Elana Wien is a respected advisor and social impact leader with over twenty years of experience. Elana brings a global and community-based lens to her thoughtful, creative approach to philanthropy.

As a philanthropic advisor with over two decades of experience, Elana specializes in supporting donors, community foundations, and private foundations to enhance community outcomes through targeted and strategic philanthropy. Her work focuses on institutional giving, social ventures, start-up initiatives, next gen donor engagement, women's leadership, and collective giving, with a commitment to fostering equity and sustainability. Currently, she provides advisory services to diverse clients, including community foundations, family foundations, and donor-advised funds, enabling them to align their philanthropic goals with meaningful social impact on both a local and global scale.

In Elana’s recent roles, she has contributed to the distribution of multi-million-dollar grant portfolios supporting local and international causes and facilitated leadership transitions for organizations in Southern California and nationally. Her expertise spans program design, capacity-building, and stakeholder collaboration, addressing diverse fields such as arts, education, housing, youth and leadership development. With a thoughtful and collaborative approach, she aims to empower organizations and individuals to maximize the effectiveness of their giving strategies, while fostering long-term partnerships and innovative solutions.

Elana graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in geography and received a master’s degree in anthropology from the Universidad de las Americas as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Mexico.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, she is based on the Central Coast of California, and has lived in the Bay Area, Washington D.C., NYC, Brazil, Mexico and Spain.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish.

VOLUNTEER (Current): AHA! Board Member; Ventura County Funders’ Forum Member; Regional Capacity-Building Collaborative Santa Barbara and Ventura Member; SoCal Grantmakers LGBTQ Professionals Network.

VOLUNTEER (Past): SoCal Grantmakers Family Philanthropy Advisory Council; LA County Department of Arts and Culture Grant Peer Reviewer; LA2050 Challenge Grant Evaluation Team Member; SAM Initiative Giving Circle Member; Ventura County Community Foundation Scholarship Reviewer.

LEADERSHIP: Elevate Leadership Equity Accelerator Inaugural Cohort; Charles and Lynn Schusterman Philanthropies Fellow; Coro of SoCal Women in Leadership Cohort 2; Wexner Foundation Field Fellow; SoCal Grantmakers LGBTQ Professionals Leadership Award; SoCal Grantmakers Senior Peer-To-Peer Cohort; Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Mexico.

CERTIFICATIONS: National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers Full Member

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