Kathryn leads the Americana Foundation’s work across agriculture, natural resources, and early American history. She focuses on creating impact beyond the grant, supporting early-stage efforts that help organizations grow—like an early investment in what became Double Up Food Bucks, now a national model.

Americana Foundation’s connection to Exponent Philanthropy goes back decades to its early days as the Association of Small Foundations, built to support funders with few or no staff.

Throughout the years, Kathryn has actively engaged with Exponent Philanthropy through our annual conferences, workshops, and peer learning. She relies on Exponent resources like the FOMR and values the relationships she’s built—connections that continue to offer insight and support in her role as a sole-staff leader. With more than 35 years of experience, she considers Exponent “one of the friendliest, most accessible, and most member-focused professional associations she’s been part of.”

Henry Rael, Director of Strategy and Initiatives at The McCune Foundation, values the power of learning alongside other lean and place-based funders.

As a small-staffed foundation focused on New Mexico communities, The McCune Foundation joined Exponent Philanthropy to connect with peers navigating similar operational realities. Through the community, Henry and his team gained access to broader national data that has helped inform decisions around the foundation’s operations and budgets, while conversations with place-based funders across the country sparked new ways of thinking about their work and impact.

That spirit of learning and collaboration also shapes the foundation’s approach to grantmaking. Through its multiyear grants program, outgoing grantees are invited to nominate the nonprofit that will take their place in the next three-year cohort.

Henry also shared that participating in Exponent Philanthropy’s Intro CLIP program strengthened the foundation’s confidence in its work with grantees and reinforced that they were not alone in pursuing bold, catalytic approaches to philanthropy.

Through The McIntosh Foundation, Winsome Dunn McIntosh has long supported environmental values, nonprofit advocacy, and women’s rights, with a strong commitment to unrestricted, long-term funding relationships that help organizations create lasting impact.

Recognizing that small foundations often lacked representation and opportunities to connect with peers, Winsome helped found the Small Foundation Association, now known as Exponent Philanthropy. She saw the importance of creating a community where lean funders could learn from one another, strengthen their work, and feel supported in navigating philanthropy with limited infrastructure.

What Winsome continues to value most is Exponent Philanthropy’s ongoing support for small foundations and its role in elevating the impact lean funders have in communities and across the country. She believes recognizing and supporting this work encourages donors to use their resources as effectively as possible to create meaningful change.

For Winsome, philanthropy is ultimately about making a difference in the lives of others and influencing positive change for as many communities and constituencies as possible, regardless of foundation size.

At the AJL Foundation, Alece Montez is helping reimagine what philanthropy can look like when foundations move beyond traditional grantmaking and align their values across investments, advocacy, and community partnerships. Working alongside nonprofit leaders, workers, and community members across Colorado, Alece focuses on building trust, strengthening relationships, and using every tool available to support lasting community-led change.

Her work includes shareholder advocacy and exploring how investments can better align with the needs and priorities of communities. One experience that especially shaped Alece’s work was standing alongside workers during the JBS strikes while also engaging elected officials and investors to advocate for accountability and better outcomes for communities. That experience reinforced the importance of connecting community voice, advocacy, and philanthropy in meaningful ways. In 2024, Alece was recognized as Exponent Philanthropy’s Outsized Impact Award recipient for her bold leadership and commitment to catalytic philanthropy.

Since joining Exponent Philanthropy, Alece has valued being part of a network that creates space for honesty, learning, and bold experimentation in philanthropy. For Alece, being lean is a strength—allowing smaller foundations to stay close to the community, move quickly, and take meaningful risks that can help drive systems change.

Tomas Alvarez III, trustee at the Grunin Foundation, believes philanthropy’s next chapter depends on institutions learning to lead through complexity, not around it. Today, much of his work focuses on advancing Pluralistic Leadership, a governance design framework for philanthropy rooted in a simple but urgent question: how do institutions stay intelligent in an age of rapid change?

Throughout his career and working alongside philanthropic leaders, trustees, and practitioners to reimagine leadership and governance for a rapidly changing world, this work has become deeply personal for Tomas. He believes some of philanthropy’s most meaningful impact cannot always be measured through grants alone; the deeper work often lives in relationships, trust, and the invisible conditions that allow people and organizations to thrive over time.

Tomas was also recognized as an Exponent Philanthropy 2025 Outsized Impact Award Finalist. His connection to Exponent comes through his role within the world of nonprofit work, and he has since appreciated being part of a community that continues creating spaces where funders can wrestle honestly with what philanthropy is becoming and what it may need to become next.

As Executive Director of the Sauer Family Foundation, Colleen O’Keefe is passionate about funding youth initiatives and driving meaningful change in child welfare. Her work has evolved alongside the issues themselves—from funding homeless youth shelters, to recognizing that many youths were aging out of foster care, to driving systemic reform across child protection, foster care, and adoption.

Colleen has formed workgroups, built trust across state and county agencies and nonprofits, and funded research to drive advocacy. Most recently, she has focused on prevention methods through Family Resource Centers, so families can access support before ever entering the child welfare system.

Through her involvement with Exponent Philanthropy, Colleen has found community among fellow sole staff members and facilitated conversations about aligning philanthropic work for the greatest impact. Her advice to fellow funders is simple: “Focus on the people you want to impact, learn the realities of their world, and fund where the gaps are.”

As Executive Director at the Leland Fikes Foundation, Lauren Blitzer is energized by finding grantees working on the foundation’s three priority areas – reproductive health, rights and justice, and Dallas-area human services. She is also deeply invested in advocacy, legal, and policy work to drive systemic change.

Lauren has also partnered with other funders to map the field of aligned foundations and develop a peer-learning curriculum, growing the broader network committed to this kind of work. She views these efforts as a way for a small foundation to punch above its weight – building infrastructure across the whole field, not just within one grantee organization.

Lauren joined Exponent Philanthropy six years ago, drawn in by the chance to join a genuine community of lean funders who understand the unique challenges of operating without a big staff, and resources for strengthening operational practices and procedures. She also appreciates the in-person convenings – through one, she met a fellow lean funder who’s become both a trusted advisor and friend.

Nancy and John Colina, Co-Founders of the Colina Foundation, have built their careers around early childhood and are dedicated to improving the lives of children. Rooted in children’s issues, Nancy and John have embraced a broader lens, incorporating the younger generations’ passions, especially those who strive to support healthy environments for children.

Early in their work, John built a network of nonprofits on early childhood issues—a network that eventually expanded to engage state government. Over the years, the Colinas have watched that work gain wider recognition, both for its value to individual children and families and for its broader importance to society.

As the Colinas get excited about passing the torch on to the next generations to see how they influence the world of philanthropy, their advice would be to learn from others’ mistakes—there are valuable lessons to be learned from how others have done things—but always work at the grassroots level and build a strong support system.

Drawn by the community built specifically for small foundations like them, the Colinas have been proud members of Exponent since its founding meeting in Chicago. What’s kept them engaged since is Exponent’s helpful staff and a strong peer network they continue to lean on and learn from, a community that, much like their own foundation, is built to help others go further together.

As Executive Director at the Reidsville Area Foundation, Dawn Charaba is energized by building stronger, more connected communities. Her work takes place through the Harwood Initiative’s community conversations and the Digital Inclusion Coalition’s push to expand access to technology, connectivity, and digital skills. Alongside these efforts, she has an ongoing interest in impact investing and affordable housing for long-lasting economic change.

Beyond funding, Dawn uses her role as a convener to create momentum and alignment around community priorities. By bringing together stakeholders who have rarely partnered before and helping them align to leverage larger state, federal, and corporate dollars, she emphasizes that it is one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.

As a member since 2019, what drew Dawn to Exponent was the strong focus on collaboration and community-driven impact. A resource that she has heavily relied on is Exponent’s racial equity tools to help embed equity into strategy and decision-making, which supported the refinement of her own foundation framework.

Dawn also serves on the Membership Committee and in doing so has built lasting connections that continue to sharpen her knowledge and leadership. Dawn’s advice to fellow funders is that the work is rooted in relationships. When connection and shared purpose fall short of what is envisioned, it’s not a failure – it’s a challenge and continued call to action to keep striving.

In loving memory of an extraordinary philanthropic leader, Exponent Philanthropy is proud to honor Gerald “Jerry” McCarthy as one of our 30 Changemakers.

As the founding Executive Director of the Virginia Environmental Endowment, Jerry dedicated 36 years to advancing environmental conservation, supporting policy change and grassroots partnerships that helped shape the modern environmental movement in Virginia and beyond. He believed foundations held a rare capacity: the ability to take the long view, convene the right people, and catalyze change that neither government nor the private sector could achieve alone.

“Jerry was among those members who contributed his experience to his peers generously, designing conference sessions, speaking at sessions, and showing up regularly at our conferences and programs over many years,” shares Andy Carroll, Senior Advisor at Exponent Philanthropy.

Jerry was also a founder of Exponent Philanthropy, the Environmental Grantmakers Association, and the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network. His commitment to philanthropy and his belief in its power to create meaningful change inspired countless peers throughout his career.

At the heart of his approach to philanthropy was a simple belief: ask what needs to be done, then do something about it. That spirit of action remains part of the legacy he leaves behind and is captured in his reflections, “What Will You Do Today?

Thank you, Jerry, for the decades of leadership, generosity, and passion you gave to this field. Your legacy will continue to resonate through the organizations, communities, and people you influenced.

In loving memory and with deep gratitude.

As a Facilitator and Consultant at See What I Mean LLC, Kerry McHugh is motivated by serving as a thought partner with foundations, helping them look beyond dollars to real partnership with grantees and communities. Kerry also serves as a Knowledge Curator for the Equitable Evaluation Initiative, supporting a community of over 60 foundations exploring what it means to center equity, dignity, and justice in evaluative thinking.

Beyond funding, Kerry believes deeply in relationships and centering humanity. Simple, values-driven questions asked in grant conversations have shaped how grantees see their own work, serving as a reminder that funders’ impact can often outlast the grant itself. Kerry is also a natural network weaver, connecting grantees across silos and pushing for grantmaking practices that reduce burden and build trust.

Kerry’s foundation joined Exponent Philanthropy in 2014 through the Next Gen Fellows Program, drawn in by how openly people in philanthropy share knowledge. Since then, Kerry has returned as faculty, facilitator, board member, and Membership Committee chair. She emphasizes that the people are the best part of the community and a constant reminder that there are so many ways to do this work well.

Kerry’s advice to fellow funders: the questions we ask signal what we value. Two guiding questions keep the work grounded: Who is it for, and what is it for?

Tango Moore, Grants Manager at the Reidsville Area Foundation (RAF), spends her time building trust-based relationships with grantees, community partners, and other stakeholders. She does this through consistent and authentic interactions that go beyond payment disbursements and reporting. Whether she is showing up as a thought partner, convener, or volunteer, Tango believes RAF’s investment runs deeper than dollars—it is also about trust and the work.

Her impact goes beyond the grant, too. Tango has helped facilitate connections between agencies, cross-sector partnerships, and external funders, leading group efforts focused on racial equity, healthy eating, behavioral health, digital inclusion, and food accessibility. She has connected local organizations with regional and state agencies, convened relational meetings with funders, and advocated for nonprofit platforms in statewide grantmaking spaces.

When Tango joined the RAF team in 2017, RAF was already an Exponent Philanthropy member, and a year later she was featured in Exponent’s first plenary session devoted to equity. Since then, she has watched Exponent grow its commitment to equity and inclusion through seminars, accessibility accommodations, affinity circles, and conference scholarships—values she says closely align with her own.

Tango’s advice to fellow funders: come to the Exponent Philanthropy Annual Conference, connect with colleagues, and keep learning through programming year-round.

As Founder & Executive Director of Howell Conservation Fund (HCF), Brett Howell leads a team that identifies and supports early-stage conservation projects with the potential for big environmental results, using catalytic funding, strategic partnerships, and hands-on support to help good ideas gain traction. As HCF celebrates its seventh anniversary, Brett says he is most excited about meeting people who care deeply about a place or an idea and helping good work grow.

Beyond funding, Brett has learned that HCF’s greatest impact often happens outside the grant itself by connecting grantees with funders, advisors, and other partners. One of HCF’s earliest partnerships, with the Loon Preservation Committee, started as support for a lead tackle buyback project and has grown into a long-term collaboration that has helped remove over 100,000 pieces of lead fishing tackle, protecting loons and other wildlife in New Hampshire. This supports Brett’s belief that catalytic philanthropy is about relationships just as much as it is about resources.

Brett first learned about Exponent Philanthropy in 2018 through a New York Times article quoting then-CEO Henry Berman. What drew him in was the idea that philanthropy doesn’t have to be large to be catalytic. Since then, Exponent has shaped how he approaches trust-based relationships and lean philanthropy.

His advice to fellow funders: don’t underestimate the value of showing up beyond the check. Listening and staying engaged after funding is distributed often turns momentum into lasting impact.