Jacob Harold

As president & CEO of GuideStar, Jacob Harold worked closely with colleagues at the Foundation Center to form Candid in 2019.  During his tenure at GuideStar, he oversaw a doubling of the organization’s reach, the creation of the GuideStar Profile Program, the launch of the Overhead Myth campaign, and hundreds of new partnerships. Jacob came to GuideStar from the Hewlett Foundation, where he led grantmaking for the Philanthropy Program. Between 2006 and 2012, he oversaw $30 million in grants that, together, aimed to build a 21st-century infrastructure for smart giving.  At the beginning of his career, Jacob worked as a climate change campaigner for Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace USA and as organizing director at Citizen Works. He also worked as a consultant to nonprofits and foundations at the Bridgespan Group and as a climate change strategist for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation based at The Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi, India. Jacob was named to the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 NonProfit Times (NPT) Power and Influence Top 50 lists.  He served as a term member for the Council on Foreign Relations and on the advisory boards of Bright Funds Foundation, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy and Docusign IMPACT. He currently serves on the advisory boards of the Center for Effective Philanthropy and the Duke University Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and is a member of the editorial board of the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.