Nonprofit finds a leader close to home
A national search to fill the top job at the United Way of Central Ohio ended at home, with the board of trustees turning to a longtime leader in the local nonprofit community.
Lisa Courtice, 54, is leaving her position as an executive vice president at the Columbus Foundation to join the United Way on April 3, the agency said Thursday.
She replaces president and CEO Janet E. Jackson, 64, who is retiring after 14 years at the helm of the fundraising agency.
“She’s a transformational leader,” Craig Marshall, who heads the board of trustees, said of Courtice. “I think her broad fundraising experience is exciting.”
That, combined with Courtice’s passion, background in community research and her relationships in central Ohio, made her a standout, Marshall said.
Courtice said she’s thrilled with the opportunity to lead an organization “that is so revered and so important to our community.”
A native of Washington, D.C., Courtice is a psychologist. In addition to her 13 years overseeing community research and grants management at the Columbus Foundation, she has held leadership positions locally at Columbus School for Girls, the Childhood League Center and the Center for New Directions.
Courtice takes over at the United Way as it continues a move away from its decades-old identity as a community chest.
The local United Way no longer sets a monetary goal for the annual campaign, for example, saying its singular goal is to reduce poverty. Funding for specific memberagency programs has been reduced in favor of coordinated investments to aid needy residents and target struggling neighborhoods.
At the same time, some worrisome trends persist. The share of pledges that donors earmark to go to nonmember charities or other United Ways has risen sharply, resulting in fewer discretionary resources. And United Ways throughout the country need to attract more younger donors, who can be less likely to participate in workplace giving campaigns.
Courtice said she doesn’t feel daunted by what some describe as significant challenges. “I see them more as opportunities,” she said.
In addition to fundraising, cooperation and leveraging of resources can go a long way toward helping the needy in central Ohio, Courtice said.
“None of these organizations or funders are ever going to have enough money to solve poverty on their own,” she said.
Doug Kridler, president and CEO of the Columbus Foundation, said the community foundation is proud of Courtice “for being tapped for this important community role.”
Courtice was chosen after a nationwide search that began in June. Her annual compensation is to be $265,000; Jackson’s latest salary was $273,000, officials said.
Jackson announced her retirement last spring but said she would stay on until the board picked a successor.