Meet the Team
Antoinette LeCouteur
I have twenty years of deep, direct experience working for major corporate foundations in multiple capacities, including: employee giving, grants management, sponsorship activation, and technology vetting and implementation. At PG&E, I was a key member of the team running the employee giving campaign for more than 40,000 employees and retirees, and I managed the operations and processing for the utility’s $17M annual grant program. While there, I also designed and implemented an Earth Day event that engaged over 5,000 employee volunteers as well as established a company speaker bureau. On the tech front, I have driven transformative efforts to save companies from the vendor vortex, taking on the challenge of switching and consolidating vendors so that systems better align with impact strategies (I love doing this so you don’t have to). As Special Events Manager for Catholic Charities, I raised $1M over the organization’s fundraising goal with only four events—and without a development director. An extremely networked strategic thinker, I have a unique grasp of the public, private, and nonprofit sectors and the know-how to forge unlikely cross-sector collaborations.
Personally, I maintain strong ties to nonprofit organizations—from founding my own theatre company to serving as a fundraiser, events director, and membership manager across a large spectrum of arts, environmental, and social service organizations. My passion for fundraising began at age eight when I raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association by charging neighborhood kids to walk my english bulldog around the driveway. My foray into entrepreneurship at age six is better told in-person.
Laura Waters
A born problem solver, I’ve spent the last ten years focused on helping growth organizations and Fortune 500s improve and implement their social impact programs. In my previous role in customer success and account management at Blackbaud, I gained invaluable experience understanding client needs around technology platforms and internal processes for CSR. My philanthropy expertise is featured in the recently published book, “Activate Your Money” by Janine Firpo.
A competitive athlete, my determination and perseverance know no bounds and I have quite literally incorporated my passion for sports into my work. As part of the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee, I developed and refined the Net Positive Strategy for the event and developed metrics tracking across departments for optimized sustainability reporting. And as an Assistant Professor at my alma mater Presidio Graduate School where I earned an MBA in Sustainable Management, I designed and taught a class called “The Business of Sports and Sustainability”. A true multidisciplinarian, I embrace the opportunity to incorporate my background in genetics into my work, and find the scientific method to be a helpful framework to apply to business processes. Dull is not in my DNA, so when I’m not working, I’m either crafting costumes, observing owls in Golden Gate Park, or herding cats.
Are you ready to Create Impact?
