John Templeton Foundation

Jim Pitofsky headshot

BIOGRAPHY

Jim serves as the Managing Director, Strategic Alliances for the $3B+ John Templeton Foundation. He leads the Foundation’s partnerships with philanthropic and business leaders and entrepreneurs around the world. Just prior, Jim was Chief Strategy Officer at the Arizona Community Foundation where he oversaw strategic planning and execution, public policy, education, and strategic alliances, as well as ACF’s Center for Business Philanthropy. Prior to that, he served as ACF’s Director of Education where he led education grantmaking and advised high net-worth donors on their education grantmaking. Jim also served as the V.P. and Acting President of the Echoing Green Foundation, supporting hundreds of social entrepreneurs around the world; the Deputy Director of the National Youth Leadership Council, one of the leading service-learning organizations in the U.S. and the world; and the Executive Director for Hands on Bay Area, the leading manager of corporate volunteerism in the Bay Area. Additionally, Jim founded and directed an organization that worked internationally to create school/community and business/education partnerships and was adopted by the National Association of Partners in Education. During that time, he also served as the elected President of the National and Community Service Coalition and led their federal public policy efforts. Currently, Jim sits on a few Boards and Advisory Boards, including the National Institute for Civil Discourse, More Perfect, Humanity 2.0 and Vintro. He also was one of the initial thought partners for New Pluralists.

Throughout his career, Jim has worked closely with CEOs, foundation executives, philanthropists, celebrities, policy-makers, and nonprofit leaders to advance philanthropy, education reform, leadership development, social entrepreneurship, community service, and racial and economic equity. He has been a speaker at the World Economic Forum (Davos), FORTUNE Magazine CEO Forum, the Milken Institute and hundreds of other convenings of corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders. He has also organized meetings around the world in places such as the White House and the Vatican and facilitated at convenings such as TED. Jim earned his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a Public Interest Law Scholar.