Head of Charities Aid Foundation America Leaves to Guide a Celebrity’s Philanthropy
By NICOLE WALLACE
Features Editor
September 18, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes
About the transition: After nine years at the helm, Susan Saxon-Harrold, 51, stepped down at the end of last month as chief executive of Charities Aid Foundation America, an organization based in Alexandria, Va., that helps American donors and companies give to charities outside the United States
Background: Ms. Saxon-Harrold was founding director of research at the British headquarters of the Charities Aid Foundation network, conducting studies about Britain’s giving. She later became vice president of research at Independent Sector, in Washington, before returning to head the American branch of the Charities Aid Foundation
Proudest accomplishment: Charities Aid Foundation America grew significantly during Ms. Saxon-Harrold’s tenure. Last year, contributors gave more than $47-million to charities in 80 countries through donor-advised funds and other giving vehicles at the foundation. When Ms. Saxon-Harrold started in 2002, giving was roughly $10-million a year. “CAF America is really on the cusp now of growing into a much bigger organization,” she says.
Her next step: She has accepted a short-term position advising a leading actress who would like to expand her philanthropy—which currently focuses on education and children in Haiti—to include China and Bhutan. “For me, it’ll be more of a hands-on opportunity to help an individual donor directly,” says Ms. Saxon-Harrold, who would not name the actress.
Salary at Charities Aid Foundation: She declined to say.
Favorite destination: Ms. Saxon-Harrold fell in love with the Baltics when she worked there providing management assistance to charities in the 1990s. Several years ago, she built a house in the woods on Hiiumaa, an island off the coast of Estonia, where she enjoys sailing in a canoe she built herself.
What she’s reading: A Year of Living Generously: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Philanthropy, in which the Canadian journalist Lawrence Scanlan recounts his monthlong stints volunteering for 12 different charities around the world.
