Karen DuBois-Walton ’89 started as the new president and chief executive officer of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven on Monday, succeeding Will Ginsberg, who occupied the role for 24 years. 

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, established in 1928, is a permanent charitable endowment and the largest grantmaker to nonprofits in the twenty-town region of Greater New Haven. Before starting at the foundation, DuBois-Walton served as the executive director of Elm City Communities/Housing Authority of the City of New Haven since 2008. 

“The sense of how we bring together people and community, how we build stronger community, how we can pass impactful investments, has been the work that I’ve been doing and passionate about for my professional career here in New Haven,” DuBois-Walton said. “After 17 years at Elm City Communities, I found myself looking for a new challenge that was going to be able to strengthen this community that I love.” 

Ginsberg told The Community Foundation Board of Directors in 2022 that he would not be seeking a renewal of his six-year employee agreement, which ended on Nov. 1. In fall 2023, he formally announced his retirement and the search for his replacement began.  

Ginsberg said he felt the foundation was “in a good place, which means it’s time to retire.” He praised DuBois-Walton as “a great successor” who will “take the foundation to new places.”

The foundation search committee conducted a national search for Ginsberg’s replacement in collaboration with Koya Partners, a global executive search and consulting firm specializing in hiring CEOs for mission-driven roles. 

The foundation began initial outreach to community members last fall and had contacted DuBois-Walton then. In April, the application process opened up, ultimately attracting around 600 applicants, according to DuBois-Walton. In August, after an initial resume screening and two rounds of interviews, the foundation offered DuBois-Walton the position.

“[Ginsberg] announced his retirement early enough to give us more than enough time to really think about the process and to be able to have planning conversations as a board without any pressure or urgency. It allowed for a lot of attention and thoughtfulness,” Board Vice-Chair Fernando Muñiz, who chaired the search committee, said. “We were able to also talk to and work with other community foundations across the country who had recently been through that transition [of leadership].”

The foundation’s board of directors comprises eleven U.S. citizens and Greater New Haven residents. Muñiz will soon become the board’s chair.

The Board’s primary role is to oversee the foundation’s operations and financial support for community nonprofits. 

“The design is not to have a small group of people, no matter how well-intentioned and however effective, controlling these community assets,” Ginsberg said, referring to the board structure. 

By the end of 2023, the foundation’s endowment had grown to almost $750 million, according to Ginsberg. Last year, they were able to put over $30 million back into the Greater New Haven community. 

During the Great Give, a 36-hour online donation initiative held on the first two days of May, the foundation raised almost $4 million for over 500 nonprofits in the community.

“I had a really warm send-off from my old job and from a team that I had grown to love and work with so closely for 17 years. And then came Monday morning and felt just as much of a sense of warmth and family greeting me when I arrived,” DuBois-Walton said. 

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s Offices are located at 70 Audobon St.