About

The harder I work, the luckier I get. (Mark Twain)

In late 1977, after finishing up a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship and wondering what to do next, magic happened.

I was riding the #1 subway downtown from my office near Columbia University, engrossed in the book, “Creating the Future, A Guide to Living and Working for Social Change,” when suddenly, the man next to me leaned over and asked, “Do you like that book?” My native New Yorker subway skills quickly sized up that the man was not practicing a new pickup line and was in fact sincere in his query, so I replied, “Yes, I like it very much.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Because I wrote it.”

Michael Washburn and I got off the subway and within a few months he had helped me secure my first foundation grant to open a new nonprofit in New York City. I was 23.

And the rest is not just history, but my life.

Here is a timeline with the highlights. Just hover over the color band.

Timeline

  • 1977 – 1988

  • 1989 – 2002

  • 2002 – 2013

  • 2014 – Present

Alexandra Christy Associates

Based in New York City, I co-founded a nonprofit called Project Work, a start-up information and clearinghouse for organizations in New York City seeking to establish democratically-run workplaces. We researched and published “Alternative Work in New York City,” a directory of businesses and nonprofits organizing themselves around principles of fairness and justice. I was also the first Development and Membership Director of the Green Guerillas, a social impact organization helping grassroots groups in NYC transform abandoned lots into community gardens. I closed out these NYC years by researching and writing “In Our Own Words,” a 108-page report celebrating the first 15 years of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, with stories of sweat equity throughout New York City.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Morristown, New Jersey

Program Associate, Program Officer, Senior Program Officer

During my 13-year tenure, I was at various times in charge of the Arts, Domestic Violence and Reproductive Health portfolios, as well as editor of annual report.

Highlights:

  • Launching the Arts Challenge Fund, a statewide collaboration of foundations and nonprofits seeking to secure the future of New Jersey’s arts community; conceiving and producing “How is the Truth to be Said?, a film and poetry program throughout Newark schools to celebrate the work of Henry Hampton and Gwendolyn Brooks;
  • Co-designing and producing, with the Getty and MacArthur Foundations, a conference and publication — Learning and the Arts — about the power of the arts to help children learn.

Woodcock Foundation, New York, New York

Executive Director

On 2002 I began my dream job: becoming first executive director of the Woodcock Foundation in NYC, a progressive family philanthropy focused on issues of media reform, reproductive rights, social entrepreneurship, food systems, conservation and youth leadership.

Highlights:

  • Co-designing and launching, in collaboration with Hattaway Communications and the Nike, Packard, Gimble and Mott Foundations, the “BeHeard” communications initiative to help social impact organizations do a better job at online and offline branding;
  • Co-designing with Hattaway Communications and the Kellogg, Doris Duke and Open Society Foundations, an initiative to counter Islamophobia;
  • Launching, with the Federal Highways Administration, the ARC (Animal Road Crossings) International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition, which at the time culminated in a Capitol Hill reception co-sponsored by three members of Congress in 2011 but has gone on to become an internationally recognized organization, ARC-Solutions.

Alexandra Christy Associates

Digital Storytelling. Philanthropic Consulting. Song

You know about dreams deferred, right? Well, in 1988, I had to choose between my dream of going to the Columbia School of Journalism or working at the Dodge Foundation. Since I had a one-year-old and the Dodge offices were a mile from my home, I chose the income and a health plan. But the yearning to have a masters in journalism so I could get very good at telling stories never left me.

So in 2014, I came back to that deferred dream and completed master’s degree in Digital Journalism and Design at the USF-St. Pete. See the results of that decision.

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