Colleen Muse
Senior AdvisorAs a Senior Advisor with the New York Advisory team, Colleen provides philanthropic advising and program staff services to multiple family foundations, individuals, and corporations. With her clients, she determines their values and priorities for philanthropy, develops and implements giving strategies, researches nonprofits and manages grantee relationships, and facilitates coalitions and family meetings. With an extensive background in advocacy and public policy, community-based nonprofit administration, and human-centered design, Colleen is a trusted thought leader to a variety of clients in the philanthropic sector.
Prior to joining Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Colleen worked as an Associate Director at Arabella Advisors, leading consulting engagements across strategy, grantmaking, evaluation, and governance projects for a variety of philanthropic clients. Colleen has also worked in human-centered design consulting for nonprofit and federal government clients. During graduate school, she was a fellow at Triangle Community Foundation, conducting research on community foundation advocacy efforts and their influence on public policy across the nation. Colleen began her career in community-based nonprofit fundraising and administration, serving as a grant writer and fundraiser for a regional youth services nonprofit in DC and as an AmeriCorps VISTA, working to support affordable housing initiatives for Black residents in San Francisco.
Colleen holds a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a BA in Global Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Colleen lives with her spouse and baby in Washington, DC, where you can find her out birding or trying new restaurants in search of the best southern biscuit.