June Wilson

June Wilson, celebrated philanthropic leader in racial justice advocacy and alternative approaches to legacy and perpetuity, is the executive director of The Compton Foundation. She is responsible for guiding the 75-year-old philanthropy’s trajectory as it moves toward closing its doors in the next five years. Compton’s Board of Directors has resolved to give all the foundation’s money away to a finite number of activist organizations working to strengthen climate resilience, democracy, reproductive justice, and more. Under Wilson’s leadership, the foundation will also design a reparations strategy for the final years of its work.

Wilson brings extensive hands-on expertise to this mission, having guided the sunset process of the Quixote Foundation in Seattle, Washington, as Executive Director and Trustee. During her ten years with Quixote, she led grantmaking in four interest areas — reproductive rights, environmental equity, election integrity, and media reform — and implemented the foundation’s organizational strategy, operations, and racial equity framework. In 2017, when Quixote chose limited life as an effective tool to leverage change in philanthropy, she designed and implemented its “Spend Up” approach, an affirmation focusing on fulfillment of purpose rather than diminishment of assets.

Wilson is also involved in the philanthropic, arts, and social justice communities through her consulting work supporting family foundations and nonprofits as they implement policies that further racial equity frameworks and practices. Clients include the Stolte Family Foundation, Specialty Family Foundation, Rockefeller Family Fund, National Center for Family Foundations, Open Impact, and National Sawdust. She also supports strategy and program development and provides executive coaching for organizations and projects such as the Gow Family Foundation, the A&A Collaboration, The We’s Match, and Impact Hub Seattle.

Informing Wilson’s deep knowledge of the interplay between funders and community is her tenure as Chief Operations Officer for the National Performance Network and her leadership of the Minnesota Dance Alliance. She is currently a fellow with the National Center for Family Philanthropy and has served on boards such as Sightline Institute, Summer Stages, and DanceUSA. She’s long been active with philanthropic associations including Grantmakers in the Arts, Funders for Reproductive Equity, Environmental Grantmakers Association, and Media Democracy fund.