Featured Funder: Leslie Harroun

Leslie Harroun

Leslie Harroun has been a member of the CGBD since 1998.  At the Oak Foundation she has managed grant portfolios in both climate change and marine conservation.  Currently she is the Environment Programme’s Senior PO and responsible for the foundation’s climate change work in North America and China, and is developing the Foundation’s portfolios on short-lived climate forcers and ocean acidification.  

Prior to joining the foundation world, Leslie was a Fulbright Scholar in Papua New Guinea where she chaired a national consortium engaged in protecting the intellectual, biological and cultural property rights of indigenous landowners.  She cut her conservation teeth in the early 1990s as part of the World Wildlife Fund staff.  

Leslie served on the CGBD board from 2001-2007;  helped organize two CGBD Annual Meetings (including the most recent one in Montana);  served until recently on the Climate and Energy Funders Group steering committee; and served for several years on the Horizon Committee.   

Leslie graduated from Mount Holyoke College and Northeastern University Law School.  She is the President of Maine Conservation Voters and a board member of the Biodiversity Research Institute and the Maine Environmental Funders Network.  From 2008 – 2010 Leslie served as a member of the Maine Governor’s Ocean Energy Task Force. 

 “ Being a member of the CGBD has helped me understand the art of grant making; gain access to information and experts in my field; and build relationships and partnerships with other donors in a way that makes everyone’s grant making more effective.  I wouldn’t want to do this job without them.”