Fundraising That Works: Lessons from an Executive Director Turned Donor Advisor

Paige MacLean is an independent advisor to individuals and families who are looking to develop an approach to philanthropy that is both meaningful to them and creates significant impact. She collaborates with her clients to develop a philanthropic vision and direction, which can take various forms including traditional philanthropy, impact investing, and other innovative means of creating social change. Leveraging her network in both the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, Paige supports clients in building their knowledge of the social sector and facilitates meaningful connections between her clients, other philanthropists and the powerful, impact-driven initiatives and leaders who are working to address todayʼs most challenging problems.

Paige is also a lecturer at the Yale School of Management and a fellow at the Yale Program on Social Enterprise, Innovation and Impact. She offers a course at Yale that examines high-impact approaches to philanthropy and is the faculty advisor for students who are consulting to and serving on boards of non-profit organizations.

With over 25 years as a non-profit founder, board president, and management consultant, first at The Boston Consulting Group and then with a group of BCG partners who formed Wellspring Consulting to focus exclusively on non-profit strategy, Paige brings deep expertise in strategic advising in the social sector. She is a director-at large on the Yale School of Management Alumni Advisory Board, a member of the evaluation panel for the 2023 Yield Giving (Mackenzie Scott) Open Call managed by Lever for Change, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Fund for Women and Girls at the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. She is the past-chair of All Our Kin, an organization that has scaled nationally to train and support high-quality, sustainable, family child care businesses.

Paige received her MBA from the Yale School of Management and her BA from Princeton Universityʼs School of Public and International Affairs with a certificate in Afro-American Studies. After graduating from Princeton, Paige was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in the former East Germany shortly after German reunification

If you are interested to learn more about Paigeʼs advising practice, she can be reached at pmaclean9@gmail.com, via LinkedIn or the National Center for Family Philanthropy.