With more than 25 years of experience across the public, private and  nonprofit sectors.

Deidre Lind is a nationally recognized community leader and an expert in philanthropy and civic partnerships with impact-driven results. Deidre has built her career over more than two decades leading corporate social responsibility programs, private philanthropy and public/private partnerships. She shares her expertise as a social impact consultant to over a dozen corporations and financial institutions, start-ups, philanthropic foundations, community foundations, and public/private partnerships through her firm, A Better Impact. Deidre also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy with a focus on nonprofits, philanthropy and social innovation.

 

Deidre co-founded the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles in 2014 as a platform for public/private partnerships focused on innovative approaches and solutions to social challenges facing the City and led the organization for nearly a decade, including its unprecedented COVID-19 response efforts. Reporting to an independent Board of civic leaders, the Mayor's Fund raised more than $126 million from 12,000 donors to support more than 80 City-wide initiatives. In 2023, Deidre and the Mayor’s Fund received Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies award for social impact and the Council on Foundation’s HUD Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships in 2017.

 

Deidre has created a number of independent nonprofit entities focused on public private partnerships throughout her career, including the California Volunteers Fund where she served as Executive Director working in partnership with the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. She led the creation of the organization that raised millions of dollars to support innovative civic and local Americorps programs. Deidre’s prior experience includes leading one of the oldest private foundations in Southern California, the Pfaffinger Foundation, as its Executive Director during a strategic transformation process. Prior to that, she served for a decade as Mattel’s chief global corporate social sesponsibility officer where she launched their two-percent pre-tax profit annual commitment to social responsibility and created their first corporate global sustainability programming. In addition to her corporate responsibilities, Deidre served as Executive Director of Mattel Children’s Foundation.

 

Her professional career began at Kaiser Permanente, serving as an Issues Manager & Policy Analyst for California for four years before being appointed Associate Director of Government & Community Relations for five years prior to joining Mattel.

 

Recently selected as a Governance and Sustainability Center Fellow with The Conference Board, Deidre currently serves as Vice Chair of the Boards of Accelerator for America and Accelerator for America Action, a national civic infrastructure advocacy organization, as well as a Board member of the Social Impact Fund, a national fiscal agent for social causes and civic leaders, and on the Advisory Board of LA’s BEST, an afterschool enrichment program in Los Angeles. Deidre served as Co-Chair of the Working Group coordinating the 2021 Council on Foundation’s virtual Annual Conference, Leading Together.

 

Deidre’s academic credentials include a BA degree in Psychology from U.C. Santa Barbara and Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Administration from University of Southern California.