Katherine Zavala
Contact: katherinezavala@gmail.com
she/her
Most often works with: Family Foundations, Private Foundations, Intermediary Grantmaking Organizations
Challenges most often addressed:
How to build authentic relationships with grassroots groups, acknowledging the power dynamic inherent in a funder-grantee relationship, can be a challenge for Program Officer roles.
In addition, how to offer support to strengthen groups' capacity to thrive without overstepping their autonomy is a constant reflection to do trust-based practices well.
Katherine Zavala is currently the Deputy VP of Programs at Global Fund for Children (GFC), supporting a global team focused on regional programs and partnerships, grantmaking, and learning and evaluation. Before joining GFC, Katherine spent nearly 20 years in global philanthropy. Her longest tenure was at Thousand Currents, where she spent 15 years practicing trust-based practices in the global programs team. Katherine credits her learnings of grassroots solutions, feminism, organizing, and systems change to members of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) in Brazil, and Indigenous women and youth at the Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES) in Guatemala.
