Keenya Lambert, new President and CEO, Chicago Foundation for Women

Keenya Lambert is a Chicago native with 20 years of successful nonprofit experience in fundraising, advocacy, direct service, and executive leadership. She has dedicated her career to funding movements that drive access to justice and opportunity. Most recently, she served as the Chief Development Officer for Nourishing Hope since 2022. During her tenure, the development team raised $7.7 million, earned the inaugural Northern Trust Anchor Award of $1 million, and managed over 6,700 volunteers to provide over four million meals a year to any person experiencing hunger in the city of Chicago. The Northern Trust Anchor Award supercharges Nourishing Hope’s plans to grow partnerships with trusted organizations on the South and West Sides of Chicago in communities that have long endured racial inequities.

Prior to serving at Nourishing Hope, Keenya led the development operations for the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. She successfully completed a multi-million-dollar campaign spearheaded by the Shriver family to build a new pipeline of funding supporting both new and ongoing efforts to fight poverty. For nearly a decade at the organization, she built a robust individual giving program, funded state and federal advocacy campaigns, and engaged national public leaders and celebrities as ambassadors of economic and racial justice. At Shriver, her leadership accelerated the work of attorneys advancing laws and policies that promoted economic mobility, racial justice, equitable housing, and access to quality healthcare.

Lambert has long been a strong advocate for diversity, equity, inclusion in fundraising and philanthropy, mentoring and supporting professionals of color in their growth and success in these fields.

Earlier in her career, she held various positions with The Chicago Urban League, KIPP Chicago, Arts Alliance Illinois, and Street-level Youth Media. Keenya earned a master’s in arts management from Columbia College Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College. Currently, she volunteers as a member of CFW’s South Side Giving Circle and enjoys spending time with her family.