Board
Tracy Austin is the Executive Director of the Mitsubishi Corporation Foundation for the Americas. She has been an active participant in both EGA and International Funders for Indigenous Peoples (IFIP). She currently serves as a member of the board of the African Film Festival, Inc. and the Environmental Grantmakers Association. Tracy was also a member of the Program Committee for the 2007 EGA Retreat. She has a J.D. from Columbia Law School, a Master of Professional Studies Degree in Afro-American and African Literature from Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center, and a B.A. in French Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Tracy is fluent in French and proficient in Japanese and Spanish.
Allison Barlow is currently program consultant to the HKH and Quixote Foundations and the Wallace Global Fund. Allison has advised numerous other grantmakers, including the Open Society Institute, Beldon Fund, John Merck Fund, Charity Projects Entertainment Fund, Albert A. List Foundation and numerous other philanthropies interested in catalyzing social change across issue areas. She is co-chair of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation and serves on the advisory boards of the Media Demcoracy Fund and the Youth Engagement Fund.
Paul Beaudet is the Associate Director of the Wilburforce Foundation. He always imagined that he would one day grow up to “integrate evaluation practices into the foundation's operations and works with key capacity building service providers to help grantees plan, manage and sustain their organizations and programs.” Dreams do come true! Paul has worked for nonprofit organizations since 1985 on behalf of the environment, education, the arts, and social justice. He is currently a member of the Visiting Committee of the Nonprofit Leadership Program at Seattle University, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Effective Philanthropy. He, his husband, and Kari (a lovable but neurotic Karelian Bear Dog) split their time between Seattle and Guemes Island.
Sarah Bell is Program Manager for The 11th Hour Project, a program of The Schmidt Family Foundation. As Communications Manager for the Foundation from 2007 – 2010, she led the redesign and launch of the 11th Hour website and oversaw the development of their communications strategy. In 2010 she led the research process for the Foundation’s new program in ecological agriculture and regional food systems – a program she currently directs. She is active in several organizations, including Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders and Environmental Grantmakers Association. She holds a B.A. in both English Literature and French from the University of Colorado. An enthusiastic supporter of permaculture and former student at the Regenerative Design Institute in Bolinas, Sarah lives in San Francisco where she and her husband aspire to turn their backyard into an urban homestead with the help of their two year old son, Julian.
Heidi L. Binko is the associate director of Special Climate Initiatives at Rockefeller Family Fund. Heidi was formerly the executive director of the WestWind Foundation, a family foundation based in Charlottesville, Virginia. In this role, she directs the foundation’s environmental and climate-change grantmaking and oversees its reproductive health and rights program. She also serves as a steering-committee member of the Climate and Energy Funders Group, an affinity group of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. Prior to joining WestWind, Heidi worked with ranchers and private landowners throughout the Rocky Mountain West on land-conservation deals. She also worked in the public-policy department of the Land Trust Alliance. She holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she was a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation fellow.
Bruce Boyd represents the New Venture Fund on the EGA board. NVF supports a range of public interest projects, the majority of which focus on conservation and global health. Bruce joined Arabella Advisors in early 2007 as a Principal and Managing Director. Arabella Advisors provides strategic counsel to many of the country’s leading philanthropists and since joining Arabella Advisors, Bruce has led engagements with institutional foundations, families and companies. Prior to joining Arabella Advisors, Bruce practiced law for seven years before he and a partner purchased a manufacturing company out of bankruptcy. Bruce returned the business to profitability and sold the company several years later to a Fortune 500 company. Following the sale of the company, Bruce joined The Nature Conservancy where he served for 13 years as Executive Director of the Illinois program while also leading the Conservancy’s Upper Mississippi River Program and four-continent Great Rivers Partnership. Bruce has also provided leadership as a foundation Trustee and Board member of organizations working across the nonprofit spectrum.
Anisa Kamadoli Costa currently serves as President of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation and Vice President of Global Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility at Tiffany & Co. In this dual role, reporting to the Chairman and CEO of Tiffany & Co., she oversees the company's global sustainability agenda and directs philanthropic giving for the Foundation.
Prior to joining Tiffany & Co., Anisa worked at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, an international grantmaking foundation. She has also worked at J.P. Morgan & Co. (now J.P. Morgan Chase), Monitor Group and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
Anisa serves as C0-Chair of the Board of the Environmental Grantmakers Association. In addition, she serves on the Board of Philanthropy New York (formerly the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers) and the American Swiss Foundation.
Anisa holds a bachelor's degree from Barnard College and a master's degree from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
Jon Cracknell has managed the environmental grantmaking and other philanthropy of the family of the late Sir James Goldsmith since 1998. He is currently the director of the JMG Foundation, which funds campaign work on issues including industrial agriculture, and climate change. In 2003 he helped establish the Environmental Funders Network (www.greenfunders.org), which brings together more than 100 UK trusts that fund on conservation and environmental issues. Jon is co-author of the Where The Green Grants Went report series analysing environmental grant-making patterns and the sources of income for environmental groups in the UK. A political sciences graduate of the University of Cambridge, he holds a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of Leicester. He has served on numerous EGA committees, and is currently a member of the EGA Board of Directors.
Scott M. Cullen is the Executive Director of GRACE Communications Foundation which highlights the interconnections of food, water and energy, educating consumers, advocates and policy makers through web-based initiatives like the Ecocentric blog, Eat Well Guide, The Meatrix, Sustainable Table, Meatless Monday, Healthy Monday and Kids Cook Monday. The Foundation is focusing on supporting efforts to re-build community-based food production and regional food distribution networks as well as increasing public awareness of how sustainable agriculture contributes to social, environmental, economic and personal health. Scott is a member of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and the Sustainable Agriculture and Food System Funders Network as well as the Vermont Law School Environmental Advisory Board.
Molly Flanagan is a Program Officer in The Joyce Foundation’s Environment Program and oversees the Foundation’s Great Lakes Program. The Joyce Foundation’s Environment Program is committed to protecting and restoring the health of the Great Lakes and regional waterways, as well as adopting energy efficient measures that are critical to the sustainability of the region. Prior to joining The Joyce Foundation, Molly worked as the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes Water Resources Program Manager. Molly directed NWF’s water resources campaign working to ensure strong natural resource protections for the waters of the Great Lakes region, including ratification of the Great Lakes Compact. Prior to joining NWF, Molly was the Director of Lake Erie Programs for the Ohio Environmental Council. Molly graduated from Denison University with an honors degree in Environmental Studies. She is a 2003 graduate of the League of Conservation Voter’s Environmental Leadership Institute and a 2007 graduate of Michigan State University’s Great Lakes Leadership Academy.
Carlos Garcia is a philanthropy advisor at Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He is a new member of EGA and served on the SOS Briefing Committee in 2012.
Carlos works with philanthropists through their donor advised funds to explore the alignment of their personal values and giving, develop their grantmaking, and deepen their learning and engagement with fellow donors and nonprofit organizations. He also manages the community foundation’s Donor Circle for the Environment.
Silicon Valley Community Foundation bringing together people who want to make a difference and solve problems in its region and beyond. SVCF is one of the largest community foundations in the U.S., and through the generosity of its individual and corporate donors, SVCF is the largest funder of Bay Area nonprofit organizations.
His professional background includes healthcare philanthropy, and he was also associate director of philanthropy for The Nature Conservancy. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from UCLA and lives in San Francisco.
Ken Grossinger is Co-founder and Chairman of the CrossCurrents Foundation, a non-profit family foundation that promotes social, economic and environmental justice. Immediately before starting CrossCurrents, he served as Director of Programs for the Proteus Fund.
Prior to entering the world of philanthropy in 2006, Grossinger worked for more than twenty years as a strategist in the labor movement. He served a Legislative Field Director of the AFL-CIO for a decade, and in the previous ten years held several different positions within the Service Employees International Union. He is widely regarded as an expert in pioneering national field strategies for labor and community organizations and for building long- enduring alliances between the two.
Formerly a community organizer, Grossinger co-launched the Human SERVE Fund, a national advocate organization that initiated and led the successful decade-long fight for passage of the National Voter Registration Act, commonly known as Motor Voter. Grossinger holds a Masters Degree from Columbia University and his published work analyzes advocacy and organizing strategy.
In addition to managing CrossCurrents, Grossinger works as a strategic consultant to donors, non-profit organizations and unions. He is a commissioner on the Washington, DC Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and serves on several Boards including Grantmakers in the Arts, the Alliance for Justice, State Voices and the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.
Ken has served on two EGA Retreat planning committees (2010, 2012) and the EGA Program Strategies Committee.
Pat Jenny manages the national and New York City environmental grantmaking program and the local workforce development grants program. She has developed two funding collaboratives: New York City Workforce Funders, which is a partner with the City on innovative employment projects, and the One Region Fund, a tri-state metropolitan area funders group, which focuses on sustainable communities and transportation issues in the region. Pat serves on the board of Health and Environmental Funders Network and recently stepped down from serving on the boards of Cause Effective and the Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities.
She holds a masters in regional planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is a graduate of Brown University.
Chet Tchozewski was the founder of the Global Greengrants Fund—an international environmental foundation that makes small grants to grassroots environmental groups in developing nations around the globe. Chet has helped to pioneer international re-granting as a simple and effective means for private US foundations, companies and individual donors to support the growth of community-based civil society organizations in developing economies and emerging democracies. Prior to founding the Global Greengrants Fund in 1993, Chet served as the Executive Director of Greenpeace for the Pacific Southwest regional office in San Francisco. He has also worked for the American Friends Service Committee and co-founded the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. He serves on the board of directors of the Council on Foundations, and chairs the CoF Global Philanthropy Committee.
Mark Van Putten is the founder and president of ConservationStrategy® LLC, an environmental strategy and philanthropy advisory consulting firm based in the Washington, DC, area. The firm’s retainer clients include the Wege Foundation, which Mark represents on the EGA board. Previously, Mark served for over 20 years on the staff of the National Wildlife Federation, including nearly eight years as President and CEO. He also founded NWF’s Great Lakes regional office and the University of Michigan’s Environmental Law Clinic. Mark currently serves as a Public Service/Public Interest Law Fellow at the University of Michigan Law School. Mark served as a member of the Obama-Biden transition team and co-chaired the Key States Team of the Obama-Biden campaign’s Energy & Environment Coordinating Council. During previous administrations, Mark served on the Trade & Environment Policy Advisory Committee and several U.S. EPA advisory committees. On the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Mark was named one of 30 nationwide “Clean Water Heroes.”
