Elana Wien is a trusted community leader, facilitator and advisor with over 20 years of experience, known for her thoughtful, creative approach to social impact and community-building. Elana advises a select portfolio of individuals, family offices and foundations on intergenerational wealth practices, social impact and charitable giving through her private consultancy practice, Elana Wien LLC. 

Elana is a full member of the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers (NNCG), a board member of AHA! of Santa Barbara, a member of the Ventura County Funders’ Forum, and a member of the Regional Capacity-Building Collaborative of Santa Barbara and Ventura. She is an alumna of the Coro Southern California Women in Leadership Cohort 2, a former Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies Fellow and a former Wexner Foundation Field Fellow. She previously served on the Family Philanthropy Advisory Council of Southern California Grantmakers and received the LGBTQ Professionals Network Leadership Award of Southern California Grantmakers in 2019. She has served as a peer reviewer for various regional grantmaking initiatives, including the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, Ventura County Community Foundation, LA2050, and the SAM Initiative Giving Circle. Elana graduated magna cum laude from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in geography and received a master’s degree in anthropology from the Universidad de las Americas as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to Mexico. She is bilingual in English and Spanish.

A former inaugural executive director of a national 175-member nonprofit startup focused on nonprofit best practices, workplace culture and gender equity issues, she also previously led grantmaking programs and advised a portfolio of family foundations at a community foundation with over $1 billion in assets for nearly a decade. Her nonprofit clients have included a regional medical center, a national early childhood think tank, community clinic system, and a housing services agency. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she currently resides in Ventura on the Central Coast of California with her wife and children, having previously lived in the Bay Area, Washington, D.C., NYC, Brazil, Mexico and Spain. Her personal interests include gardening, birding, dance and travel.

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