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ABOUT

Neill McG. Coleman
Founder and Principal

Neill Coleman is a leader in deploying philanthropy, partnerships, and persuasion to drive social change.  As the Founder and Principal of Mission Magnified Consulting he has a track-record of creating strategies, building organizations, and inspiring people towards meaningful impact.  He believes in, and has demonstrated, the power of cross-sector collaboration. Mission Magnified clients include The Rockefeller Foundation, The Oak Foundation, The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Slum Dwellers International, the Network of European Foundations, GoVoteNYC, Goonation, the Henry Luce Foundation, Brooklyn Org, CUNY and the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.

Neill served for five years as the Executive Director of Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies.  Neill developed a strategic direction for an expansion of Trinity's grant-making from $10 million to $57 million a year focused on housing & homelessness and racial justice in New York City; and building leadership and financial capacity in the Anglican church globally. In 2021 Neill was named to the Crain's New York Notable in Nonprofits and Philanthropy list and the City & State Pride Power 100.

 

From 2012 to 2017 Neill was Vice President for Global Communications at The Rockefeller Foundation, where he created and managed a $10 million per annum grants portfolio that deployed the funding of journalism, film, storytelling and campaigns to shift narratives and influence decision-makers. As part of the Foundation’s centennial year in 2013 Neill designed and launched 100 Resilient Cities – a $160 million effort to support 100 cities worldwide in developing a resilience strategy and then accessing private-sector funding for implementation. As head of the Foundation’s communications team in New York, Nairobi and Bangkok, Neill positioned The Rockefeller Foundation as a globally-recognized leader in the new fields of impact investing and resilience.

During the first term of the Obama Administration Neill served as Chief External Affairs Officer at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he helped communicate the Obama Administration’s response to the housing crisis and repositioned HUD as a source of innovative policy.

Before assuming the leadership of HUD’s Office of Public Affairs in 2009, Neill served for four years as Assistant Commissioner for Communications at the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and as Director of Communications for the New York League of Conservation Voters. He also managed North American communications for the global architecture firm RMJM.

Neill served as President of the Board of the Stonewall Community Foundation, the only public foundation focused on the needs of New York’s LGBTQ community.  In this role Neill focused on governance and championing the ways that a foundation can add value for grantees in addition to a grant check, including leadership development, strategic advice and connections to other donors. Stonewall doubled its grant-making in 2020 in response to COVID-19 and racial injustice. Neill is also a board member and Chair of the Public Policy Committee of Philanthropy New York, an organization of more than 280 funders to advancing effective, strategic philanthropy. He also serves on the boards of City Limits, the 5BORO Institute, and Human Services Action.

Neill is a native of Glasgow, Scotland and has a M.A. in Modern History from the University of Oxford.  Neill and his husband Danny love spending time with their dogs Rufus and Topaz.

Neill's resume

 

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