Jacob Harold dreams of institutions capable of facing the great challenges of our time. He served as President & CEO of GuideStar and led its merger with Foundation Center to form Candid. Fast Company called Candid “the definitive nonprofit transparency organization.”
Harold joined GuideStar from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where he led a grantmaking initiative to build a 21st century infrastructure for smart giving. Before that, he worked as a consultant to nonprofits and foundations at Bridgespan and as a climate strategist with the Packard Foundation, Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace USA. He has served as Senior Advisor to Rewiring America and co-founder of Project Starling.
The NonProfit Times named Harold to its Power and Influence Top 50 list seven years in a row. His book The Toolbox: Strategies for Crafting Social Impact was published by Wiley in 2021 and offers a multi-dimensional approach to social change strategy.
Harold has served as Planetary Fellow at the Berggruen Institute and Nonresident Fellow at the Urban Institute. He earned an AB summa cum laude in ethics and intellectual history from Duke University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, two children, and a lot of books.