The NonProfit Times

NPT Power & Influence Top 50 (2019)

Paul Clolery Monday | August 12th, 2019

Evolving Missions Pushed By Need
Fueled Honorees’ Innovations

For the PDF Version of The NPT Power & Influence Top 50, click here.

It just always works out this way. It’s never intended but a theme always emerges as the nominations for the annual NPT Power & Influence Top 50 come in and are discussed. Two trends quickly emerged for 2019. There is plenty of innovation popping in the Pacific Northwest and need is evolving missions into initially unimagined domains throughout the nation.

The most intriguing element is a push for 360-degree services. The realization that the three basic needs of shelter, food and healthcare should be a bundle is materializing in the work of foundations and rank-and-file charities. Affordable housing is being obtained or built in communities, even in areas of perceived wealth.

Nonprofit executives are also proving that Washington is the innovation capital of the country. Actually, it’s the other Washington, as in Washington State. Oregon also checked in with honorees. The Pacific Northwest makes up 10 percent of the honorees for 2019. The 50 leaders highlighted in this 22nd annual NPT Power & Influence Top 50 have distinguished themselves as initiators and leaders. An important criteria of the list is that the honoree must be a working day-in, day-out executive.

The 2019 honorees were selected from a group of roughly 300 top executives. A committee of NPT staff, contributors and a few executives plugged in to executive movement were involved in the selection process. This is not a lifetime achievement award. The executive must have had an impact during the previous 12 months.

There is quite a bit of turnover in this year’s roll call. There are 15 new honorees on the 2019 honor roll and one executive is returning to the list after a short hiatus. The fine china will be rolled out for honorees and their guests as they are feted in Washington (the other one) next month during the annual NPT Power & Influence Top 50 Gala at The National Press Club. One of the honorees will receive the NPT Innovator of the Year award. Turn the pages and discover why these executives are molding the way nonprofits change the world.

-Paul Clolery (Editor-in-Chief of The NonProfit Times)

Douglas B. Ammar

Executive Director

Georgia Justice Project

(Atlanta, Ga.)

Nobody has to tell Ammar about the impact of the 1994 federal
crime bill. He continues to be a leading voice in preventing recidivism through understanding that service needs to be transformational not transactional. His success record of focusing on re-entry
and the impact of a criminal record should be a national model.

Abdullah Antepli

Chief Representative of Muslim Affairs

Duke University

(Durham, N.C.)

Antepli is one of the most prominent Muslim leaders in
higher education. He co-founded the Muslim Leadership Initiative
(MLI) at the Shalom Hartman Institute. It is a historic effort to
bring Jews and Muslims together to learn about each other.
It is critical for these nonprofit communities to engage and
MLI is getting that done.

Ana Marie Argilagos

President

Hispanics In Philanthropy

(Oakland, Calif.)

Argilagos is the complete package. An expert on global networks,
she has been an educator, federal government official,
foundation innovator and now philanthropic leader in a
population segment that is growing rapidly. She is an expert on
sustainability, as well as issues along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fred Blackwell

Chief Executive Officer

San Francisco Foundation

(San Francisco, Calif.)

The San Francisco Foundation was a mess before Blackwell. Not only has he repaired it but he is now focused on fixing the rest of the city, starting with the essentials such as affordable housing. He’s not going it alone. Blackwell is finding willing (and sometimes dragging) partners into the city’s people-focused renewal.

Jeffrey L. Bradach

Managing Partner & Co-Founder

Bridgespan Group

(Boston, Mass.)

Bradach generally wants answers to two questions: What would
it take to solve a problem, and do results improve social impact?
A co-leader of the Bain/Harvard mash-up, Bradach has been
pushing peer teaching, data and testing for transformative scale.
He’s chair of the Independent Sector board and his advice
is sought internationally.

Donna Murray-Brown

President & CEO

Michigan Nonprofit Association

(Lansing, Mich.)

Leadership is difficult but executives simply gravitate to MurrayBrown. She not only leads Michigan’s nonprofits but also the
Census 2020 Michigan Nonprofits Count Campaign so every
person in the state is counted. She is equally effective behind the
scenes or sticking her chin out. She’s becoming a fixture on the
national and state scene.

Nancy Brown

President & CEO

American Heart Association

(Dallas, Texas)

Brown must be sleep-deprived. Along with numerous initiatives
that impact the immediate and long-term health of everyone, she
is helping shape healthcare policy that will change how nonprofits
operate. Organizations demanding her attention include: the
Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, Research!America, and
the Health Governors Community of the World Economic Forum.

Phil Buchanan

President

Center for Effective Philanthropy

(Cambridge, Mass.)

You’d never think that one of philanthropy’s most provocative critics
would be accused of defending it. Buchanan does just that in his
book, “Giving Done Right: Effective Philanthropy and Making Every
Dollar Count.” His words: “Institutions that are funded outside
government are an important check and counter to the power of
both government and business.” Buchanan’s opinions matter.

James Canales

President & Trustee

The Barr Foundation

(Boston, Mass.)

Canales’s philosophy might be considered all things great and small.
He works to ensure small organizations aren’t ignored while leading
the idea that sharing power at the governance level is imperative
to advancing mission and ensuring that everyone can reach their
full potential. Canales transformed a local family foundation into a
national role model for internal and external growth.

Daniel Cardinali

President & CEO

Independent Sector

(Washington, D.C.)

Cardinali has written he believes in “big bets.” Those big bets involve
wealth, but also NPO operations. He’s taken a big bet remolding
Independent Sector into more of a community organizer but on a
large scale. The annual conference is no longer a stuffed shirt affair.
There’s a real exchange of ideas and not from the stage but in every
spot where a few people can chat; what he’d call force multipliers.

James Clark

President & CEO

Boys & Girls Clubs of America

(Atlanta, Ga.)

Clark refocused BGCA’s 4,300 clubs to three priority areas: academic
success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles.The
group has had seven consecutive years of revenue growth, added
17 service locations, more than doubled personnel and seen
growth in daily attendance by youth. His formula has landed him
on two influential boards, Leadership 18 and Independent Sector.

Asha Curran

Co-Founder & CEO

Giving Tuesday

(New York, N.Y.)

Curran was co-founder and the operational backbone of #Giving–
Tuesday on its launch as a nice day of giving under the umbrella of
the 92Y. She has spun it out as its own entity. She heads an ecosystem
of individuals, nonprofits, communities, countries and the #GivingTuesday team. It has become an engagement movement.

Tim Delaney

President & CEO

National Council of Nonprofits

(Washington, D.C.)

There simply is nobody better at translating what federal boondoggles
mean to nonprofits at the state and local level. Delaney can be
blunt and to the point while explaining nuance. Nothing gets by
him and his team. He makes sure state associations have the
information needed. Ignore his advice at your peril.

Susan Dreyfus

President & CEO

Alliance for Strong Families and Communities

(Milwaukee, Wisc.)

Pragmatic and bold is how Dreyfus describes her organization. The
same can be said for her, which generally can’t be said of someone
who made their bones in state government. She was one of the first
to ensure long-term outcomes were examined through the lens of
equity of access and opportunity. An important member of Leadership 18, she helps steer the national social service infrastructure.

James Firman

President & CEO National

National Council on Aging

(Arlington, Va.)

If you have not heard his talk on the illusion of scarcity and the
economics of abundance, stop reading this and go here. Now that you’re back, he’s making a difference in
reversing the concept that interventions for older Americans were
designed for impact, not scale. He is the leader when it comes to
reframing age in an era of a just society.

Brian Gallagher

President & CEO

United Way Worldwide

(Alexandria, Va)

Gallagher continues to find ways to generate income for the
national organization while putting resources in the field. United
Way launched its own workplace giving suite at a time when such
giving is regaining its popularity as an employee engagement and
retention tool. He understands structural employment has
changed and is adapting the UW network to it.

Stephanie Klasky-Gamer

President & CEO

LA Family Housing

(Los Angeles, Calif.)

The new LA Family Housing campus is a sparkling achievement.
Klasky-Gamer leads an organization where it is stability first on the
journey to permanent housing. What’s remarkable is the
community acceptance of the work. She is a respected affordable
housing expert who makes homes, even if it’s just for a little
while. This is a national model.

Helene D. Gayle

CEO

Chicago Community Trust

(Chicago, Ill.)

Gayle has been quoted as saying “A big part of leadership is just
being comfortable with the fact that some decisions really are
only yours.” Substitute fearless for comfortable. She is putting her
theories on the power of collective action to work in Chicago. Her
career has been attacking seemingly intractable situations using
the guiding principle of see the whole board.

Paul Gionfriddo

President & CEO

Mental Health America

(Alexandria, Va.)

Gionfriddo is the leader in changing not just minds but regulations
on mental health issues. His “B4Stage4” might be the most
influential initiative in changing perceptions of mental illnesses
from a public safety to a public health frame. The use of social
media and games for early intervention is standard-setting.

John H. Graham IV

President & CEO

ASAE/The Center for Association Leadership

(Washington, D.C.)

The credentialing and certification of professionals by
organizations such as associations is under attack and Graham is
having nothing of it. Roughly 30 states have targeted programs that
adopt and enforce their own ethics codes and procedures. He’s a
leader of the Professional Certification Coalition to ensure
organizations can continue credentialing professionals.

Jonathan Greenblatt

National Director & CEO

Anti-Defamation League

(New York, N.Y.)

Let’s start with opening an ADL office in Germany funded by
Volkswagen. While leaders at other anti-hate groups are being
marginalized or fired, Greenblatt remains a fearless advocate for
blocking hate speech on every platform. It’s not by accident
social networks are scrubbing their sites and corporations
are holding anti-bias training.

Neal Keny-Guyer

CEO

Mercy Corps

(Portland, Ore.)

One of the founding members of the new Global Emergency
Response Coalition, Keny-Guyer’s strategies for circumventing
authoritarian regimes to get food to starving people is nothing
short of miraculous. People, literally, are alive because of his
ideas of sourcing and networks. He knows the risks too well
with one staffer recently killed doing the job.

Lisa Hamilton

President & CEO

Annie E. Casey Foundation

(Baltimore, Md.)

It is unusual for a newly appointed CEO to make this list
but Hamilton has been around the block a few times. She led
development of seminal research in the Race for Results report.
She is pushing funding that ensures a community has a framework
for entrepreneurship to eradicate generational poverty. It’s all
about data analysis, research and policy solutions.

Jacob Harold

Executive Vice President

Candid

(Washington, D.C.)

He was key to pulling off the unprecedented merger of GuideStar
with The Foundation Center. Harold is a social change strategist.
His essays have been used as course materials at Stanford, Duke,
Harvard, Wharton, and Oxford. Harold refuses to let nonprofits act in
isolation against complex problems, “spinning reinvented wheels,”
as he would say. It’s about transparency and focusing impact.

Scott Harrison

Founder & CEO

charity : water

(New York, N.Y.)

Harrison sure knows how to make waves. His idea to give staff
bonuses of donated Uber stock raised eyebrows. He’s separately
raising money so he can tell other donors that 100 percent of their
money is going to program. He is a walking marketing and program
machine to whom other nonprofit leaders should pay close attention.

Eileen R. Heisman

President & CEO

National Philanthropic Trust

(Jenkintown, Pa.)

Heisman has always been about partnerships and is using that keen
instinct to combine donor-advised funds (DAFs) with mainstream
giving. She is working with some of the nation’s top fundraising
agencies to bring the concept to kitchen table giving conversations.
She is also a sought-after international speaker on the topic of DAFs.

Susan Desmond-Hellmann

CEO

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

(Seattle, Wash.)

It could be argued Desmond-Hellmann pushes the foundation
to do more than most governments when it comes to reducing
disease, hunger and inequity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Medical
Research Institute should have big pharma looking over its
shoulder. The good doctor is also hip deep in the privacy and
data implications of Facebook and other social networks.