Jehan Velji, a philanthropy expert with more than 25 years of experience in strategy consulting and organizational capacity-building, has been named as the next director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Effective Philanthropy Group. Velji will start her position on September 20.
Hewlett’s Effective Philanthropy Group seeks to strengthen the capacity of the foundation’s programs, initiatives, and grantees—and philanthropy, in general—to achieve their goals and benefit the common good. As director, Velji will lead a team that both makes grants to strengthen nonprofits and the philanthropic sector, and provides internal guidance across Hewlett’s programs on supporting grantee capacity and developing, implementing, and evaluating grant strategies.
“I’m delighted that Jehan is joining us,” said Hewlett Foundation President Larry Kramer. “She has impressive experience across all of our Effective Philanthropy Group’s areas of focus, from capacity-building to strategy development and implementation. Her deep knowledge of philanthropy and nonprofits will enable Hewlett to be a better, stronger partner to the groups we fund and, ultimately, make a more meaningful difference in improving people’s lives.”
“I’m excited to build on Hewlett’s strong work in support of nonprofit capacity and philanthropic effectiveness,” Velji said. “Hewlett’s commitment to collaborative learning and improvement in service of its programmatic strategies and impact has been impressive. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to listen to and learn from others, both within and beyond Hewlett, to continue to advance the practice and impact of philanthropy.”
Velji joins Hewlett from Blue Meridian, where she oversees a range of work as Managing Director of Portfolio Strategy & Management. Before that, she served as the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation’s Senior Portfolio Director, where she drove the planning and analysis of EMCF’s core grantmaking strategies and managed several long-term grantee relationships. She went to EMCF after almost a decade at Bridgespan, where, as a partner, she worked on strategy with a range of nonprofit and foundation clients. Earlier in her career, she worked at Catholic Relief Services, where she was responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of the group’s work in 15 nations.