Pia Infante (she/her) is the Senior Fellow at the Trust Based Philanthropy Project, a five-year, peer-to-peer funder initiative to deconstruct intrinsic power imbalances between foundations and nonprofits. For seven years prior, Pia served as the co-executive director of The Whitman Institute, helping steward its spend down. She believes we have the collective imagination and power to redesign philanthropy to center the people we serve.
Philippine-born, California-grown, queer, and the oldest daughter in an immigrant family, Pia navigates differences to broker connection. She draws from her early career roles as a high school teacher and youth development trainer, her work in leadership and organizational development via her long-time consulting practice, and five years building capacity in progressive movement organizations with Rockwood Leadership Institute to inform her work as a practitioner and organizer within the philanthropic sector.
Pia is a nationally recognized advocate for trust-based philanthropy, spending down, and embodied leadership. In 2022, LeaderSpring awarded her a 2022 Gamechanger Award for her visionary, equity-driven leadership in philanthropy. She has served as faculty for cohortized leadership programs with Philanthropy Northwest, Philanthropy New York, Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, Thousand Currents Academy, and Rubenstein School of Leadership at the University of Vermont. As an advocate for democratic and equity-driven philanthropy, Pia has spoken in many settings including at the Harvard Kennedy School: Center for Public Leadership, Ashoka Future Forum, International Human Rights Funders Group, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Skoll World Forum.
Recently, she served on the boards of MediaJustice.org and Vera List Center for Art and Politics. Pia holds a Master of Arts in education from the New School for Social Research and a Bachelor of Arts in rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.