Ellen Gurzinsky founded WindowBox Coaching and Consulting with more than 30 years of organizational leadership and a wealth of experience in non-profit management. She deeply believes in the ability of leaders to transform themselves and organizations with the right kind of support. Ellen offers help with meeting facilitation, staff retreats and strategic planning and with fundraising from individuals. In her coaching she supports all leaders, new and experienced, to be more strategic, more engaged and more effective.

 

Ellen’s organizational experience reflects her commitment to racial, social, economic and gender justice. Her work has been focused on workers rights and labor education; women’s advocacy; violence against women; LGBT rights and movement building.

 

From 1995-2006 Ellen served as the Executive Director and President of the Funding Exchange—a national association of public foundations that supported radical social justice organizing across the United States. During her eleven-year tenure at the helm of the Funding Exchange, she oversaw organizational assets of over $30 million. During her tenure, the national office’s grantmaking dollars more than doubled—from $2 million to over $5 million and the donor advised program increased significantly. After leaving FEX Ellen was the Program Director at Funders for LGBTQ Issues where she worked on the racial justice initiative and spearheaded a program called Common Vision.

 

Ellen has deep roots both in education and in the labor movement. She was the Associate Director of the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and held a full-time faculty position at the Hofstra University /UAW District 65 Worker Education program. And in it’s very early days; Ellen was the Executive Director of the National Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), where she helped establish CLUW as the national clearinghouse for union women. She also served as Director of the Health Careers Opportunity Program at Hunter College School of Social Work (HCSSW), a project that supported caseworkers in the municipal hospitals to earn a Masters Degree in Social Work. She also taught part time at HCSSW for several years.

 

Previously Ellen was the director of the Park Slope Safe Homes Project; a community based program for battered women and their children and co-founded the Coalition of Battered Women’s Advocates in New York City. She was also a founding member of the NYC Trade Union Committee against Domestic Violence.

 

Ellen earned her Bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and holds a Master of Social Work degree from Hunter College School of Social Work in Community Organizing.

 

In addition to sitting on the board of ARC, Ellen is also on the board of directors of Grassroots International in Boston, MA and is a core consultant for RoadMap, a network of capacity builders for social justice organizations.