Ingrid H. Benedict, director of the Daphne Foundation, has spent over a decade helping leaders and organizations reach new levels of capacity and efficacy. In addition to working with the Daphne Foundation, Ingrid works with philanthropic and community-based organizations as an organizational development consultant and capacity builder, coalition leader, facilitator, and grantmaker. She is the co-founder and co-chair of New York Blacks in Philanthropy and is on the board of the United We Dream network. As the program officer for the Fulfilling the Dream Fund and Communities for Public Education Reform, Ingrid oversaw the programmatic and grantmaking activities of these multimillion-dollar funder collaboratives focused on expanding philanthropic support and commitment for race and gender consciousness and public education.
Dedicated to building the field towards social and systemic change, Ingrid brings her perspective and experiences to all of her work with social change leaders and organizations. A first generation immigrant from Nicaragua, Ingrid’s family moved to California in the early 1980s where she began her work in social justice as a regional organizer against an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative – Proposition 209. She continued to work in the field of student and youth leadership and organizing, supporting the programmatic direction of Youth Together, School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), and as the Director of the California Fund for Youth organizing, she helped foster collaboration between practitioners and funders to promote youth organizing as an effective strategy for developing a new generation of social change leaders.
Her clients include: Dignity in Schools – New York, Global Action Project, Sunflower Community Action, Resource Generation, Cricket Island Foundation, Donor Education Collaborative, Ford Foundation, Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing, New York Foundation/New York State Grantmakers for Community Engagement, Neighborhood Funders Group, NoVo Foundation, Third Wave Fund, Responsible Endowments Coalition, and the Urgent Action Fund.