Echoing Green would like to congratulate board member, Patrick Corvington, who, today, who was nominated by President Obama to the position of Chief Executive Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service. For those of us in the world of social innovation, who have worked closely with Patrick over the years, we applaud the administration’s selection of this visionary and experienced leader who understands well the roles of indigenous and next-generation leadership, community problem solving, and cross-sector partnerships in community transformation.

Echoing Green first got to know Patrick when he served as the Executive Director of Innovation Network, a nonprofit organization that works to build the evaluation and results capacity of the nonprofit sector. Innovation Network was an invaluable partner to Echoing Green as we trained up our emerging social entrepreneurs to execute against their social business plans. Patrick continued to volunteer with Echoing Green after he was recruited as Senior Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. His expertise on nonprofit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and evaluation and performance measurement have made him a respected voice during Echoing Green’s renowned rigorous vetting process for its annual social entrepreneurship fellowship program. We are honored that Patrick has served as a board member of Echoing Green since 2008 where his leadership, management, and governance insights have been critical to the organization’s success.

An exciting part of Patrick’s portfolio at the Corporation will be the implementation of the Social Innovation Fund created by The Edward M Kennedy Serve America Act to identify the most promising, results-oriented non-profit programs and expand their reach throughout the country. He has the skills, experience, and networks to capitalize on this and the many other opportunities before the Corporation. As someone who has spent his career working in and with communities and who recognizes that most of the solutions to our nation’s most challenging social problems are being generated outside of Washington, Patrick will bring an important perspective on making government a catalytic and effective partner to the social sector as it drives towards the highest levels of performance and results.

We wish Patrick every success in this new endeavor. For more information about Patrick Corvington’s background, please read on:

Patrick was tapped in 2005 to serve as a Senior Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Patrick has co- authored publications such as Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out and Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis. He is a sought after thought leader and speaker on issues of nonprofit sector leadership and capacity and has presented keynote speeches, plenary discussions and workshops at Independent Sector, The Council on Foundations, The Corporation for National and Community Service conference, The Michigan Nonprofit Association, The Ohio Nonprofit Association, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, The Alliance for Nonprofit Management and New Profit’s Gathering of Leaders.

Patrick has worked with grassroots faith-based and community-based organizations, system reformers in fields such as education, child welfare, and justice, and national networks like Independent Sector, The United Way, and The Alliance for Children and Families. Prior to joining the Foundation, Patrick was Executive Director of Innovation Network, a non-profit agency whose mission is to build the evaluation and results capacity of the non-profit sector. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and The Nonprofit Workforce Coalition in addition to Echoing Green.