merger of the Support Center for Nonprofit Management (San Francisco) and the Nonprofit Development Center (San Jose).
 
Currently, Elizabeth simultaneously serves as the development director for Bread & Roses, as principal of her own consulting firm, as an instructor in the “Leadership for Nonprofit Organizations” certificate program through Golden Gate University’s CyberCampus, and as board vice-president for Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael, California.