Joanna Jacobson

Board Memberships: David Project, Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative, Youth Villages Recent Activity: Gave $5.1 million in grants in 2011 Jacobson, a Harvard MBA and former president of the Keds Corporation, brings a venture philanthropist’s focus on results to Strategic Grant Partners, which she started in 2002 as a nonprofit incubator. Legendary investors such as Seth Klarman, James Pallotta, and Josh Bekenstein enlist her to help them discover, and then fund, some of the area’s best nonprofits. Groups receiving SGP donations, which have included Year Up and Youth Villages, are expected to quantify their results, in the form of, say, higher test scores or revenue growth.