Caroline D. Avery

President, Durfee Foundation

Carrie Avery is president of the Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles, California, which focuses on individuals by providing fellowships, grants to new grassroots organizations with dynamic leadership, and sabbaticals to long-time nonprofit leaders. The foundation’s most recent collaborative project is Creative Disruption: Sabbaticals for Capacity Building & Leadership Development in the Nonprofit Sector, a long-range, national study of five sabbatical programs. Prior to working for the Durfee Foundation, Avery practiced law, first with the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C., and later with a private firm in San Francisco.

Avery received her B.A. from Stanford University, her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and was a Georgetown University Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow. She chairs the board of the National Center for Family Philanthropy in Washington, D.C. and serves on the boards of the Center for Courage and Renewal in Bainbridge Island, Washington and the Berkeley Repertory Theater in Berkeley, California. She has also served as board chair of Northern California Grantmakers, where she founded and for several years chaired the Family Philanthropy Exchange, co-chair of St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Oakland, Calfornia, and co-chair of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the author of The Guide to Successful Small Grants: When a Little Goes a Long Way. Avery lives in Berkeley, California with her husband, Jon Tigar, and two sons.