Laurie Emrich
A Colorado native transplanted to Washington D.C., Laurie Emrich (she/her/hers) is an independent consultant helping to launch, build, and strengthen local and international social-profit organizations and projects. Most recently she was co-founder of Building for Progress, an ambitious collaborative effort to create a National Progressive Leadership Campus in Washington D.C. While the larger vision for the project never came to fruition, key components, democratization of internship programs and collective enterprise, are being carried forward by members of the collaboration. She is an active member and participant in donor networks, including Threshold Foundation, Solidaire, Women Donors Network, and was on the early leadership team of the groundbreaking campaign Women Moving Millions.
A founding board member of Washington Area Women’s Foundation, Laurie also served on the boards of Threshold and Lambi Fund of Haiti. She has advised such NGOs as Changemakers, Grantmakers without Borders, and Be Present, Inc. As part of a cross-class fundraising team, she helped Be Present raise more than $3M towards their work of supporting healthy, long-term social justice leaders. Laurie also co-created and coordinated an international giving circle called “Other Worlds are Possible.”
Earlier in her career, for nearly two decades Laurie worked with governments and NGOs to develop and evaluate primary health care delivery systems in the global south, primarily Sub-Saharan Africa and in Haiti. This included living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for four years while assisting with expansion and improvement of the national health management system, and working as Director of public health programs for the Peace Corps in DRC.
Starting from an early intention in Colorado to further reproductive rights and justice as a key to women’s empowerment, “I bring my full self and resources—heart, mind, and wallet—to the ongoing fight for social justice, and to radicalizing and transforming philanthropy’s role in those struggles”.
