A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Jason McGill

Social Justice Program Vice President, Arcus Foundation

Funders Together Board Member

Jason_McGill.jpgJason brings to the Foundation a deep engagement with progressive social movements, and extensive knowledge of the ways institutional philanthropy can best partner with, support, and advance these movements. Prior to joining Arcus, Jason worked for nine years at Philanthropy New York, the primary membership association for New York’s philanthropic sector. As Vice President of Member Services there, he conceived and implemented numerous platforms for philanthropic collaboration, learning, and collective action among the organization’s 285 member foundations. He also contributed key leadership in advancing Philanthropy New York’s role as a fulcrum for critical exchange between philanthropic and policymaking leaders.

Earlier in his career, he served as the first Director of Alumni and Philanthropic Programs at Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO), where he built a robust international network of young professionals of color committed to giving back to their communities of origin. He completed his Ph.D. in African American and Early U.S. History at the University of Michigan, and his A.B. (Sociology) and B.S. (Urban Studies) degrees at Cornell University. He has taught at Swarthmore College, the University of Michigan, and Rutgers University.

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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