Crystal Hayling is the Executive Director of The Libra Foundation, a family foundation that brings a racial justice lens to its grantmaking in the areas of gender justice, environmental justice and criminal justice reform, as well as the Director of Philanthropy at Tao Capital Partners.
Previously, she was the managing director for the Environment Leaders Fellowship of the Aspen Institute. Prior to that she lived for six years in Asia, where she advised families and foundations on strategic philanthropy to tackle the region’s most pressing social challenges. Crystal was CEO of the Blue Shield of California Foundation. At BSCF she directed over $100M in strategic grants focused on achieving universal healthcare. In that role she created Clinic Leadership Institute to turn top talent into robust senior managers at community health clinics.
Along with a focus on leadership, Crystal has experience scaling high-impact programs. She led the team that created the first on-line Medi-Cal application which reduced approval time from months to days and she was part of the start-up teams that launched three $1 billion foundations: the California Wellness Foundation, the California HealthCare Foundation, and the Marguerite Casey Foundation.
Crystal has served on national and international boards including the Center for Effective Philanthropy and Asian Venture Philanthropy Network. She has won numerous awards and for three years running was named one of the Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times. She was honored to receive the James Joseph Award from the Association of Black Foundation Executives. Crystal is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She is a 2007 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
