Our People

Tara Abrahams is a senior advisor in Arabella’s New York office. Tara leads the firm’s work with corporate partners across a broad range of issues, from education to health care to the environment, with a special interest in advancing women’s and girl’s issues. Tara also has significant experience working with institutional foundations and individual philanthropists. 

Prior to joining Arabella, Tara served as a managing director of VOW, an initiative to end child marriage around the world. In that role, she led the startup phase for a new campaign and consumer brand that mobilizes the wedding industry to join the movement to end child marriage, in partnership with leading brands, the media, influencers, and the public. 

Tara began her work in girls’ education and women’s empowerment as the deputy director and president of Girl Rising, a global campaign and feature film that reached millions of viewers and activists around the world. She then went on to advise organizations such as Girls Who Code, the International Center for Research on Women, and the Girls Opportunity Alliance at the Obama Foundation. She also served as executive director of The Girl Project at Glamour. 

Tara’s experience also includes serving as the founding director of the Maverick Capital Foundation, as a strategy consultant at Bridgespan, and as a managing director at Acelero Learning. 

Tara is the board chair of She’s the First, an organization that teams up with local organizations to fight for a world where every girl chooses her own future. She also serves as a trustee of The Brearley School in Manhattan. 

Tara graduated with honors from Harvard College and completed her MBA at the Harvard Business School, where she received the Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowship for outstanding contributions to the nonprofit sector. As an active member of the Harvard Alumni Association, Tara leads local and international efforts related to women’s empowerment.

Tara lives in New York City and Connecticut with her husband and three children. 

Liz Birnbaum is senior counsel and director of advocacy at Arabella. She works with the general counsel to ensure legal compliance and provide expert guidance to the firm and the nonprofit organizations it manages on a broad cross-section of tax, legislative, and regulatory issues. With more than three decades of experience in public policy litigation and advocacy, Liz specializes in lobbying and political compliance and reporting matters, but she also has a range of expertise in legal issues surrounding corporate management.

Liz came to Arabella from the law firm Klamp & Associates, P.C., a boutique practice supporting the legal needs of the nonprofit community. There, she provided legal advice to a broad range of nonprofits of all sizes and types, including local charities, international multi-chapter advocacy organizations, trade associations, and academic societies. In that work, Liz is proud to have assisted with the founding of several new nonprofits. In her spare time, she serves as the president of one of those new nonprofits, Alexandria Harmonizers Inc., a corporation supporting the community work of a 70-year-old men’s barbershop chorus.

Much of Liz’s career has focused on natural resources law and policy, including several years as vice president for government affairs and general counsel at American Rivers. She also spent 10 years working for House committees on Capitol Hill and had two stints in senior positions at the US Department of the Interior. She holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Liz is a member of the DC and Colorado bars, as well as the bars of several federal courts.

Bruce Boyd joined Arabella Advisors in 2007 as a Principal and Senior Managing Director after spending 20 years building and leading for-profit and nonprofit ventures. Bruce is based in Chicago and has worked with Arabella’s individual, family, foundation, and corporate clients, helping them to effectively and efficiently deploy philanthropic and investment capital for good. Those engagements have focused on organizational development, strategic planning, due diligence, program implementation, and evaluation of impact. Bruce has worked across a range of issues, including community development, human rights, education, and the environment.

In addition to his work at Arabella, Bruce serves on the board of the Windward Fund—a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor and grant-making intermediary, the Morrison Family Foundation, and the Lilly School of Philanthropy. He is a former member of the board of Forefront, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Opportunity International, and the Merit School of Music.

Prior to joining Arabella, Bruce served for 13 years as a senior manager at The Nature Conservancy where he led the Illinois Program, the Upper Mississippi River Project, and the four-continent Great Rivers Partnership. Bruce started his career in law but left legal practice to buy a manufacturing company out of bankruptcy, which he ran and later sold to a Fortune 500 company.

Bruce graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College, earned his law degree from the University of Chicago, and studied business at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Rod Broady is the senior director of finance on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team. He is responsible for maintaining the general ledger, overseeing the financial reporting process for the nonprofit organizations that Arabella manages, supporting financial audits, preparing Form-990s, and ensuring compliance with federal grant reporting requirements. Rod provides technical accounting and operational guidance to a portfolio of public interest projects. Rod also looks for ways to make his team more efficient and streamline processes to enhance internal controls, as well as ensure the quality and accuracy of financial data.

During his tenure at Arabella, Rod has assisted in the coordination and ongoing management of the monthly financial close process and has led the planning and preparation of financial statement audits for the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the other nonprofits that Arabella manages. He also helped to clarify and improve his team’s policies and procedures in order to streamline internal controls and improve operational efficiency. Rod is particularly interested in helping Arabella become a model for other fiscal sponsors looking to establish sound financial practices.

Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Rod worked for six years for two public accounting firms. Throughout his public accounting career, Rod managed, planned, and supervised financial statement audits several industries, including the nonprofit sector and health care. He has also developed significant expertise in auditing organizations that receive federal funds. In addition, Rod served as a career coach and mentor while leading internal office trainings for colleagues on various topics such as audit planning, testing internal controls, utilizing substantive procedures, and testing journal entries.

Rod has an MS and a BS in accounting from the University of South Carolina. He is a certified public accountant in South Carolina and Virginia.

Hilary Cherner is a managing director and Arabella’s head of client services. She leads the firm’s advisory and fiscal sponsorship services, which includes the management of the New Venture Fund, the Windward Fund, the Hopewell Fund, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund. As a member of the executive team, Hilary facilitates collaboration across teams and projects and helps enhance operational models, leading to continual improvement of the firm’s client service delivery and impact for our donor partners.

Hilary joined Arabella in 2007 as its fifth employee and has worn many hats to shepherd it from startup to leader in the sector. During her tenure, she has led philanthropic strategy development, impact evaluation, and implementation of multiple grant-making funds on issues including global health and development, education, conservation, and women’s equality. Hilary has steered her teams through growth in the number and diversity of projects, as well as through the acquisition of Blueprint Research + Design, Inc. She plays a critical role in building staff members’ skills and firm efficiencies, as well as service innovations, ensuring Arabella’s work is rigorous and impactful. Hilary has a passion for effective philanthropy and, in particular, how advocacy and cross-sector partnerships can lead to greater good. She is currently focused on Arabella’s evolving approach to applying principles of equity to its internal culture and work with donors.

Hilary spent the decade prior to Arabella working in the nonprofit and public sectors. Most recently, she served as an Emerging Leader Fellow for the US Department of Health and Human Services, where she developed evaluation measures for the Community Food and Nutrition Program, managed grant reviews for the Administration of Children and Families, and conducted monitoring and evaluation for Head Start grantees. Hilary holds a BA in sociology from the University of Colorado and an MA in public affairs with a concentration in nonprofit and public management from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hilary lives in the Seattle area with her husband and rescue dog.

Rachel EB-Walton is a senior director on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team, which manages several nonprofits, including the New Venture Fund and Windward Fund, both 501(c)(3) public charities, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a separate 501(c)(4). Rachel leads the Managed Organizations team in San Francisco, helping donors and social entrepreneurs turn their philanthropic visions into reality by incubating nonprofits and implementing innovative donor collaboratives, advocacy campaigns, and grant-making initiatives. Rachel also leads the technology strategy on the Managed Organizations team. 

Prior to working at Arabella, Rachel worked in strategy and operations in the educational and social justice space. At the Education Trust-West, Rachel managed a budget and supporting grant portfolio as it increased from $2 million to more than $4 million over two years, including the design and implementation of subgrant programs. As the organization doubled in size, Rachel led system and process improvements within strategic planning, human resources, and general administration with a focus on diversity and inclusion. Rachel also worked at Teach For America for over eight years, in team leadership, knowledge management, process improvements and innovation, finance, compliance, communications, and stakeholder management.  

Rachel started her career in college admissions and financial aid. The inequities she observed, some of which reflected her lived experience, fueled her passion to devote her professional life to fighting for educational equity and social change at large. Rachel has a BA from Bennington College. 

Betsy Erickson leads Arabella’s work with family and individual clients, supporting them to further their learning, collaboration, and philanthropic goals. During her 10 years at Arabella, Betsy has helped dozens of clients design and launch strategies and run grant-making programs on issues ranging from conservation to experiential education. Betsy draws on her study and practical experience in systems and family dynamics to facilitate groups to make decisions and work together effectively. Applying her expertise in enabling learning and collaboration, Betsy has significant experience working with multi-generational families.

Prior to joining Arabella, Betsy worked for eight years in the nonprofit sector with groups focused on cancer research. She provided independent consulting services to national and regional nonprofit organizations such as CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. She helped these organizations develop corporate partnerships, garner support from family foundations and major donors, and establish and grow their workplace giving campaigns.

Betsy is active in her community, volunteering with a local service organization and advocating and fundraising for cancer research organizations. She has a BA from Colgate University, from which she graduated with honors in two programs: philosophy and religion, and art and art history. Betsy also completed a three-year post-graduate program at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family at Georgetown Family Center.

As a senior director in Arabella Advisors’ New York City office, Renée Eyma leads team members in providing strategy, initiative design and management, and convening and engagement services to a variety of philanthropic clients. In her work at Arabella, Renée draws on a combination of facilitative leadership, strategy, and thoughtful business and implementation planning to build and sustain effective social enterprises. She also engages and manages diverse stakeholders within and across organizations to plan and act for impact.

Renée brings over 15 years of experience in the social sector and has managed convenings and complex communities of practice in education, international development, and other fields. During her time at Arabella, Renée has helped incubate and launch organizations in the education sector and designed and managed initiatives impacting tens of thousands of teachers and many more students. She has also spearheaded due diligence and grant decision-making processes for various clients.

Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Renée was at the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), where she advised nonprofit executives, board members, and funders on strengthening the capitalization of organizations and the nonprofit sector more broadly. Renée facilitated strategic conversations on organizations’ future planning efforts, led research and analysis efforts, and delivered educational workshops.

In addition to consulting experience, Renée brings significant investment experience to her work. She served as vice president of Investment and Consulting Services at the New American Schools Investment Fund, a social investment fund devoted to meeting the financing and technical assistance needs of nonprofit organizations and private companies operating in K-12 public education. In that capacity, Renée worked to establish systems and infrastructure for a start-up fund and managed a portfolio of loans and equity investments. Earlier in her career, Renée was part of NFF’s financial services team, responsible for underwriting, closing, and monitoring loans to nonprofit clients. She has also worked on strategic charter school financing initiatives at the National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation.

Renée holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and an AB in history from Harvard University. She also holds a certificate in leadership and organizational development from New York University.

Sampriti Ganguli is Arabella Advisors’ chief executive officer. She oversees all aspects of the firm’s performance, including revenue, operations, strategic growth, marketing, and client services. Sampriti drives and executes Arabella’s business strategy, sets operational priorities, and manages senior staff. She is also responsible for enhancing systems and policies that enable Arabella to deliver on its mission—to help foundations, philanthropists, and investors who are serious about impact achieve the greatest good with their resources.

Sampriti joined Arabella after 14 years at Corporate Executive Board (CEB). As executive director of CEB’s legal, risk, and compliance practice, she focused on operations, strategy, marketing, and new business development, and managed the firm’s subscription-based research programs for internal auditors, general counsel, chief risk officers, and chief compliance officers. She also spent three years as managing director of CEB’s government practice and, before that, eight years as managing director of the company’s finance practice. She has authored more than 25 major papers on topics ranging from risk and talent management to collaboration, benchmarking, and technology adoption.

Earlier in her career, Sampriti worked at JPMorgan Chase’s Emerging Markets Research division in Singapore and as a consultant for the World Bank’s East Asia Environment and Social Development Unit. She also sits on the board of InsideNGO, an association dedicated to strengthening operations and leadership capabilities of international non-governmental organizations.

Sampriti is the recipient of the Corporate Trailblazer Award from the National Black MBA Association in recognition of her focus on increasing diversity in the workplace, and she received a 2016 Brava Award from SmartCEO magazine for her focus on women and leadership in the charitable sector.

Sampriti received a BA with distinction in economics and political science from Swarthmore College. She was awarded a full-tuition Freeman Fellowship to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she earned an MA with distinction in international affairs. She then received her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

A mother of two, Sampriti speaks five languages and enjoys Latin dancing, Zumba, historical fiction, and Asian cooking.

Jessica Gingerich is a senior director on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team, which oversees several nonprofits, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3). Jessica helps donors and social entrepreneurs implement innovative donor collaboratives, campaigns, and grant-making initiatives to realize their philanthropic goals. Jessica oversees a diverse portfolio of domestic and international grant-making projects focused on education, global health, and development.

Jessica brings 14 years of nonprofit and foundation experience dedicated to building successful organizations and programs that advance social change. Prior to joining Arabella, Jessica served as a senior development officer with the International Crisis Group, where she managed a global portfolio of private-sector supporters and led innovative fundraising, outreach, and cultivation events to elevate Crisis Group’s conflict prevention mission. From 2006 to 2011, she was a program officer for South and Southeast Asia at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Jessica traveled widely in Asia to monitor, evaluate, and develop NED’s grant programs in the region, which focused on providing targeted support for grassroots organizations seeking to advance human rights and strengthen democratic institutions.

Earlier in her career, Jessica worked at The Century Foundation (TCF), a public policy think tank, where she worked both in New York City and Washington, DC. At TCF, she provided research and analysis on US foreign policy and conflict prevention as well as administrative support for all aspects of the foundation’s operations. From 2002 to 2003, she helped develop Columbia University’s Center for International Conflict Resolution’s Afghanistan program, including leading a fact-finding mission to Kabul during the Emergency Loya Jirga in June 2002.

Jessica graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College with a BA in history.

Saurabh Gupta is Arabella’s deputy general counsel. He works across the spectrum of Arabella’s client service practice areas, as well as with the organizations Arabella manages, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor that hosts nonprofit projects. Saurabh provides substantive advice on HR policies, employment law, organizational risk assessment and mitigation, contracts administration, insurance policies, and compliance with political and lobbying laws at the state and federal levels.

In his time at Arabella, Saurabh has taken the lead on an effort to review and update the managed organizations’ anti-harassment policies to ensure they provide the necessary protection for employees, including ease of access to reporting procedures. Saurabh also piloted an effort to provide a 360-degree analysis of Arabella and the managed organizations’ insurance policies and risk mitigation needs. He is currently implementing a process to streamline Arabella’s contract management systems.

Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Saurabh spent 13 years developing an expertise in public education and public-sector labor organizations. He has worked on behalf of public educators in several roles: as the deputy general counsel for the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), as staff counsel for the Maryland State Education Association, and as assistant attorney general for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Saurabh has extensive experience providing legal counsel on corporate governance issues to boards of directors and drafting legal opinions on issues such as political and lobbying compliance, conflict of interest policy, HR employee handbooks, and state ethics rules. He also has represented the interests of his clients before arbitrators, local and state administrative agencies, and in state court. Saurabh’s work with DCPS involved advising the senior leadership team on compliance with laws and policies governing special education and labor and employment.

In his free time, Saurabh enjoys spending time with his family, going on hikes, listening to music, discovering new cuisines to attempt to cook, and—unfortunately—rooting for all Cleveland professional sports teams.

Lydia Guterman is an associate managing director on Arabella’s Advisory team. She works on a range of strategy, evaluation, and donor collaboration projects for institutional, family, and corporate clients. Prior to joining Arabella, Lydia worked at The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Open Society Foundations, where she developed and implemented global and domestic grant-making and advocacy strategies to increase access to quality health care for underserved populations. In these roles, she managed capacity-building initiatives for emerging nonprofit organizations and oversaw funding for innovative training programs for health professionals. At the Open Society Foundations, Lydia led the Campaign to Stop Torture in Health Care, a multi-year global effort to end severe rights abuses against marginalized populations in health settings. Her other professional experience includes conducting research and strategy reviews for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Treatment Action Group and overseeing evaluation for a women-focused business development organization.

Lydia holds a BA in journalism and social and economic justice from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an MPH from the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Diana Tyler Heath leads Arabella’s work with families and individuals, helping them achieve impact in ways they find most meaningful. An expert in governance and strategic planning, Diana has helped clients, including a $1 billion foundation, structure their governance and staffing, build grant processes, and establish foundations from the ground up. She has also helped family foundations successfully integrate next generations onto boards, navigate leadership transitions, prepare for an influx of assets and growth in grant making, and refine strategy as their work evolves. Additionally, she has helped clients implement their grant-making strategies across a broad range of issues, including STEM, local community engagement, water access and conservation, youth development, and specific religious identities and tradition. As the head of this team, Diana oversees client service, develops and implements the team’s strategy, and manages day-to-day operations.

Previously, Diana worked as both a government consultant and a nonprofit fundraiser. As a strategy and organization consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton, she provided project management and process efficiency expertise for Department of Homeland Security clients. She spent six years with the US Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation, the national governing body for Olympic skiing and snowboarding. She served primarily as a major gifts manager and was instrumental in the development and growth of the major gifts program. While with the Ski Team, she gained additional experience in direct marketing, event planning, and scholarship grant administration.

Diana holds a BA in economics from Cornell University and an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Chris Hobbs has been with Arabella since 2010. As chief operating officer, Chris oversees the culture and talent, real estate, and technology functions. Working closely with the organization’s leadership team, Chris also sets and implements Arabella’s strategy. He is focused on creating an operating environment that allows Arabella to effectively help its clients achieve the ambitious social impact they seek. Chris is a natural problem-solver and efficiency-seeker with years of experience leading diverse teams. His expertise spans organizational capacity and infrastructure, talent development and retention, strategy implementation, and risk management.

Prior to becoming COO, Chris led Arabella’s management of several nonprofit organizations: the New Venture Fund, the Windward Fund, and the Hopewell Fund—all 501(c)(3) public charities—and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4). Under Chris’s leadership, Arabella moved the philanthropic field forward in establishing the practice of fiscal sponsorship and the use of intermediaries as an industry standard for innovation, advocacy, and donor collaboration.

Earlier in his career, Chris worked for the global health organization PSI, where he developed and implemented HIV and family planning programs in southern Africa. Before joining PSI, Chris managed grants and programs for the National Park Foundation. He holds a BS in business administration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Burkina Faso. Chris and his husband live in Los Angeles with their daughter.

Adam Hoffman is the director of finance on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team. He is responsible for maintaining the general ledger, managing the financial reporting process, and supporting the financial audits for the nonprofit organizations that Arabella manages. Adam is also responsible for providing support services through technical accounting and operational guidance.

Adam became interested in nonprofit accounting after an internship at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, where he realized he could apply his accounting expertise toward assisting organizations in their effort to create positive social impact. Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Adam specialized in nonprofit auditing as a senior associate at the public accounting firm CohnReznick LLP. During his time as an auditor, Adam was exposed to a variety of nonprofit organizations and developed deep knowledge of internal controls, financial reporting, Form-990 preparation, and best practices.

Adam is a certified public accountant, and he has a BS in accounting from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s in accounting from George Washington University.

Falona Joy is a senior advisor at Arabella, where she works with foundations, corporations, and families to design, launch, advance, and assess ambitious philanthropic initiatives.

Falona channels her passion for social justice into supporting philanthropy that drives a wide range of innovative partnerships and projects. Recent examples include developing a strategy for a unique public-private partnership, the Millennium Park Foundation, and providing strategic facilitation and evaluation support to new pilot initiatives with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Prior to joining Arabella, Falona founded SNP Strategies, a consulting practice designed to build the vitality of nonprofit institutions, support philanthropy to measure impact, and increase the ability of nonprofit leaders to achieve their missions and visions. In this role, she has guided organizations of all sizes through the challenges of raising capital, ensuring organizational relevance, developing strategies to sustain impact, and realizing the potential of new initiatives. Falona is also an impact investor and advisor to startup social enterprises.

Falona began her career with the National Park Foundation, where she was the founding executive director of the African American Experience Fund. She continues to have a passion for parks, public lands, and conservation initiatives. She serves as the founding garden leader for the 42nd Street Garden in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood.

Falona also serves as a life trustee of the Chicago History Museum, was an officer and board member of the Illinois Humanities Council from 2006 to 2015, and was named a Chicago Cultural Champion by the Chicago Cultural Alliance.

Falona is a certified fundraising executive (CFRE). She received her BA with honors from Stanford University.

Robin Keithley is the director of sales enablement, providing the firm’s client development team with the right support, insights, information, and tools to win new and continued business. With a background in nonprofit management and fundraising, Robin works with clients to develop, structure, and maximize the impact of public interest programs. She also partners with Arabella’s leadership to further engage clients across our suite of services.

Prior to joining Arabella, Robin was the director of development and communications for Worldfund, a nonprofit focused on improving the quality of education and boosting learning outcomes for students in Latin America. She directed all revenue-generating strategies and cultivated relationships with donors to ensure long-term, sustainable support for the organization’s teacher- and principal-training programs. Before that, she was the senior center manager at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. While there, she developed and implemented the Echidna Global Scholars Program, a research initiative focused on girls’ education.

Robin holds a BA in international communication from Texas Christian University and an MA in international communication from American University. She also has an executive certificate in nonprofit management from Georgetown University.

Eric is a serial entrepreneur who has started, led, and advised organizations pursuing social change across the country and around the globe. As founder of Arabella Advisors, Eric has been at the forefront of innovation and impact in the philanthropic sector during one of its greatest historical expansions.

While guiding Arabella from a small startup to a company with more than 160 employees that advises on several billion dollars of philanthropic resources annually, Eric has focused on helping clients achieve their philanthropic goals by devising grant-making strategies, mounting effective advocacy campaigns, evaluating impact, and managing their foundation’s operations. In addition to serving a broad range of family, institutional, and corporate clients, Eric leads the firm’s work with clients who are working to improve our food system through policies and business investments that promote nutritious, sustainable, and affordable food.

Eric’s interest in the food sector extends well beyond his work at Arabella. He chairs the committee at the James Beard Foundation that oversees efforts to engage the culinary community in advocacy on food policy, and he created the foundation’s Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change. Eric also co-founded the Chef Action Network and has a personal private equity portfolio invested in businesses at the forefront of improving our food system.

In addition, Eric co-founded the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, and earlier in his career, he served as the national field director for the League of Conservation Voters. Then, as a White House appointee, he helped manage conservation issues during the Clinton administration. Before that, Eric spent six years with the National Democratic Institute, which sent him to the former Soviet Union, Southeast Asia, and throughout the Middle East to train civic and political leaders on strategies to encourage democratic change.

Eric is on the boards of the James Beard Foundation and the National Democratic Institute. He is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and Summit Series.

Eric holds an Executive MBA from Georgetown University and a BA from the University of Colorado.

Cyrus Kharas is a director on Arabella’s Advisory team. He works across a broad range of Arabella’s individual, institutional, and corporate clients, and contributes to the firm’s analysis of trends and opportunities in the impact investing field. He has substantial experience in economics, international development, capital markets, and social impact, and brings this expertise to support projects across Arabella. In his time at Arabella, Cyrus has managed several projects ranging in focus from capital markets dynamics for minority and female entrepreneurs to climate change initiatives. Cyrus is driven to find creative ways to unlock philanthropic and private capital to solve global challenges.

Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Cyrus spent several years at Goldman Sachs in the investment management division, where he focused on cross-asset class allocation and portfolio strategy. His team focused on institutions and the current and retired partners of Goldman Sachs. Previously, he was an analyst at Calvert Impact Capital, where he designed and managed portfolios of impact investments for institutional clients with specific impact goals. He participated in the underwriting and presenting of investments to the clients, as well as ongoing financial and impact monitoring of the portfolio. Cyrus began his career at the US Treasury Department in the Office of International Affairs.

Cyrus serves on the junior board of the New York City-based Advocates for Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to representing disadvantaged kids in the NYC school system. He has a BA from Tufts University in psychology and economics and an MBA with a concentration in economics from NYU Stern School of Business. Cyrus is an avid soccer player and fan. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife and daughter.

Alexandra LaForge is a director on Arabella’s Advisory team. Working out of the firm’s San Francisco office, Alexandra works with foundations, families, and individuals who are interested in creatively deploying capital to achieve social and environmental impact as well as financial return. Alexandra works with Arabella clients on both impact investment portfolio strategy as well as the investment process and individual investments, bringing a decade of knowledge in early-stage impact investing to the Arabella team.

Previously, Alexandra served as interim executive director of Investors’ Circle – Social Venture Network (IC-SVN), a community of more than 550 impact investors and business leaders creating social, economic, and environmental change. Before orchestrating the IC-SVN merger, Alexandra spent 10 years at Investors’ Circle designing and managing programs focused on energizing, educating, and engaging impact investors and entrepreneurs. While at IC, Alexandra oversaw the sourcing, screening, and review of over 5,000 investment opportunities and more than $30 million invested. Her work has been both local and global: she oversaw the growth of local impact investing ecosystems across six US markets while also leading entrepreneur development and investor capacity building in the global health sector. Closer to home, Alexandra serves as a portfolio strategy facilitator for Pipeline Angels and volunteers for the Young Women Social Entrepreneurs’ San Francisco Chapter.

Alexandra graduated from the University of Notre Dame, where she studied English and international peace studies, and where her interest in social change sparked her fascination with social enterprise.

Jessica Robinson Love is an associate managing director in Arabella’s San Francisco office, where she partners with foundations, corporations, families, and individuals to advance social change. Jessica helps donors, investors, and social entrepreneurs turn their philanthropic visions into reality by designing and implementing innovative donor collaboratives, campaigns, and grant-making initiatives. At Arabella, she has overseen the launch of a $50 million grant-making initiative to transform international seafood markets; helped to rapidly scale a campaign to eliminate barriers to women obtaining contraception; and developed a strategy for a national parent education initiative to advance student success.

Jessica brings nearly two decades of experience with the practice of fiscal sponsorship, as well as deep expertise in organizational development and capacity building. Previously, as a strategic philanthropy advisor and social impact consultant, Jessica helped individual philanthropists design and launch new foundations, supported established foundations in implementing capacity-building programs for grantees, and advised social-sector leaders on organizational strategy.

As a social entrepreneur, Jessica was the founding executive and artistic director of CounterPulse. Over 14 years, she led the organization through a merger, relocation, and 10-fold expansion, establishing it as a national model in the field of arts for social justice. She designed and led a statewide initiative to build equity in the performing arts, and helped launch a major public-private partnership to preserve cultural spaces. Earlier in her career, Jessica was an adjunct faculty member at the New College of California, where she designed and taught undergraduate courses on arts, nonprofit management, and social justice. She served on the board of the grant-making organization Alternate ROOTS, and on numerous selection panels for private and public grant makers, both in California and nationally.

Jessica was selected by National Arts Strategies as one of the nation’s top 50 arts CEOs, tasked with re-imagining how cultural institutions contribute to society. She was the inaugural recipient of the Bay Area Dancers’ Choice Award for her leadership of the dance community, and she has received additional awards from Dance/USA and the Bill T. Shannon Leadership Institute. Jessica holds a BA in the humanities from the New College of California and a certificate in nonprofit leadership from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Molly Lyons leads Arabella’s Creative and Editorial Services team, overseeing the firm’s editorial style, publishing practices, and design. She also works closely with Arabella client service teams to help create compelling and clear content, advising and supporting them throughout the deliverable creation process. In addition, she helps clients tell their stories by producing their legacy statements, donor intent letters, annual reports, presentations, and other materials.

Molly has edited for and has overseen special projects at Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, Time Inc., Meredith, Hachette Filipacchi, and Gannett properties. Her writing has appeared in multiple national publications, including USA Today. She was a founding editor of Lifetime Magazine, a joint venture of Hearst and Lifetime Television. She’s also ghostwritten books and book proposals. As a literary agent, she’s worked with authors to conceptualize and sell fiction and non-fiction projects. Her client list includes two New York Times bestselling authors. She’s been a publishing consultant for SheWrites.com and has spoken frequently at writers’ conferences and seminars.

Molly has served on the board of the Women’s Media Group and is a graduate of Amherst College.

Christy Mahan joined Arabella in May 2015 as the corporate controller. She is responsible for overseeing all financial, accounting, and reporting activities for the firm. Christy directs the budgeting process, prepares financial forecasts, manages audits, and monitors tax compliance. In addition, she supervises the accounting and reporting services provided to Arabella’s foundation clients.

Prior to joining Arabella, Christy was a vice president and accounting manager with GMMB, a subsidiary of public relations firm FleishmanHillard and part of Omnicom Group. In that role, she oversaw the daily operations of the accounting department, directed activities related to corporate compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and managed the election-cycle media reconciliation process.

A certified public accountant, Christy holds a BS in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a master of accountancy from George Washington University.

Outside the office, Christy is an avid runner, fair-weather cyclist, and proud aunt to six future philanthropists.

Lida Masoudpour is a senior director on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team, which oversees several nonprofits, including the New Venture Fund and Hopewell Fund, both 501(c)(3) public charities, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a separate 501(c)(4). Lida leads the Managed Organizations team in New York City, helping donors and social entrepreneurs turn their philanthropic visions into reality by incubating nonprofits and implementing innovative donor collaboratives, advocacy campaigns, and grant-making initiatives.

Lida specializes in launching and scaling nonprofit advocacy organizations and has overseen all aspects of organizational growth, from developing strategic plans and performance metrics to building the systems, processes, and structures necessary for efficient and effective operations. Prior to joining Arabella, Lida helped found a high-impact New Venture Fund project that provides research, communications, and strategy support to issue campaigns focusing on the environment, reproductive rights and access, and economic security. She also has held key positions at nonprofit organizations, including Media Matters for America, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and the Democracy Alliance, during periods of early growth and expansion. In addition to her nonprofit experience, Lida has worked on several political campaigns and causes, including Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign for president and a national campaign to combat online child sex trafficking.

Lida holds a BA in government from Georgetown University and is currently pursuing an MBA at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Kate McAdams is a managing director in Arabella’s Chicago office, where she works with a wide range of families and individuals, foundations, and corporations to conceive, design, and deliver the solutions they need to achieve their philanthropic and impact investing goals. Kate works extensively in the Chicago area and across the Midwest, using her deep networks, philanthropic expertise, and leadership skills to help clients drive impact regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Kate’s career demonstrates a commitment to public service and to solving difficult problems through partnership and collaborative change-making. Prior to joining Arabella, Kate was appointed by President Obama to serve as senior advisor to US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. Her portfolio consisted of developing and implementing the secretary’s strategic priorities, including growing entrepreneurship, strengthening community and economic development, and leading policy initiatives to support 21st-century skills development, a pillar of the department’s “Open for Business” agenda. In this role, Kate created and led the department-wide Skills for Business effort, which broadened the role of employers in federal workforce policy, supported the growth of talent pipelines in important sectors, improved alignment between workforce and economic development, and expanded apprenticeship models.

Before joining the Department of Commerce, Kate served as executive director of The Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation, where she guided investments in programs to improve schools, health and fitness, arts and culture, and skills training in Chicago and nationally. She also held policy advisor roles in the Mayor’s Office in New Haven, Connecticut and the Office of Mayor Richard M. Daley in Chicago. While serving the City of Chicago, Kate implemented public-private partnerships, created new initiatives to expand access to technology, and streamlined government processes through performance management.

Kate earned a BA from Yale University and an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Kate lives in her hometown of Chicago with her husband and two sons.

Loren McArthur is a senior director on Arabella’s Advisory team. He works on a range of strategy, evaluation, and donor collaboration projects with institutional, corporate, and family clients, with a focus on helping donors develop and execute high-impact advocacy strategies.

Loren has more than 15 years of experience in advocacy campaigns, electoral organizing, strategic communications, and policy development. Prior to joining Arabella, Loren was the deputy director of civic engagement at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the country, where he directed state and national policy campaigns and oversaw the organization’s national Latino voter mobilization program. Previously, Loren served as director of the Merrimack Valley Project, a faith- and labor-based organization in Massachusetts, where he advanced pioneering campaigns for affordable housing, workers’ rights, and immigrant justice.

Loren graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received a master’s in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where he was a recipient of the Roy and Lila Ash Fellowship in Democracy.

Lamia Mezouar is an assistant controller on Arabella Advisors’ finance team. She is responsible for overseeing accounting operations and detailed reporting for Arabella and the nonprofits it helps manage.

Lamia has more than seven years of accounting and finance experience. Prior to joining Arabella, she worked at a public accounting firm in northern Virginia, where she provided assurance and tax services to individuals and for-profit companies in various industries, including professional services, retail, information technology, consulting, real estate, and construction. Lamia assisted her clients with tax and financial planning and federal and state tax compliance and filings. She also helped develop and maintain accounting practices and procedures to ensure accurate and timely financial reporting, and she helped train and mentor entry-level staff accountants.

Lamia has a BS in accounting from George Mason University. She is a certified public accountant and a chartered global management accountant.

As a founding Arabella employee, Graham Murphy leads programs that guide the firm’s design, implementation, and adoption of strategic transformational changes. As the head of organizational development and change management, Graham works closely with executives and senior management to ensure the organization is prepared to achieve its strategic goals. Graham also oversees leadership development, succession planning, and firmwide learning and development programs.

Prior to his current role, Graham led Arabella’s Culture and Talent team and HR function for more than a decade. As head of the Culture and Talent team, he focused on developing HR strategies that ensured strategic alignment, continuous organizational learning, and increased impact for clients as the firm grew. Graham started out managing Arabella’s business operations, finances, and human resources in 2007. During his tenure, he has advanced the firm’s operational capacity, overseen the organization’s finances, managed its real estate portfolio, developed its contracting processes, established new human resources capabilities, provided outsourced HR services to clients, and overseen staff integration during the firm’s first acquisition. Graham previously oversaw Arabella’s managed nonprofit organizations—including setting up an affiliated 501(c)(4)—and served its family foundation clients. He also oversaw Arabella’s diversity and inclusion work.

Prior to coming to Arabella, Graham supported the executive director’s office and board of directors of a national child care association and managed operations for Teach For America’s Washington, DC office. He also served as an officer for SMYAL, DC’s largest organization serving LGBTQ youth. He has been recognized by George Washington University and DC’s Youth Pride Alliance for his work on behalf of LGBTQ youth.

Graham holds an MS in learning and organizational change from Northwestern University. His master’s capstone study examined the effectiveness of MBA programs in preparing the next generation of nonprofit leaders. Graham also holds a BA in human services from George Washington University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He holds a Professional in Human Resources (PHR) certification from the HR Certification Institute.

Radhika Nayar is a director in Arabella’s New York office, where she works closely with individuals and families to help them achieve their philanthropic goals. Radhika thrives on meeting clients wherever they are in their philanthropic journeys and translating their visions into concrete action plans that improve people’s lives.

Prior to Arabella, Radhika worked at Dasra, India’s leading strategic philanthropy foundation. She partnered with donors within India and the United States to take meaningful action on India’s most complex and urgent development challenges. In Mumbai, she guided local donors to improve the lives of adolescent girls and break the inter-generational cycle of poverty by making multi-year, collaborative grants to scale India’s highest-impact nonprofits working in partnership with the government. In 2014, Radhika launched Dasra’s US presence, encouraging greater and more thoughtful global attention and funding to accelerate progress in India.

Before pursuing a career in philanthropy, Radhika worked at AllianceBernstein, interned at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and served as a fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women.  Radhika has a BA from Wellesley College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Scott Nielsen joined Arabella Advisors in 2015 as the firm’s first managing director of advocacy, bringing decades of experience designing, executing, and evaluating strategies for achieving policy reform and social change. He leads Arabella’s advocacy team in helping foundation, family, and individual clients use their resources to effectively pursue the social and political goals that matter to them. His areas of expertise include civic engagement, issue advocacy, public policy, and infrastructure development and field building.

Prior to joining Arabella, Scott founded Alexander Nielsen Consulting (ANC), a firm that partnered with foundations and individual donors to conduct research and evaluation, design and implement grant-making programs, and develop communications strategies and infrastructure. As principal of ANC, Scott worked with a range of leading donor institutions, including the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Democracy Alliance, the State Infrastructure Fund, and the Open Society Foundations.

Before founding his own firm, Scott spent 13 years as a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, including seven years in the MacArthur Fellows Program. He designed, managed, and assessed major foundation initiatives in issues such as campaign finance reform and citizen participation, Native American education and culture, international human rights, economic globalization, and racial and ethnic pluralism in the United States.

Scott has written widely on philanthropy and the independent sector, and he serves as an advisor and board member to several national nonprofits, including State Voices, Boston Review, Faith in Public Life, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He is a regular panel contributor and speaker to groups working with or within the nonprofit and civic engagement sectors.

Scott holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a BA from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

Wil Priester joined Arabella in August 2013 as chief financial officer. Wil is a certified public accountant (CPA) and has more than 25 years of dynamic financial management experience at both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Wil leads Arabella’s finance, accounting, and human resources teams and helps guide the firm’s strategy. He focuses on aligning our financial systems and operational policies to more effectively and efficiently serve our clients.

Prior to joining Arabella, Wil spent five years as the senior vice president and chief financial officer of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), a $90 million nonprofit biological resource center and research organization. At ATCC, Wil led and oversaw a number of critical advances, including implementing a new reporting structure, increasing the company’s commercial capabilities through key hires, and driving operational efficiency via automation and process refinement. Wil also restructured the finance and accounting team and helped to launch an entity focused on new product development.

Wil has honed his finance expertise during his more than two decades in the financial industry. He served as the chief financial officer and managing director of Blue Water Capital, LLC, a venture capital firm whose investments targeted the information technology sector. While at Blue Water Capital, Wil advised and worked with growth-stage enterprises on business strategy and operational matters. He has also held management positions at MedImmune and Coopers & Lybrand.

Wil has served on the board of directors for several private companies and is a co-founder and former board member of Lorien Wood, a K-8 school. Wil has a BS in commerce with distinction from the University of Virginia and an MBA with a concentration in finance from Georgetown University

Steve oversees Arabella’s marketing, communications, and content development efforts, working with teams across the firm to to plan, create, produce, monitor, and evaluate a wide range of materials in multiple channels–from research reports and thought leadership to marketing campaigns, press releases, web properties, and proposals. He and his team specialize in helping philanthropists and impact investors amplify their impact through effective communications.

Prior to joining Arabella, Steve worked for more than a decade as an online entrepreneur, editor, publisher, and marketing communications professional. He co-founded Every Learner, Inc. and built its flagship publication, Knowledge News. Before that, he led a group of writers, editors, and internet producers at LifeMinders, Inc., delivering customized email newsletters to more than a million users per day. He also ran the team that published the official electronic newsletter of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.

Earlier in his career, Steve worked in academia, both as a researcher at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and as an adjunct faculty member in the writing program at George Washington University, where he also did his graduate work.

As general counsel, Andrew Schulz manages Arabella’s legal affairs, provides legal advice to the firm’s leadership and staff, and ensures that the foundations and independent nonprofits Arabella helps to manage, such as the New Venture Fund, are in compliance with the law. He has expertise in a broad cross-section of tax, legislative, and regulatory issues, including tax-exempt organizations, charitable giving, fiscal sponsorship, lobbying, political activity, and international grant making.

Prior to joining Arabella, Andrew was executive vice president at Foundation Source, where he provided executive leadership and implemented the chief executive officer’s vision of building a community of grant makers, philanthropists, advisors, and others who serve private foundations. He was Foundation Source’s voice within policy, legislative, and regulatory circles and cultivated relationships with attorneys to expand Foundation Source’s presence within the legal community.

Previously, Andrew was vice president of legal and government relations for the Council on Foundations, where he headed its public policy department, providing oversight of the council’s legislative initiatives. He also served as in-house counsel, educating council members on legal issues that affected their operations, administering the council’s governance functions, serving as the lead staff member on matters of ethics and best practices, and ensuring organizational compliance with state, local, and federal laws. Andrew is nationally recognized as an authority on private foundations and has been a frequent speaker at conferences related to philanthropy, including for the University of Texas School of Law, the NYU Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, Philanthropy Roundtable, the Council of Michigan Foundations, the Southeastern Council on Foundations, Philanthropy Southwest, and many others.

He is a graduate of the College of Wooster and has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. He is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars.

Kaitlin Sharpe joined Arabella Advisors in February 2019 as the director of treasury on the Managed Organizations team. Kaitlin is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She is responsible for directing the cash, investment, and liquidity management, along with insurance needs, at the independent nonprofit fiscal sponsors that Arabella manages, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. 

Prior to joining Arabella, Kaitlin created, developed, and ran the treasury function at International Justice Mission (IJM), a global anti-slavery organization with 17 offices around the world. At IJM, Kaitlin oversaw the banking relationships, cash and investment management, and foreign exchange risk. She also oversaw financial policies and compliance at IJM, ensuring the organization remained compliant while experiencing significant growth.  

Before working at IJM, Kaitlin worked in public accounting at Deloitte. While there, Kaitlin first became interested in treasury while auditing a Fortune 50 company, focusing specifically on its Treasury Department’s controls, processes, and transactions. She also gained experience auditing banking, retail, and technology companies during her time at Deloitte. 

Kaitlin has a BA in business economics with a minor in accounting from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).   

Julie Slay leads Arabella’s evaluation practice, employing a range of methodologies and tools to help clients understand the effectiveness of their grants and other investments—and ultimately determine how they can best use their resources to achieve the outcomes they seek. She directs teams using both qualitative and quantitative evaluation approaches to conduct developmental, formative, and retrospective evaluations, as well as to develop evaluation frameworks, tools, and instruments that enable ongoing learning, effective monitoring, and practical program management. Julie has over 20 years of experience conducting multi-year, multi-site research and evaluation projects in government, for-profit, and nonprofit settings.

Prior to joining Arabella, Julie directed the Evaluation and Quality Improvement Department for Children’s Health Council, a nonprofit children’s behavioral health agency. Her work included leading outcome evaluation and improvement projects, designing and implementing evaluation instruments, and cultivating relationships promoting cross-functional collaboration.

Prior to joining Children’s Health Council, she conducted research and program evaluation in both the public and private sectors as a senior research associate at Lodestar Management Research, Inc., now Harder + Company.

Julie graduated with honors from the University of California, Irvine with a BA in psychology, and holds an MA and PhD in clinical psychology from University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Gideon Steinberg joined Arabella in 2014 as the director of human resources for the Managed Organizations team. In this role, he oversees all human resources responsibilities for several nonprofits that Arabella manages, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a separate 501(c)(4). Gideon provides general oversight and direction for the Managed Organizations team’s human resources initiatives, as well as strategic guidance to clients. This includes talent management, executive coaching, organizational development, compliance and risk mitigation, and general human resources administration.

Gideon has worked in human resources at social-sector organizations for more than 10 years. Prior to joining Arabella, Gideon was the director of operations for Community Wealth Partners, where he directed human resources, finance and accounting, information systems, internal capacity building efforts, and resource deployment. He has worked in the areas of human rights, social justice, the environment, social science, and public policy research. Gideon previously worked at the Pew Research Center, a public policy and social science think tank, International Justice Mission, a worldwide social justice nonprofit, and the Center for Public Environmental Oversight.

Gideon is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management and is a certified senior professional in human resources. Gideon holds a BA in political theory from the University of Dallas.

Sarah Sullivan is an associate managing director and the head of Arabella’s Managed Organizations team, which oversees several nonprofits, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a separate 501(c)(4). Sarah helps donors and social entrepreneurs turn their philanthropic visions into reality by incubating nonprofits and implementing innovative donor collaboratives, advocacy campaigns, and grant-making initiatives.

Prior to joining Arabella, Sarah led the strategy practice at Orr Associates Inc. (OAI), a consulting firm serving the nonprofit sector. As vice president of strategy, Sarah developed sustainable organizational and revenue strategies for a broad spectrum of nonprofits. Earlier in her career, Sarah was senior research officer at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), where she oversaw the research portfolio and developed the strategic plan. Additionally, she worked in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group at the World Bank, coordinating a 15-country study on economic mobility.

Sarah is vice chair of the board of directors for Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa, which provides scholarships and life-skills training to girls in Malawi. Sarah holds a BA and an MA in sociology from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Liz Sweet is a senior director in the San Francisco office, where she works closely with Arabella’s individual and family clients to achieve their social impact goals. Liz draws from her extensive experience in the philanthropic sector to help clients understand the root causes of complex social challenges, identify long-term solutions, and effectively measure their impact.

Previously, Liz guided members of The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW), a global network of over 400 philanthropists, in designing strategies that best leveraged their passions, talents, and assets. Over her four years as a senior officer with TPW, Liz helped lead the network’s flagship cohort program—a year-long course on strategic philanthropy—along with deep dives on human rights, food systems reform, criminal justice, and a range of social justice issues.

Liz believes strongly in the power of collaboration. While working with the International Rescue Committee (IRC), she coordinated a collective impact effort to improve education in emergency contexts. In this role, Liz consulted with local stakeholders across five continents to improve educational outcomes while engaging in joint advocacy at the United Nations to increase funding for the field. Liz brings this experience working on both grassroots and policy change to help clients invest in solutions that lead to lasting impact.

Deeply committed to advancing the rights and lives of women and girls, Liz serves on the advisory board of the Alliance for Girls, the largest regional network of girl-serving organizations in the United States. She has consulted on grant making with the Global Fund for Women and worked with a small nonprofit to end violence against women in Bogotá, Colombia.

Liz holds a BA in economics from the University of California at San Diego and a master’s in international development with a concentration in social and economic development from The New School. Liz is a certified yoga instructor and lover of all racquet sports—from racquetball and badminton to paddle tennis, ping pong, and pickleball. She lives with her two daughters and husband in the Bay Area.

As a managing director, Melanie Torres oversees Arabella’s Advisory team, which works with institutional, family, and corporate clients to develop, implement, and assess effective grant-making programs, as well as to launch and manage efforts that go beyond grant making to further their philanthropic goals. Arabella’s Advisory practice works with many of the nation’s leading foundations, helping them achieve impact in education, health, international development, conservation, and more.

At Arabella, Melanie has spearheaded a number of high-impact strategy and evaluation projects on behalf of both domestic and international philanthropic initiatives. She has led an evaluation of a women’s donor network that funds global health interventions, assessed a donor-driven advocacy initiative to increase foreign aid, and conducted a community health needs assessment for a major nonprofit hospital system. Melanie also partnered with a place-based funder to develop a plan to evaluate organizational capacity-building efforts across a diverse portfolio of grantees, and she worked with one of the nation’s largest education funders to design and implement a grantee learning network. Currently, Melanie is working with a corporate foundation to establish an evaluation framework that will help the company monitor, interpret, and communicate the impact of its social-sector initiatives.

Prior to joining Arabella, Melanie worked at Grameen America and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, managing corporate and foundation partnership initiatives to improve financial literacy and economic development opportunities among low-income communities. Her other professional experience includes working with Newman’s Own Foundation to identify investment opportunities in the social enterprise sector, and with the Maverick Capital Foundation, a corporate funder focused on poverty-alleviation programs in New York.

Melanie holds a BS in communication studies and international studies from Northwestern University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. While at Yale, she served as the co-chair for its annual conference on philanthropy, and was a member of the Global Social Enterprise program.

Gwen Walden is a senior managing director in Arabella’s San Francisco office, where she leads the firm’s West Coast practice. In this capacity, she engages with a range of clients on strategy, evaluation, and impact investing work, implementing programs and projects and managing donor collaboratives. She has expertise in the arts, health, early childhood, and education, and works to meet the needs of a range of philanthropic organizations, from small family foundations to large institutional donors.

Gwen has more than 25 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector. Her career encompasses major programmatic, management, and executive leadership roles and is marked both by her encyclopedic knowledge of the history and practice of philanthropy and her hands-on experience managing major foundation initiatives and functions. Gwen joined Arabella after managing her own firm, Walden Philanthropy Advisors Inc., for four years. Prior to that, she held executive leadership assignments at the J. Paul Getty Trust and the California Endowment.

Gwen has received national recognition for her numerous articles on current issues in philanthropy. She has written for all of the major trade publications, including Foundation News & Commentary, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, as well as in special editions of the annual State of Philanthropy and New Directions for Philanthropic Fundraising.

Gwen has been an active member of the field of philanthropy for many years, serving on numerous professional boards and committees. Currently, she is one of only three outside directors of the Surdna Foundation, a five-generation family foundation founded by John E. Andrus with $1 billion in assets. Gwen also sits on the board of the East Bay Community Foundation representing Contra Costa County, and she volunteers her time as a board member of the Breast Cancer Fund, focused on eliminating environmental toxins and radiation that cause cancer.

Gwen earned a bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University.

Shelley Whelpton is a senior managing director in Arabella’s Washington, DC office. Shelley partners with foundations, social entrepreneurs, corporations, families, and high-net-worth individuals to catalyze change on a range of social and environmental issues. Shelley believes that social-sector actors can effect sustained change by going beyond grant making to strategically use the range of innovative tools and approaches available to them. She has helped philanthropists develop advocacy and impact investing strategies, launch and incubate new social change initiatives, convene marginalized and influential voices, and collaborate with partners across sectors. Projects she oversees include involving formerly incarcerated people in criminal justice reform efforts, advocating for state policy changes to promote children’s nutrition, and ensuring that women’s voices are equitably represented in public dialogue.

Prior to joining Arabella, Shelley was the vice president of business development and strategy at the Sheridan Group, a Washington, DC-based policy firm dedicated to public interest causes. In this role, Shelley developed the firm’s social entrepreneurship consulting practice, working with grant makers and other clients to identify creative strategies and build cross-sector collaborations for broad-scale social change. She led the team that successfully advocated for a slate of policy initiatives in the 2008 presidential election to catalyze greater cross-section collaboration and accountability in public problem solving. Shelley’s development work with the Sheridan Group spanned a wide range of issues, including new social financing mechanisms, open access, education, youth development, child welfare, and health.

Shelley is a seasoned nonprofit executive with national recognition in the field of international youth exchange. For 10 years, she managed AYUSA International, a nonprofit high school exchange program serving 2,000 high school students from 80 countries around the world. Shelley led the organization during a period of significant growth and program diversification, including a post-9/11 exchange initiative with the Middle East sponsored by the US Department of State.

Shelley is a founding board member of Running Start, a nonprofit dedicated to providing political leadership training for girls and young women. She serves on the advisory boards of the Women’s Equality Center and the Amazon Headwaters Conservation Initiative.

Shelley graduated with honors from Williams College with a BA in political science, earning the Richard Krouse Political Science Award, and completed an MA in education from Boston University. She lives in Washington, DC with her partner and two children.

Daniel Widome leads Arabella’s innovative grant-making practice, which synthesizes over a decade’s work in the philanthropic and social sectors. Daniel serves as a strategic advisor to high-profile corporate, foundation, and family clients, leading the design and implementation of new grant programs across the education, health, affordable housing, global advocacy, mental health, nutrition, and other sectors.  

Since joining Arabella in 2011, Daniel has led evaluations of a national foundation’s efforts to reduce teen pregnancy and of a major funder’s efforts to spur new media innovation; facilitated strategic planning processes and landscape analyses for health- and education-focused clients; helped a family foundation launch a new initiative to develop games and apps to enhance adolescent mental health; led the development and management of an innovation challenge to identify early-stage affordable housing solutions on behalf of a major corporate client; and managed a major funder’s effort to expand teacher leadership initiatives and support education reforms. Daniel has led Arabella’s Beyond Grant Making campaign, which articulates nontraditional methods that funders can use to amplify their impact. 

Prior to joining Arabella, Daniel worked as an evaluation consultant to foundations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Daniel has over 10 years of experience as a writer, editor, and policy analyst. He has written on foreign policy, security affairs, and citizen engagement, and his work has appeared in the New Republic, Foreign Policy, Mother Jones, and various newspapers. Daniel served as editor in chief of the Brown Journal of World Affairs.  

Daniel holds an AB from Brown University and an MPP from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Jenny Wittner is a associate managing director on Arabella’s Managed Organizations team, which manages several nonprofits, including the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a separate 501(c)(4). Jenny leads the Managed Organizations team in Chicago, helping to incubate nonprofits and implement donor collaboratives, advocacy campaigns, and grant-making initiatives.

Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Jenny was the associate director at Women Employed, where she developed and oversaw the organization’s advocacy, policy, and program work to promote the economic advancement of women. She had a particular interest in ensuring that policies and programs in community colleges effectively helped low-income women and non-traditional students to advance to better employment.

Jenny was one of the founders of Chicago Commons Employment Training Center, which provided comprehensive support services and education and training to women on welfare. She started her career in English as a second language (ESL) classrooms, teaching adults to speak English, training teachers, developing programs, and creating curricula.

Jenny holds a BA in social studies from Harvard College and an MA in linguistics and ESL teaching from Northeastern Illinois University.