Who We Are
Trusted advisors to nonprofit leaders and philanthropists
Jen Ratay, Founder
Executive Coach. Team Builder. Social Impact Strategist. Facilitator.
Jen is a veteran nonprofit CEO, philanthropy advisor, facilitator and executive coach. For over two decades, Jen has developed and guided high-performing organizations, teams and leaders who are passionate about creating social change in their communities and around the world.
Jen provides a range of flexible coaching and consulting services to nonprofit boards, nonprofit founders, and executive leadership teams. She also regularly advises individual philanthropists and charitable foundations.
Jen serves on the Northern California Grantmakers’ board of directors and on the Female Footballers' advisory board. She has been a guest lecturer on leadership, philanthropy and nonprofit management at Stanford University, and also co-taught a Stanford MBA course, Critical Analytical Thinking. Jen’s speaking engagements have included the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Peking University in China and the Churchill Club, among others. The Silicon Valley Business Journal name Jen as a Woman of Influence for her leadership in the region and the nonprofit sector.
Prior to launching her consulting practice with her sister Shelley, Jen served as executive director the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2). Under Jen's leadership, SV2 scaled is collaborative grantmaking and launched field-leading new educational programs that helped hundreds of donors and their families become more generous and confident in their giving.
As a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Jen worked with the leadership team on organization-wide strategy, evaluation and learning. She also built and ran a funding program to strengthen grantees' organizational health and managed Office of the President grants, such as a multiyear $110M matching grant to the University of California, Berkeley. Earlier in her career, Jen worked in Washington, D.C. as a legislative aide to a U.S. Congressman and at the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford's Graduate School of Business where she helped guide mission-driven business school students and alumna.
Jen hold an MPA from Princeton University and a BA from Dartmouth College where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She was a starter on the Dartmouth Women's Varsity soccer team that went undefeated in the Ivy League and earned the program's first NCAA post season bid, finishing ranked 13th in the nation. Jen also served as president of the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club, through which she met her college sweatheart turned future husband while climbing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
Jen is dedicated to weaving laughter, joy and wellness into her work with teams and leaders. She enjoys organizing mountaineering trips and coaching young athletes in team sports. She was born and will always remains a die-hard Boston Celtics fan. Jen lives in Portola Valley, CA with her family.
Shelley Ratay, Partner
Environmental Leader. Program Director. Board Member.
Shelley is program director for the Change Leadership for Sustainability Program at Stanford University's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences. The program offers executive education courses and a masters degree to prepare leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to intervene in complex systems in service of human well-being around the world and across generations.
Shelley has also served as a social impact and environmental sustainability consultant for a number of years. She has broad nonprofit management experience and domain expertise in the fields of land conservation, affordable housing development and green building.
Shelley has held a variety of executive leadership, strategy development and project management roles. Among them, she served as executive director of California's oldest land trust, Sempervirens Fund, where she led the organization’s efforts to protect the majestic redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and create opportunities for people to enjoy them.
As project director at First Community Housing, Shelley oversaw the financing, green design and construction of affordable apartment buildings, providing safe and healthy housing for hundreds of low-income families in the Bay Area. In her 15+ years in the social sector, she also worked for Beartooth Capital Partners, The Trust for Public Land, Conservation International and Opportunity Fund.
Shelley is a founding board member and treasurer of Legacy Philanthropy Works in Santa Barbara and serves as board treasurer of Canopy, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing the life-giving benefits of trees to schools, neighborhoods and public spaces throughout the San Francisco mid-peninsula. Shelley's recent clients include the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund and the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences at Stanford University where she wrote a series of case studies on systems change leadership.
Shelley holds an MBA and certificate of Public Management from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. She earned her BA, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where she captained the women's ultimate frisbee team and wrote for the Brown Daily Herald.
Shelley lives in Portland, ME with her family and enjoys yoga, playing soccer and coaching youth sports.
Thought leadership
