Liezl Van Riper

Biography

Liezl is myAgro’s Vice President of Development where she is developing and executing a 3-year strategy to raise $30M in support of myAgro’s growth plan. Liezl is a fundraising expert with 16 years experience in increasingly demanding roles with international and national non-profit social enterprises, with a track record of securing multi-year, 7-figure funding partnerships with corporations, foundations, and governmental agencies. Career highlights include leading the effort to secure 7-figure grant and PRI partnerships with the PepsiCo Foundation, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, and major grant from the OPEC Fund for International Development. While at Kiva, where she was hired to build out Kiva’s NYC office, Liezl spearheaded the launch of 3 major Kiva City campaigns — Kiva New York City, Kiva Philadelphia and Kiva Louisville, raising millions in grants and revolving loan funds to support U.S. based entrepreneurs. Liezl also established Kiva’s first 7-figure partnerships in Europe with Pearson PLC. Prior to Kiva, Liezl was the Director of Development for KickStart, a social enterprise NGO that enables smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to increase income through sustainable irrigation. While at KickStart, Liezl supported the Founder in developing the KickStart + Skoll + Citi Working Capital partnership to expand production of MoneyMaker pumps across Sub-Saharan Africa. Liezl received her B.A. with honors in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine.