Proteus Fund President Meg Gage Steps Down, Paul Di Donato Will Be Interim President

 

Following decades of leadership and many social justice victories to her credit, Meg Gage has stepped down from her role as President of Proteus Fund and Proteus Action League as of November 30.

 

As you know, Meg founded Proteus Fund and led the organization through many stages of growth and development. The Board and staff are very grateful for Meg’s extraordinary leadership, service and commitment to both Proteus and the field of social justice philanthropy.

 

Meg also co-founded the Peace Development Fund in 1981 and served as its Executive Director until 1992. The Council on Foundations awarded Meg its inaugural Robert W. Scrivner Award in 1986 for Creativity by an Individual Grantmaker. She served as Executive Director of the Ottinger Foundation from 1992 through 1999, during which time she wrote "The Funders Handbook on Money in Politics," which helped jump start the present-day money in politics movement.

 

The Board is working with Meg to develop a fellowship to continue her thought leadership from a new perch at a university or philanthropic support organization.

 

Following the organizational best practice of following a founding chief executive with an interim chief executive, the board has selected Paul Di Donato as Interim President. As you may know, Paul served as Director of Proteus Fund’s Civil Marriage Collaborative for eight years. In that role, Paul led and coordinated the full range of CMC’s work from strategy development, grantmaking and evaluation to program management, partnership development and funder education. He has served as an activist, advocate, non-profit executive and philanthropic leader in many areas, ranging from HIV/AIDS and public health to LGBT and women’s rights, as well as other social justice issues. In his CMC work as well as his other leadership positions, Paul has a 30 year track record of working with donors, activists, community leaders and advocacy organizations across the country.