New Leader of a Big Foundation Brings His Activist Vision to the Job

Gara LaMarche, a lifelong activist who has worked on behalf of death-row inmates, gay marriage rights, and democracy in the developing world, will bring his activist’s sense to his new job as chief executive of Atlantic Philanthropies, according to the Financial Times.

Mr. LaMarche’s biggest challenge is to help Atlantic distribute its entire $4-billion endowment by 2020, which will require spending $350-million yearly. Despite all the money it has available to give, Mr. LaMarche says Atlantic will focus its giving in the next few years. It traditionally supports issues related to elderly people, disadvantaged children, public health, and human rights, among others, but Mr. LaMarche declined to say which areas might be cut back.

However, he also touched on new opportunities, including short-term opportunistic grants for groups that need money quickly. He promised that, having worked at grant-seeking groups for most of his career, he will not forget the needs of those that the foundation supports.