Jim Pitofsky

1993

Jim Pitofsky

Education & Youth Leadership

The Bold Idea:

After getting a public interest law degree from Georgetown, Jim founded and directed IDEALS, an organization that worked internationally to create school/community and business/education partnerships. IDEALS was later adopted by the National Association for Partners in Education, and recognized by then-U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley as a national model for service-learning partnerships. IDEALS also became one of the lead training and technical assistance organizations under the U.S. federal government and Jim led trainings for every state in the U.S. and for numerous other countries. In addition, during that time, Jim also led national policy efforts to advance service-learning through the National and Community Service Coalition. As its elected president, he provided counsel to the Clinton Administration and to Congress in shaping federal legislation. The Coalition, representing thousands of programs and millions of volunteers, served as the leading collective voice for the service movement. He also was an informal advisor to President Clinton’s Initiative on Race.

Biography:

Jim Pitofsky serves as the Arizona Community Foundation’s Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing the $500M foundation’s strategic planning and execution, public policy, education, and strategic alliances, as well as ACF’s Center for Business Philanthropy. Prior to that, Jim served as the ACF’s Director of Education. In that capacity, Jim has led the Foundation's education grantmaking and the advising of high net-worth donors on their education grantmaking. Jim was actively engaged on committees of Governor Napolitano’s P-20 Council, and then provided input and policy recommendations to Governor Brewer’s Education Transition team. And, for Expect More Arizona, he serves on the Executive Committee and Chairs the Statewide Advisory Council. He also serves on the Boards for the National Institute for Civil Discourse and the Discovery Triangle, and the Advisory Boards for Stand for Children and the Rodel Foundation.