Program Director

Ellen Gurzinsky joined Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues as the Program Director in February 2008. In this capacity, she oversees the design and implementation of the organization's programs and convenings. She currently oversees Common Vision, a national, multi-year initiative that will bring together grantmakers who share a vision of healthy communities and widespread equity.

Ellen comes to FLGI with more than 30 years of organizational leadership and a wealth of experience in non-profit management. Her work has been focused on workers' rights and labor education, women's advocacy, violence against women, LGBTQ rights and movement building.

From 1995-2006, Ellen served as the executive director and president of the Funding Exchange, a national association of public foundations that support progressive social change. During her 11-years at the helm of the Funding Exchange, she oversaw organizational assets of more than $30 million. During her tenure, the national office's grantmaking dollars more than doubled from $2 million to more than $5 million, while the donor-advised program increased significantly. Ellen also managed the Richard Nathan Charitable Trusts, an activist/donor collaboration that granted more than $1 million to LGBTQ organizations over the course of five years.

Ellen has deep roots in education and the labor movement. She was the associate director of the Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies at the City University of New York (CUNY). From 1992-1995, she directed the Health Careers Opportunity Program at Hunter College School of Social Work, where she still teaches part time, and from 1989 to 1992 held a full-time faculty position at the Hofstra University /UAW District 65 Worker Education program.

From the mid to late 1980s, Ellen was the director of the Park Slope Safe Homes Project, a community-based program for battered women and their children, and co-founded the Coalition of Battered Women's Advocates in New York City. Between 1979 and 1983, Ellen served as the executive director of the National Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), where she helped establish CLUW as the national clearinghouse for union women. She was a founding member of the NYC Trade Union Committee against Domestic Violence.

Ellen currently sits on the board of directors of Queers for Economic Justice in New York City and the Applied Research Center in Oakland, CA. Previously, Ellen served on the board of directors of FGLI from 2000 to 2004. Ellen earned her bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College and holds a Master of Social Work (in community organizing) from the Hunter College School of Social Work.