For foundations and nonprofits facing significant transition - restructuring, downsizing, or planned closure -- and need experienced guidance to do it with integrity -- click here
For nonprofit leaders who want honest, direct giudance - to lead with clarity, support their staff, and navigate the challenging conversations that come with the job -- click here
WHO WE ARE
Mission Leading Consulting brings together senior nonprofit executives who have done this work. We haven't simply studied it, or advised on it from the outside. We've led it from the inside, at major institutions under real pressure.
Jeanne M. Haws, MPA
Jeanne spent more than 25 years as a COO and CHRO across nonprofit, higher education, and private foundation settings — building organizations, strengthening teams, and leading through change. Most recently, she led the planned closure of Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, a 20-year-old foundation with over $500 million in assets, guiding the organization through every dimension of a complex, high-stakes wind-down. She knows what it takes to close well — strategically, operationally, and compassionately..
Maria Pignataro Nielsen, SPHR, SWP
Maria served as Chief Human Resources Officer at The Atlantic Philanthropies — the largest limited-life foundation to spend down its assets — where she designed and implemented the strategic workforce plans that guided the institution through its final phase. Her approach to staff transition, retention, and support during closure has been widely cited as a model for the sector. Before Atlantic, she built the global HR function at Human Rights Watch from the ground up over 16 years.
Traci Lester, MBA, MPA, EdD
Traci has led nonprofits for over 25 years through every stage of their lifecycle. Most recently, as President of The Opportunity Agenda, she guided the organization's board-approved dissolution — a deliberate, transparent wind-down that preserved two decades of intellectual legacy by transferring knowledge and programs to aligned organizations. She wrote about that experience in the Nonprofit Quarterly, arguing that dissolving with intention can be among the most responsible acts of nonprofit leadership. She brings three decades of experience in organizational development, strategic planning, and philanthropy.
Lucille Renwick, MPA
Lucille has spent more than two decades building the communications teams, strategies and narratives across the nonprofit, philanthropic, and academic sectors, helping organizations advance their priorities, protect their reputations, and inspire action. A former journalist and now strategic advisor to C-suite executives, she led all internal and external communications at Wellspring during its wind-down, including developing a storytelling effort to preserve the foundation’s 25-year legacy. Lucille sees communications as the connective tissue of an organization, helping leadership think more clearly, moving teams in the same direction, and helping audiences understand why the work matters.
Together we bring strategic, operational and human expertise to the moments that matter most - when the hardest decisions can no longer be deferred.
WHO WE WORK WITH
We work with boards, executive leaders, and funders at the point of decision — when leadership has determined that closure, significant restructuring, or spend-down is necessary, and needs experienced counsel to do it right.
Our clients include:
– Foundation boards and CEOs navigating planned spend-downs or unexpected funding loss
– Nonprofit executives facing difficult restructuring or closure decisions
– Funders who want to support grantees through responsible wind-down
– CEOs, CHROs, COOs, and CCOs who need a thought partner through complex organizational transitions