our team
leadership
Jen Naecker
Co-founder and Chief Executive
About Jen
Jen Naecker has spent over 15 years in the nonprofit sector doing what she does best: building the kinds of relationships that make organizations thrive.
Her background spans philanthropy advising, major giving and campaigns, corporate and foundation partnerships, and board development. She has a rare ability to understand what people need, connect the right ones together, and make everyone in the room feel like the work is possible. Clients tend to describe her as the person who makes hard conversations feel manageable and big goals feel within reach.
Jen brings that expertise to the full arc of a client relationship, from the first conversation about what an organization is capable of, to the strategy that gets them there, to the partnerships and funders who help make it real. She is deeply strategic, and her strategy starts with people: what inspires them, what limits them, and what they need to hear.
After studying Spanish education and sociolinguistics, she began her career as a Spanish teacher. She retains a scholar’s curiosity about how language shapes the way people understand themselves and each other. When she’s not working, you can find her teaching, taking a fitness class, or at the nearest estate sale.
Kirsten Hammann
Co-founder and Chief Architect
About Kirsten
Kirsten Hammann has spent more than 30 years helping mission-driven organizations find the strategy, language, and resources they need to do their best work. The throughline in her career isn’t expertise, though she has plenty of that. It’s a particular kind of seeing, an instinct for what’s not being said, whose story isn’t being told, and what a team could become if the structure actually supported them.
The organizations she’s most drawn to are doing vital work without the infrastructure to match. Led by people whose vision outpaces their resources. Whose fundraising hasn’t caught up with their mission. Who need practical tools and a partner, not another consultant who disappears after the deliverable. As a founder herself, she knows what it feels like to build something from nothing and what it costs when the support isn’t there.
Her background spans education, behavioral health and health equity, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, and other community benefit organizations. She has built communications programs, led campaigns, and spent a lot of time in a lot of rooms helping people figure out what it would actually take for their organization to thrive.
She is also a board member, an avid reader, a person with strong opinions about em dashes, and someone with a lot of open tabs.
associates
Caprice Taylor Mendez
President, Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut
About Caprice
Caprice has spent more than 30 years supporting social justice in the nonprofit sector. This includes managing budgets of $500k and above, leading strategic grantmaking in equity and justice organizing, supporting nonprofit collaborations, and co-creating systemwide impact. Accomplished while working as a Director, Board Executive member, policy advocate, coalition director and grassroots organizer with diverse populations to support low-income communities.
Haley Aniceta Eligio
Principal Grant and Legislative Analyst, Marin Water
About Haley
Haley is a grants and contracts expert with proven success in identifying and securing critical funds for nonprofit organizations nationwide through strategic planning, writing, and portfolio management. Highly skilled in grant writing and reporting; pre- and post-award management; prospecting and cultivation; and cross-departmental collaboration to improve systems and program development. Deep experience in securing and managing large private and public awards, including federal funds from HUD, DOH, VA, and FEMA, as well as municipal funds in the San Francisco Bay Area.
trusted partners
We partner with organizations and leaders committed to building stronger, more sustainable communities.
P.O. Box 115
Menlo Park, California 94026