Michael Blake ensures good stewardship of the Fund’s investment portfolio and also oversees finance, information technology and other non-grantmaking operations of the Fund.

Michael brings to the Fund a wealth of experience in finance, philanthropy, and nonprofit management—in the U.S. and around the globe. He is the immediate past president of the Foundation Financial Officers Group (“FFOG”), an association of chief financial officers of the largest private foundations. FFOG has members throughout the U.S., as well as Canada, the U.K., Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Before joining the Haas, Jr. Fund, working as a consultant to the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, he conducted a comprehensive survey of the capital needs of San Francisco nonprofit organizations, creating a report that was widely used by donors and managers of capital campaigns. Before that, Michael oversaw all operations of the Peace Corps in the Central African Republic. In his capacity as country director, he served as a member of the U.S. Government Country Team led by the U.S. ambassador. He also became the first Peace Corps member to be knighted (as Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite) by order of the president of the Central African Republic. Michael has also served as administrative director of the Hesperian Foundation and, before that, as a Peace Corps teacher, leader and teacher-trainer for the organization’s teaching of English as a Foreign Language, as well as chairman of the National English Commission in Central Africa.

Michael earned an M.B.A. at UC Berkeley, with a concentration in nonprofit management, and a B.A. in Economics at Duke University.