Elsie Thomson

Elsie came to Foundant from the nonprofit sector, where she taught and ran outdoor youth programming throughout the Rocky Mountain West, from inner-city Denver to rural Wyoming. Before joining Foundant, she most recently served as the operations manager for The Traveling School, which runs international high school semesters. In this role, she designed and maintained systems and technology solutions to help keep this leanly staffed nonprofit running smoothly. Elsie is most interested in how technology can support an organization’s mission. She serves on Foundant’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) team and is especially focused on how Foundant can support new and more equitable styles of grantmaking. Areas of expertise: grant and scholarship best practices, non-traditional workflows, particularly as they relate to trust-based philanthropy, accessibility, participatory grantmaking, and increasing transparency, #FixtheForm and reducing the applicant burden throughout the grantmaking process.