CEOs You Should Know Kathleen Enright Council on Foundations

Widely respected as a mission-driven leader and coalition builder, Kathleen Enright joined the Council as President and CEO in 2019. Under Kathleen’s leadership, the Council launched its new strategy to make philanthropy a trusted partner in addressing society’s most pressing challenges.  For the majority of her professional life, Kathleen has focused on making the philanthropic sector more inclusive and effective including during her tenure as founding President and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), and as the group director of marketing and communications for BoardSource. Kathleen is a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award from the George Washington University Chapter of Pi Alpha Alpha, a public administration honor society. She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master’s of public administration from The George Washington University. Kathleen co-chaired the Vision Design Group of the United Philanthropy Forum (formerly the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers) and has served on the advisory boards of The Center for Effective Philanthropy and the Midge Smith Center for Evaluation Effectiveness.  Kathleen speaks and writes regularly on issues of nonprofit and grantmaker effectiveness at national and regional gatherings of executives and trustees.