2007 NFG Board of Directors

Board members are elected by vote of the membership at NFG annual meetings, and can serve two consecutive three-year terms.

Martha Toll, Co-Chair
John Weiler, Co-Chair
Shari Berenbach, Treasurer

Dave Beckwith is the Executive Director of The Needmor Fund, a national foundation based in Toledo, Ohio. He was formerly a Field Consultant for the Washington, DC based Center for Community Change. He has worked as a community organizer, trainer and consultant to community groups since 1971. He was the founding Director of the New England Training Center for Community Organizers in Providence, RI; Field Coordinator for the Governance Task Force of President Carter's National Commission on Neighborhoods in 1978; a Training Specialist with the national Legal Services Corporation in Washington, DC; and moved to Toledo in 1981 as the Director of the East Toledo Community Organization. From January of 1988 until September of 1994, he worked part time as a Research Associate at the University of Toledo's Urban Affairs Center.

Shari Berenbach, Executive Director of the Calvert Social Investment Foundation, has over 20 years experience with microcredit and innovative approaches to finance. Prior to joining the Calvert Foundation in l997, Shari had worked with the International Finance Corporation - the private sector side of the World Bank and held private sector positions at Citibank and Salomon Brothers. Shari’s work with microcredit began in l981 when she served as Director of Programs for Partnership for Productivity, a U.S. based NGO which was one of the pioneers in the microcredit field.

Shari Berenbach has published numerous articles, including a l997 study on banking regulations for micro-finance institutions worldwide and a 1991 paper on solidarity group lending methods. Ms. Berenbach serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (the US microenterprise trade association) and the Social Investment Forum (the trade association for socially responsible investment professionals.)

Shari has also done extensive consulting with AID and the World Bank, having worked in over a dozen countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to establish and advise local microcredit operations. Ms. Berenbach serves on the Board of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Social Investment Forum. Shari has an MBA in Finance from Colombia Business School and an MA in Latin American Studies from UCLA.  

Christine Doby

Chris Doby is a Program Officer with theCharles Stewart Mott Foundation in their program entitled, “Pathways Out of Poverty,” with a specialty in community organizing. Chris joined the Foundation after serving as a Community Builder Fellow with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Her experience includes having worked as a community organizer and subsequent years as local director of the Campaign for Human Development, a major funder of community organizing efforts.

Prior to that, she served as social action director for several Catholic dioceses. In these positions, she developed various partnerships between the church and other sectors of the community, developed educational materials for parishes, provided policy analysis to the bishops, served as policy advocate for the church’s positions on a wide range of social justice issues, and provided consultation services to community groups.

Chris is a graduate of the University of Detroit-Mercy (B.A., Political Science and Business Admin), Loyola College of Maryland (M.A., Adult Education), and Loyola University of New Orleans (M.A., Theology).

Cheryl Fitzgerald

Cheryl Fitzgerald is currently Managing Director of the Fannie Mae Foundation’s National Initiatives team. In this capacity, she is responsible for management of the Foundation’s Alliance Partnership, which is comprised of 16 national organizations that are working together to achieve systemic change that contributes to increases in the production and preservation of affordable housing across the country. Her responsibilities also include management of the Foundation’s relationships with national intermediaries, other national organizations, and the Foundation’s three Regional offices and regional relationships.

Prior to assuming her current role, Ms. Fitzgerald was responsible for management of the Foundation’s Capital for Communities initiative, which focused on identifying barriers to the free flow of capital in underserved communities across the country, and development of products and services to effectively minimize or eliminate these barriers. Ms. Fitzgerald also oversaw the Foundation’s Community and Neighborhood Development Fund, a $35 million housing and community development loan fund dedicated to promoting the construction and preservation of affordable homeownership and housing opportunities. She was responsible for the overall risk exposure of the portfolio and was actively involved in the development of innovative new products to meet the needs of community development organizations.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms Fitzgerald worked for more than ten years as a corporate and real estate banker, most recently as vice president, Real Estate Structured Debt, for Bank of America, where she provided structured finance products for large publicly held real estate corporations and real estate investment trusts. She additionally held national offices in the Urban Financial Services Coalition (f/k/a National Association of Urban Bankers), a trade association of minority financial services professionals. Ms. Fitzgerald ultimately served as president of the organization’s nonprofit foundation, which provides scholarships to financially disadvantaged and educationally excelling youth. She currently serves on the CARS Advisory Board and the PRI Makers Network Steering Committee.

Ms. Fitzgerald received her BBA in Finance from Texas A&M University and her MBA from the University of Texas.

Karen FitzGerald

Karen FitzGerald is a Program Officer at the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation in Washington DC. Since 1944, Meyer has been investing in community-based nonprofit organizations in the DC metropolitan area. She is responsible for the Meyer Foundation's grants for housing and community development, homelessness, and civic engagement. She also co-chairs the Washington Grantmakers’ Sustainable Communities Working Group, one of whose goal is to increase philanthropic investment in the eastern part of the Washington DC metropolitan area. She earned a BA from Tufts University and an MBA from Yale University. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and two sons.

James W. Head

James Head is Director of Programs at The San Francisco Foundation and has over 25 years of experience in the field of community and economic development. Mr. Head served as President of the National Economic Development and Law Center for 17 years before coming to the Foundation. A lawyer by training, Mr. Head has significant nonprofit management, programmatic, and legal experience and has worked on nonprofit legal issues, nonprofit finance issues, as a consultant to foundations, business, government, and as a professor of law.

As Director of Programs, Mr. Head is responsible for guiding a broad range of program areas and sustaining the vitality of the Foundation’s community grantmaking. His past affiliations and community service include Legal Counsel of the California Community Economic Development Association, the Community Advisory Board of Union Bank of California, as a member and past Board President of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the Advisory Board of the Open Society Foundation of New York. He also previously served as an advisor to the 2001 Race Commission in Cincinnati, Ohio, as a member of the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Board, and was a founding board member of the California Community Economic Development Lending Initiative.

Mr. Head holds a bachelors degree from the University of Georgia and a law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. He holds state bar memberships in Georgia, Florida, and California.

The San Francisco Foundation is a regional Community Foundation serving five counties in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is a leading agent of Bay Area philanthropy and ranks seventh nationally in grantmaking and assets among community foundation. Areas of focus include Arts and Culture, Education, Environment, Community Health, Community Development, and Social Justice.

Jonathan “MAC” Macaranas

Jonathan “Mac” Macaranas is Assistant Vice President and holds the position of Corporate Giving Fund Manager for Washington Mutual’s (WaMu) Corporate and Employee Giving department. In this capacity, he helps administer the company's $50 million charitable donation and corporate giving budget, with current emphases on affordable housing, economic development, public education K-12, and financial education. He shares the grantmaking responsibility in Oregon and Washington State. While with WaMu’s Southwest and Central Regions, he assisted with the grantmaking efforts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada and Texas.

Prior to joining Washington Mutual, Macaranas was a Senior Assistant for The California Wellness Foundation’s Community Health and Women’s Health priority areas, a program associate with The California Endowment, a supply supervisor for the 3rd Naval Construction Brigade, and a logistics analyst for a regional engineering firm.

Macaranas holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.

He devoted 13 years of military service the United States Navy and is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He also coordinated and participated in multinational humanitarian efforts domestically and worldwide.

Throughout his career, Macaranas has volunteered his time and talent to the nonprofit sector. He is currently on the Advisory Council for Seattle University’s College of Education; formerly a board officer of the Center for the Pacific-Asian Family—a domestic violence prevention nonprofit in Los Angeles, CA; and finance officer (unpaid) for the Jemmott-Rollins Group—a consulting and management firm to nonprofits.

Macaranas served as co-chair for the Southern California Chapter of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy and a corporate committee member for Southern California Grantmakers. He is also active with The Council on Foundations, Funders for Gay and Lesbian Issues, Grantmakers for Education, the Grants Managers Network and the Neighborhood Funders Group.

Macaranas was awarded twice the naval achievement medal for superior accomplishments above and beyond assigned duties during his years in the United States Navy. He has guest-lectured on foundations and philanthropy at California State University Los Angeles, Pepperdine University and the University of California at Los Angeles, and can often be found in the community participating in various roundtable discussions.

Macaranas resides in Seattle. He is a published poet, a sports enthusiast, a classically trained musician, and an avid outdoorsman.

George McCarthy

Dr. George McCarthy is a Senior Program Officer in Development Finance and Economic Security at the Ford Foundation. Dr. McCarthy administers a program that focuses on using homeownership to build assets for low-income families and their communities. This work centers on improving housing and housing finance markets to increase the chances that existing low-income homeowners succeed in building wealth. Before joining Ford, Dr. McCarthy worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. McCarthy has worked as Assistant Professor of Economics at Bard College, Resident Scholar at the Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Visiting Scholar and Member of the High Table at King's College of Cambridge University, Visiting Scholar at the University of Naples, and Research Associate at the Centre for Social Research in St. Petersburg, Russia. Dr. McCarthy received a BA in Economics and Mathematics at the University of Montana; an MA in Economics at Duke University; and, a Ph. D. in Economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mary Mountcastle

Mary Mountcastle is President and Trustee of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and serves on the board of the Mary Reynolds Babcock and the Triangle Community Foundations. From 1996 to mid 2004, she served on the board of the Council on Foundations, the last two years as board chair. She is President of the Center for Responsible Lending, a national policy research center dedicated to protecting home ownership and family wealth by working to eliminate abusive financial practices. The Center is an affiliate of Self-Help, a nationally-recognized community development lender,that has made $3.5 billion in loans to over 40,000 families across the U.S.

She previously was Vice President of Economic Development for MDC Inc, a nonprofit policy research center, and Director of the Social Investment Program for MetLife Insurance Co. She has also worked at various levels of government. In 1992, she received the Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking from the Council on Foundations.

She holds a MBA Degree from the Yale School of Management and a BA degree from Williams College.

Kevin Ryan is a Program Officer at the New York Foundation. He manages a portfolio of active grants for start up organizations that focus on community organizing and advocacy. Kevin also oversees the Foundation’s Technical Assistance Program that includes workshops, small grants and individual technical assistance requests. Prior to his work at the New York Foundation, Kevin was the Executive Director of Community Training and Resource Center, a housing preservation organization. He provided leadership to a staff of seasoned organizers working to improve housing conditions for low-income New York City renters. Kevin is a graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and received a Masters of Urban Planning degree from the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Marion comes to The California Endowment with an extensive legal and philanthropic background. As senior program officer, she is responsible for developing and managing The Endowment's program in reducing health disparities. She also oversees grantmaking in the San Francisco- Bay Area.

In addition, Marion serves as lead officer on two of The Endowment's major funding initiatives. The Partnership for the Public's Health is a five-year program designed to build strong, effective partnerships between local public health departments and the communities they serve. To date, the Partnership has awarded funding in 14 health jurisdictions, with a total of 40 grants. She also designed and directed The Endowment's partnership project with The Rockefeller Foundation, California Works for Better Health. The project is a four-year jointly designed, funded and managed initiative to build the capacity of community-based organizations to improve neighborhood health status through regional employment strategies. The project recently awarded 16 grants in four regions in California.

Prior to joining The Endowment, Marion was founder and director of California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), a statewide nutrition and health research and advocacy organization focusing on access to nutritious food for low-income families. Before launching CFPA, she served as director of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, a statewide advocacy organization focusing on health, education and labor issues facing farmworkers and the rural poor. She began her career as a staff attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, a federally funded legal services program.

She serves on the board of directors of the Food Research and Action Center, the San Francisco Community Boards Program, and was recently appointed to the San Francisco Workforce Investment Board. She received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law, and both her M.A. and undergraduate degrees from New York University.

Martha Toll is the Executive Director of the Butler Family Fund. Before joining the Butler Family Fund, Ms. Toll was a consultant to foundations and nonprofits on program/policy development and project management. Ms. Toll is the author of Operating Basics for Small Foundations, published by the Council on Foundations. Ms. Toll currently serves on the Board and Member Development Committee of the Neighborhood Funders Group and the Program Committee of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers. She has also served on the Program Committee for the 1999 joint conference of the Neighborhood Funders Group and Grantmakers for Children, Youth & Families; the national Planning Committee for the 1998 Council on Foundations Annual Conference; the 1997 Council on Foundations Family Foundations Conference.

As Executive Director of the Butler Family Fund, a private foundation with about $15 million in assets, Ms. Toll is in charge of nationwide grantmaking in the areas of homeless families and criminal justice reform (including juvenile justice, death penalty, and drug policy reform), as well as the day-to-day running of the foundation. The Fund gives about $1.4 million per year in its program areas. The Butler Family Fund has invested $2 million dollars in a Socially Responsible Investment Fund, and Ms. Toll has overseen the Butler Family Fund’s decision to make $300,000 in Program Related Investments to intermediaries working in affordable housing and community development. Ms. Toll also oversees the Fund’s grantmaking in the U.K.

Ms. Toll's consulting clients included the National Endowment for the Arts, Bauman Foundation, Rittenhouse and Providence Foundations, Corporation for Enterprise Development, American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, American Nurses Association, California Association of Nonprofits, and Eisenhower World Affairs Institute.

Previously, she practiced law with Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz; the U.S. Department of Treasury; the Federal Home Loan Bank Board; and the American Association of University Professors. Ms. Toll received her B.A. from Yale University and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law.

John C. Weiler is a senior program officer at the F.B. Heron Foundation. John has been at Heron since 1999 and has been responsible at various times for the foundation’s grantmaking and mission-related investing in Arizona, New Mexico, New England, New Jersey, and Texas. Currently, John is responsible for the foundation’s grantmaking and mission-related investing in California and New York City.

Before joining Heron, John directed national employment programs for the Corporation for Supportive Housing; prior to that he was the director of economic development for Common Ground Community, a New York City nonprofit. John’s other nonprofit experience includes work at Development Training Institute, where he designed and delivered training programs for bankers, bank regulators, and community-based organizations. John began his career in banking, with positions at Chase Manhattan Bank and Manufacturers Hanover Trust

John has served on NFG’s member services committee, the planning committee for NFG’s 2004 conference in Boston, and on the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers’ program committee. John holds an undergraduate economics degree from the Wharton School and a Masters in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

As Executive Director, Nat Chioke Williams leads the Hill-Snowdon Foundation in its philanthropic and programmatic work, operations and partnerships within the community. In 2004 and 2005, Nat managed the Foundation’s Economic Justice Program and Fund for DC program. Going forward, Nat will have the primary responsibility for HSF’s Youth Organizing Program. Nat holds a B.A. in Psychology from Morehouse College, as well as a M.A. and Ph.D. in Community Psychology from New York University.

Nat’s funding experience has focused on community organizing and youth organizing, and his background includes research on the socio-political development of African American youth activists, social movements, social oppression and liberation psychology; tenant organizing and non-profit management consulting. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing. Nat’s prior philanthropic work in youth and community organizing includes positions as Program Officer for Youth Development at the Edward Hazen Foundation and Program Officer for the New York Foundation. Additionally, Nat has served as Assistant Professor of Black Studies for the State University of New York at New Paltz, Senior Program Associate for Community Resource Exchange in New York City, and Director of Organizing for the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board in New York City.

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