Isabelle Leighton

"North Star connects activists working at the grassroots community level with those who can also express their activism through giving resources."

As North Star Fund's Development Officer, Isabelle H. Leighton is responsible for managing fundraising and cultivation events, and for building relationships with individual donors, family and private foundations, and corporations. She is charged with expanding and diversifying the community of people giving through North Star Fund to support grassroots activism and organizing.

Isabelle served most recently as Development Manager at Literacy, Inc., where she was responsible for grant research and writing, corporate and foundation relations and reporting, raising program support in cooperation with elected officials, event management, board stewardship, and managing outcomes evaluation. During the summer of 2009, immediately before coming to work at North Star Fund, Isabelle was engaged to coordinate the H209 Forum of Henry Hudson 400 New York Foundation, working intensively with an international team to develop a two-day forum and gala, with a program of 150 experts in engineering, finance, and public policy. Isabelle graduated with a B. A. and a double major (English and Chinese) from University of California, Davis.

According to Diana Correa, Deputy Director for Programs and Special Initiatives, "Isabelle is the perfect fit for North Star Fund. She has solid experience and a thoroughly professional approach to every project that she tackles. Equally important, she cares deeply about North Star Fund's social justice mission, bringing passion and commitment to the work of building resources for grassroots-led social change.

Says Isabelle, "Through my work at North Star Fund, I am excited to contribute to the solutions to challenges faced by individuals and groups struggling for economic and social justice. I'm wholly committed to North Star's goal of connecting activists working at the grassroots community level with those who can also express their activism through giving resources."