Deidre Lind

Deidre Lind is an award-winning community leader respected as an expert in philanthropy and civic partnerships with impact-driven results. Deidre has built her career over more than two decades leading corporate social responsibility programs, private philanthropy and public private partnerships. Today, Deidre serves as a social impact consultant to over a dozen companies and start-ups, philanthropic foundations, public private partnerships, and nonprofits through her firm, A Better Impact. Deidre also continues as an Adjunct Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy with a focus on nonprofits, philanthropy and social innovation.

Deidre co-founded the Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles in 2014 as a platform for public/private partnerships focused on innovation and effectiveness and lead the organization through its unprecedented COVID-19 response efforts. Reporting to an independent Board of civic leaders, Deidre led the Mayor's Fund to raise more than $126 million from 12,000 donors to support more than 80 City-wide initiatives. In 2023,Deidre and the Fund received Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies award for social impact and the Council on Foundation’s HUD Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships in 2017.

Deidre also served as the Founding President and Executive Director of the California Volunteers Fund in partnership with the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom where she led the creation of the organization which raised millions of dollars to support innovative civic and local Americorps programs. Deidre’s prior experience includes leading one of the oldest private foundations in Southern California, the Pfaffinger Foundation, as its Executive Director leading a strategic transformation process. Prior to that, she served for a decade as Mattel’s chief global social impact strategist where she launched their two-percent pre-tax profit annual commitment and delivered the Company’s first global sustainability assessment.

She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Boards of Accelerator for America and Accelerator for America Action, a national civic infrastructure advocacy organization, as well as the Social Impact Fund, a national fiscal agent, and on the Advisory Board of LA’s BEST, an afterschool enrichment program. In 2021, Lind served as Co-Chair of the Working Group coordinating the Council on Foundation’s virtual Annual Conference, Leading Together.