MENLO PARK, Calif. – The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced today that Fay Twersky, an expert on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, will join the Foundation as a Senior Fellow beginning in October of 2011. Twersky will work with President Paul Brest and the Foundation’s program teams to refine and consolidate the Foundation’s efforts to measure the progress and effectiveness of its grant portfolios. She will also consult with Foundation colleagues on a variety of topics related to the practice of philanthropy. Twersky will spend some of her time writing and offering reflections to the field on issues facing both nonprofit and philanthropic institutions. Her term at the Foundation will last one year.
Twersky is currently working in Jerusalem, Israel, advising Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Family Foundation) on issues of strategy, organization, and measurement. She will return from that post in the summer of 2011.
Twersky has an extensive background in program design and evaluation. She served for four years with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, designing and developing their Impact Planning & Improvement division. In that post, she created standards and guidelines for developing strategies and measuring results across the organization’s three program areas. She was also a founding principal of the firm BTW – Informing Change, a firm that provides strategic consulting to foundations and nonprofit organizations.
As a noted speaker and writer, Twersky has authored countless articles and reports. Most recently, she was principal author for Measurement and Evaluation in Israel’s Third Sector, and A Guide to Actionable Measurement. She holds two Bachelor’s degrees in Rhetoric and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Fay Twersky is simply one of the most knowledgeable and strategic thinkers in the field of philanthropy,” said Hewlett Foundation President Paul Brest. “We are very fortunate to have Fay join us to help the Hewlett Foundation answer perhaps the most important question in philanthropy – is our grantmaking making a difference?”
About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy, and population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. A full list of all the Hewlett Foundation’s grants can be found here.
Contact:
Eric Brown
Hewlett Foundation Communications Director
(650) 234-4500 ext. 5743
ebrown@hewlett.org