Carolyn Wall Sakata

Carolyn Wall Sakata is Chief of Staff of a newly formed family office that supports the work of the Baszucki Family Foundation. For the past 15 years, she has worked in philanthropy with family foundations at varying stages. Prior to her work with the Baszucki family, Carolyn served as Managing Director of Sunlight Giving, a family foundation created in 2014 with annual grantmaking of approximately $25M. During her tenure, she helped ramp up the private foundation, including hiring and managing staff, creating grantmaking and financial procedures, and representing the foundation externally among the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. In addition, Carolyn helped launch Acton Family Giving and Solidarity Giving, two affiliated donor advised funds within the Sunlight Giving grantmaking portfolio.

Carolyn’s previous experience includes working with multiple family foundations at Pacific Foundation Services, a brief stint at the City and County of San Francisco in the Department of Children, Youth and their Families, and work as a program officer at the Medina Foundation. She has spent most of her career in the nonprofit space, including working as a clinical social worker in community mental health settings. Carolyn has a MSW from Smith College and a BA in History and Hispanic Studies from Vassar College.