The Lemala Fund for Development Capacity
We help non-profits scale by providing resources, connections, and guidance to increase fundraising capabilities for their mission.
Lemala Overview
The Lemala Fund for Development Capacity was created to enable medium-sized non-profits to reach the next level by improving their ability to raise funds in support of their mission.We combine an annual monetary grant for three years with participation in a cohort of non-profits seeking the same result, enabling the groups to share best practices and learn from each other.
The name Lemala comes from the Hebrew word “upward”, signifying the Fund’s goal of helping organizations grow and thrive.
Our Motivation
Medium size non-profits typically focus on building the programs and activities that define their organization's impact. But in order to grow and to thrive in the long term, they need to develop similar expertise in the more generic skills of charitable fundraising. The Lemala Fund will give them the resources and connections to build that expertise.Often, philanthropic funders explicitly exclude support for overhead such as improving development capacity. The Lemala Fund Founders feel there is a gap to be filled.
Partner Foundations
The Lemala Fund is pleased to partner with three leading Bay Area foundations.The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The Haas, Jr. Fund
The Heising-Simons Foundation
Selection Process
Grants are made by invitation only.
Potential grantees are nominated by either the Founders or the partner foundations.
People
The Lemala Fund was founded by Donna Dubinsky and Len Shustek, entrepreneurs and philanthropists based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Len Shustek
Len is an entrepreneur, engineer, and philanthropist. He co-founded two successful computer networking companies, and has taught at Carnegie-Mellon and Stanford University, where he received his PhD in Computer Science. He has served on various boards, including the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn - now called the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, where Len earned a B.S. and M.S. in Physics. In 1996 Len co-founded the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, from which he recently retired as board chair.Donna Dubinsky
Donna is a serial entrepreneur best known as CEO of Palm Computing and Handspring, pioneers of the first successful handheld computers and smartphones. Previously, she spent 10 years in sales, sales support, and logistics roles at Apple and Claris. Donna earned a B.A. from Yale, where she served on the board from '06-'18, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. She co-founded Numenta, a machine intelligence/neuroscience research company, with Jeff Hawkins in 2005. Donna chairs Numenta’s board, and is on the boards of Stanford Health Care and Twilio.The Lemala Fund's Executive Director is June Wang.
June Wang
June has spent over 20 years in the social sector. In addition to her independent consulting practice, she has served as the Organizational Learning Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Interim Evaluation and Learning Director at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Chief Strategy and Evaluation officer at Life Learning Academy, and Program Director at Listen4Good. She is currently the Board Chair at Fresh Lifelines for Youth. She holds an MBA from Brandeis University and a BA from Williams College. She is a second-generation Chinese-American and speaks Mandarin.Attendance Works
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