Stephanie Clohesy

A lifelong activist for human rights and social justice, especially for women and girls, Stephanie has been a significant force in developing and growing Women’s Funds throughout the U.S. and worldwide: she has founded, counseled, and governed over 50 women’s funds. She also supports mainstream funders in allocating more resources to social justice and benefiting women, girls, and those seeking equity. She led the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund early in her career and worked as a senior program director for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

A consultant since 1992, Stephanie has assisted social sector leaders, donors, and entrepreneurs in reaching their bold goals by accelerating their organizations toward high performance and momentous impact. As an author and co-author, she has reported on and created tools for gaining leverage from wide-ranging changes and trends in philanthropy.

In the transition from the 20th into the 21st century, her reports and articles cover, for example, the re-invention of philanthropy through the tech and financial booms; early on, she named the innovations in women’s philanthropy – participation; the acknowledgment of the importance of women’s experiences at the edges and ultimately turning traditional philanthropic norms upside down. Stephanie has invented programs and tools to enable the nonprofit sector to grow more vital institutions for long-term change.