Shira Saperstein

Shira Saperstein has deep roots in social justice philanthropy, long-term experience with nonprofit development, and a significant track record of seeding, supporting, and strengthening efforts to advance human rights and social justice in the U.S. and internationally.

In her consulting practice, Shira works with private and family foundations, and national, state and local nonprofits, focusing on program strategy and capacity building; meeting design and facilitation; leadership, board and organizational development and transitions; and strategic planning and organizational positioning. She is passionate about racial justice and gender equity, and is known for identifying and nurturing emerging ideas, leaders, and programs to address these and other challenges across issue and programmatic silos.

Previously, Shira was deputy director of the Moriah Fund, building a $13 million annual grantmaking program that supported policy advocacy and other efforts to advance women’s rights and reproductive health, economic and racial justice, and global human rights. Her achievements included supporting a new generation of women of color leaders who have transformed U.S. reproductive rights advocacy; providing seed funding for community-based efforts to change cultural norms around gender violence in the Global South; and strengthening efforts to improve refugee and asylum policies for women fleeing gender-based discrimination and abuse.

Shira has served as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and as a board member of the Management Assistance Group (now Change Elemental).  She was the founding chair of the International Steering Committee of the Global Campaign for Microbicides and the founding co-chair of Funders for Reproductive Equity. Currently, she serves on the boards of the Summit Foundation and the Tahirih Justice Center.

Shira is a graduate of Harvard University and has received training from the Social Transformation Project’s Art of Transformational Consulting (ATC), the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), and Spring Strategies High Impact Facilitation Intensive. She has been honored with Choice USA’s Steinem-Waters Legacy Award (2010) and the Center for Reproductive Rights and Justice’s Elena Gutierrez Award for Courage in Service (2017).