Our Team
Fund for Shared Insight pools financial and other resources to provide grants, coaching, inspiration, and community-building through collaborative philanthropy. Our work reflects our commitment to the kind of listening and learning that values lived experience and advances equity.
Kristen supports the Fund for Shared Insight team as a versatile and dedicated assistant. She is skilled in scheduling, organizing, managing correspondence, and much more. Her core values align with Shared Insight’s mission, and she’s enthusiastic about being part of a team working to advance impact and equity in philanthropy by supporting organizations to listen to and partner with the people and communities they seek to serve.
Debbie works with Fund for Shared Insight to produce on-point, reliable, and effective communications. In her freelance work, she delivers a variety of content to media, business, and nonprofit clients. In positions as a reporter, senior writer, and editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Chronicle of Philanthropy, she developed special expertise in covering the nonprofit world — experience that continues to inform and inspire her work in the social/philanthropic sector.
Jonathan supports Fund for Shared Insight’s leadership team in engaging funders in adopting high-quality listening and feedback practices. For more than 20 years, he has worked at the intersection of youth development, education, and workforce development. He began his career as the founding director of an academic mentoring program, Berkeley Scholars. Later, Jonathan was part of the founding team at CODE2040, a nonprofit focused on increasing the participation of Black and Latinx people in tech. He has also worked on capacity-building, leadership development, and equity, diversity, and inclusion at Tipping Point Community. Most recently, he was the director of Collaborative Impact at the Foundation for California Community Colleges.
Gita helps build the capacity of Fund for Shared Insight’s team to integrate an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens into all of its work. She publishes and presents extensively on racial and social justice, and consults regularly to foundations, funder networks, advocacy organizations and coalitions, and leadership development programs around the country. Check out Gita’s recent TEDx Talk, “Leading for Equity,” and her blog on race and parenting.
Penny shepherds Fund for Shared Insight's ongoing learning, evaluation, and monitoring of progress against its theory of change. She brings deep experience in program evaluation, strategic planning, and nonprofit consulting. Through her social-sector work, Penny is committed to centering community voices when addressing critical issues around social justice, equity, and the yawning socio-economic divide.
Katy is a program manager at Fund for Shared Insight and co-author of the Participatory Philanthropy Toolkit. She is an independent consultant working with funders to align their values with their practices in governance, strategy and design, and evaluation and learning. Katy speaks and writes frequently about shifting power in philanthropy, has led, designed, and participated in more than 50 rounds of participatory grantmaking, and co-developed the Advancing Participation in Philanthropy Tool. She served as the director of grantmaking at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, and held roles at Global Fund for Children and CARE International.
Michelle supports Fund for Shared Insight’s broad range of operational and programmatic activities.She is an independent consultant to nonprofits and foundations specializing in financial analysis, operations, and evaluation. Previously, she worked as a community development practitioner for the Washington, DC Local Initiatives Support Corporation. At LISC, she provided strategic grants, loans, and resource-brokering to community-based organizations. She also helped publish the book, “Becoming What We Can Be, Stories of Community Development in Washington DC,” a 30-year retrospective of community development in the nation’s capital.
Rick is responsible for developing and executing communications strategies to support Fund for Shared Insight’s goals, which include expanding the number of nonprofits and funders that use listening and feedback to inform and improve their work and building a strong feedback field. After serving as vice president for programs and communications at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation from 2010 to 2017, Rick launched an independent consulting practice focused on philanthropy. Rick co-authored the Daring to Lead 2006 and 2011 national studies of nonprofit executive leadership, and has been a contributor to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He currently serves on the boards of the Community Foundation for the Central Blue Ridge, the National Center for Nonprofit Enterprise, and The Highland Center, a multi-tenant nonprofit community center serving rural Virginia.
George supports Fund for Shared Insight’s Crossing the Chasm Campaign, created to improve philanthropy and help the collaborative end well. He is managing partner of the consulting firm SkyHawk Global Associates, bringing more than 35 years of experience across diverse public and private enterprises, where he designed, managed, and led campaigns and capacity building in public policy, organizational effectiveness, media relations, technology development strategies, and more. An experienced senior executive and a natural at connecting people and organizations while building vital strategies, George is recognized as an authority on generating unique insights, consequential actions, and lasting capabilities. He is also a former feature writer for the digital magazine, horizonmag, and has authored two works of fiction that take the reader into the worlds of espionage and intrigue.
Melinda guides and facilitates Fund for Shared Insight’s operations, communications, grantmaking, evaluation, and more. As an independent consultant to senior leadership at philanthropic organizations around the country, Melinda promotes, crafts, and implements strategies for effective philanthropy. Prior to starting her consulting practice in 2003, Melinda co-founded and ran REDF, a social-venture capital fund; served as a manager at a national healthcare nonprofit; and worked as a management consultant. She enthusiastically brings her unique combination of business, leadership, evaluation, and management skills to helping mission-oriented organizations meet their goals, care for people, and better the world in which we live.
As director of Hewlett’s Effective Philanthropy Group, Jehan leads a team that makes grants to strengthen nonprofits and the philanthropic sector and provides internal guidance across the foundation’s programs on supporting grantee capacity and developing, implementing, and evaluating grant strategies. Jehan has more than 25 years of experience in strategy consulting and organizational capacity-building, including in previous posts at Blue Meridian Partners, The Bridgespan Group, Mercer Management Consulting, and Catholic Relief Services.
The Shared Insight team works closely with colleagues at Listen4Good, the national, client-focused feedback program we incubated and spun out as an independent organization. Please visit the team page at Listen4Good to meet the leaders guiding L4G’s survey-based listening programs and the coaches supporting participating nonprofits.
Fund for Shared Insight is delighted to partner with the following individuals (and their organizations) who provide invaluable research, evaluation, technology/website assistance, and strategic/management support.
Cecilia is part of the evaluation team that supports and facilitates learning in partnership with Fund for Shared Insight. She values equitable evaluation practices and ensuring the accessibility and usability of products and deliverables for learning and strategy improvement. She has experience working within complex and dynamic ecosystems including funder collaboratives and federally funded networks. Cecilia has worked on projects focused on the census, worker organizing, education reform, pluralism, and economic equality.
Juan manages ORS’ evaluation and learning partnership with Fund for Shared Insight. Throughout a decade of experience in research and evaluation in the social sector in the United States and abroad, Juan has partnered with foundations, funder collaboratives, government entities, and nonprofits to support learning and strategic decision-making that informs and advances their work. Keeping equity at the center of his work, Juan strives to ensure that research and evaluation efforts interrogate power structures, systems, and outcomes, and remain in service of creating a more just and equitable society.
As a designer, Ed has significant experience in brand identity and packaging, having worked for global brands and local startups for more than 20 years. His skill set has more recently expanded to web design, making him a versatile design partner. Ed also has a passion for photography. A favorite subject is the city of San Francisco, which has been his home his entire adult life. He lives there with his wife (also a Fund for Shared Insight partner!) and daughter.
Hailing from Hawaii, Janet brings an unmistakable island warmth to her professional relationships. She reserves her intensity for her creative process. Janet has been thoughtfully solving client design challenges for 18 years, since the founding of Dayspring Partners. As the lead designer, she was instrumental in the development of Fund for Shared Insight’s brand identity and continues to provide design leadership.
Winifred is co-leading Shared Insight’s climate-focused participatory grantmaking initiative. She brings experience implementing transformative approaches in philanthropy, including participatory philanthropy, trust-based philanthropy, long-term flexible funding, microgrants, and grantee-centered approaches to risk management. Winifred’s work has focused on complex issues from digital inclusion to climate justice in more than 80 countries.
Sarah is passionate about evaluation – a systematic method that combines inquiry and the strategic use of data to facilitate better decision-making and ultimately greater impact for social change. A respected facilitator, trainer, and coach, Sarah helps organizations transform evaluation work into broader learning initiatives that help define next strategies and spur new understanding about sustainability and capacity building. She is currently the CEO of ORS Impact.
Trevor Pollack joined Barr in 2014 and staffs a range of work, including efforts to strengthen the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors and a special initiative to create a more inclusive, interesting, and resilient Boston waterfront. He also supports the Foundation’s board and executive leadership. A proud Cleveland native, Trevor previously worked in nonprofit arts administration. Trevor currently serves on the board of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network and on advisory committees for Combined Jewish Philanthropies and Associated Grant Makers.
Edward's extensive filmography spans a diverse range of projects, including award-winning feature films, documentaries, short films, and music videos. With a deep commitment to collaborative storytelling, Edward has worked closely with philanthropic foundations and nonprofit organizations taking on roles as a video director, cinematographer, and editor. The impactful work has garnered international recognition having been showcased at events such as the United Nations World Urban Forum, presented to a United States Congressional committee, and featured in numerous film festivals.
