January 12, 2011

Dear Grantees, Partners and Friends of the Surdna Foundation,

The Surdna Foundation is making some important staffing changes that, we believe, will make us better grantmakers and more effective advocates for our new mission.  We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sharon Alpert to the newly created position of Senior Director for Programs and Strategy.  In addition to this promotion, we are creating a new Senior Staff team to oversee the operations of the foundation.  This team, who will work with me, is comprised of the Chief Financial Officer, Marc de Venoge, and Sharon in her new role as Senior Director.  Sharon will oversee the program side of the foundation, while Marc will oversee the administrative functions of the foundation.

This announcement of these new roles for Sharon and Marc, and the creation of a Senior Staff team, represents the next step in a process of program and operational development at the foundation which began one year ago with the launch of a more focused mission and three new core programs - Strong Local Economies, Thriving Cultures, and Sustainable Environments - that together reflect the mission of fostering just and sustainable communities.  In her new role, Sharon will be working to ensure greater cohesion and collaboration across the programs compelled by our new mission and to increase programmatic effectiveness.  Sharon will be a key representative of the foundation externally, working with partners in the field to advance an agenda of justice and sustainability in U.S. communities and national action on sustainability.  In his expanded role, Marc will ensure that the administrative, financial, and investment functions of the organization are enhancing the impact of the foundation's programs.

Sharon is particularly well equipped for this new role due to the knowledge of Surdna's programs and strategy she has acquired over the past 7 years, her understanding of what's needed to support high caliber grantmaking, and her overall experience working on sustainable community development for over 15 years.  Marc has been with the foundation for 20 years and this change will allow him to fully employ his institutional knowledge and engage his financial investment skills in service to the foundation's mission.

The grantmaking of the foundation will continue to be carried out through our three core grantmaking programs, and the strategies and guidelines announced by those programs throughout the past year will continue.  However, with the promotion of Sharon to this new role, we will be looking for a new director of our Sustainable Environments Program.  During the search, Sharon will continue to oversee the Sustainable Environments Program, and grantees of that program will receive additional information as we transition to the leadership of a new Program Director.

We are excited by this change at the foundation, and we anticipate that it will allow us to be even more effective innovators, collaborators, and partners with all of you as we all work to create social change.

Sincerely,



Phillip Henderson
President