Faye Twersky

Biography

Fay Twersky, an expert on philanthropy and the nonprofit sector, serves as a Senior Fellow at the Hewlett Foundation. Ms. Twersky works closely with President Paul Brest and the Foundation’s program teams to refine the Foundation’s efforts to measure the progress and effectiveness of its grant portfolios. She consults with Foundation colleagues on a variety of topics related to the practice of philanthropy. Ms. Twersky spends some of her time writing and offering reflections to the field on issues facing both nonprofit and philanthropic institutions.

Ms. Twersky has an extensive background in program design and evaluation. Most recently, Ms. Twersky worked in Jerusalem, Israel, advising Yad Hanadiv (the Rothschild Family Foundation) on issues of strategy, organization, and measurement. She served for four years with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, designing and developing their Impact Planning & Improvement division. In that post, she created standards and guidelines for developing strategies and measuring results across the organization’s three program areas. She was also a founding principal of the firm BTW – Informing Change, a firm that provides strategic consulting to foundations and nonprofit organizations.

As a noted speaker and writer, Ms. Twersky has authored countless articles and reports. Most recently, she was principal author of Measurement and Evaluation in Israel's Third Sector and A Guide to Actionable Measurement. She holds two bachelor’s degrees in Rhetoric and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.