Who
We Are


Mission

Nonprofits are critical, yet the deck is stacked against them—they’re under-resourced and have inadequate outside support. We use our experience, financial resources and connections to help nonprofits navigate complex challenges. We create new ways for funders to support them. Together with our nonprofit and funder partners, we fight for a healthier and more just society.

History

SeaChange is a nonprofit founded in the belief taking a transactional or quantitative approach can help nonprofits facing complex challenges.

After an initial focus on education and youth development (2007-2010), we gradually expanded into grant-making in support of mergers and sustained collaboration (2008-present); flexible, impact-first lending (2013-present); and analysis/advice (2015-present).

SeaChange’s work will continue to evolve in response to the challenges faced by nonprofits, the priorities of funders, and the interests of our team.

  • We are guided by the facts.
  • We are professional and level-headed even in the most challenging and delicate situations.
  • We are entrepreneurial in seeking new ways to support nonprofits.
  • We are creative in drawing upon the best practices of the nonprofit, for-profit, and public sectors.
  • We value our independence and financial stability.
  • We respect our partners—nonprofit and funder—and one another.
  • We strive to do no harm.

Guiding
Principles

Meet
the team


Staff

John MacIntosh

John MacIntosh

Managing Partner

John MacIntosh

John MacIntosh

Managing Partner

John joined SeaChange in 2008 in the hope of putting his transactional skills and finance experience to use for good. Although SeaChange has evolved a great deal over the intervening years, he is as excited as ever by what we do and feels privileged to work with entrepreneurial colleagues and committed funders to help nonprofits — from the largest “battle ships” to the smallest, grass-roots organizations — do their vital work. John came to SeaChange by way of a mid-life Masters in Philosophy and Public Policy at the London School of Economics. Prior to LSE, he was a partner at Warburg Pincus (a global private equity firm) in New York, Tokyo, and London; a software engineer in Tokyo; and a management consultant at Oliver Wyman in New York. In addition to his work at SeaChange, John serves as a trustee of the Putney School, the Brooklyn Heights Association, and the John Jay College Foundation. John grew up in Canada but moved to the United States to attend Princeton where he got an engineering degree and met his wife. They have four grown children and live in Brooklyn where he is the goal-keeper for Heights FC.

Taj Tabassoom
Taj Tabassoom

Taj Tabassoom

Partner

Taj leads SeaChange's lending and investment activities, overseeing Contact Fund and The New York Pooled PRI Fund, both of which lend to New York City nonprofits, as well as The New York Impact Opportunities Fund, an impact investment vehicle that makes equity and credit investments. Prior to joining SeaChange, Taj worked in JPMorgan Chase’s credit risk and emerging markets groups. Taj initially gained exposure to nonprofits through consultancy work and volunteer board positions, the most recent with Women’s World Banking, where she advised the organization on the launching of micropension products for low-income women in India. She began her career working at Basel Asset Management, a hedge fund of funds. Taj holds a Master of International Affairs in Economic Development from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Baruch College. She sits on the board of the Vita Life Story Club, a nonprofit that seeks to promote healthy aging and reduce social isolation amongst older adults.

Lindsay Kijewski

Lindsay Kijewski

Senior Vice President

Lindsay Kijewski

Lindsay Kijewski

Senior Vice President

Lindsay leads SeaChange's collaboration-related grantmaking activities. In this capacity, she manages the SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration and serves as the Director of the Greater Philadelphia Nonprofit Repositioning Fund. She is also involved with the Transformational Partnerships Fund (for higher education) and the New York Merger and Collaboration Fund. Before joining SeaChange, she served as a Social Impact Fellow with the University of Pennsylvania Center for High Impact Philanthropy and Penn’s M.S. in Nonprofit Leadership program. In her time at Penn, Lindsay focused on strategic planning, design and delivery of leadership development curriculum, and program expansion. Lindsay began her career at the University of Virginia Alumni Association, managing a portfolio of alumni affinity groups and their volunteer boards. Lindsay is an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, where she teaches graduate coursework in nonprofit governance and serves on the School’s Standing Committee on Race and Social Justice. She holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia. Lindsay serves on the board of the Valentine Foundation Visionary Leadership Fund.

Minji Kim

Minji Kim

Senior Associate

Minji Kim

Minji Kim

Senior Associate

Minji assists SeaChange's lending and grantmaking activities. Prior to joining SeaChange, Minji worked in the M&A group at SMBC Nikko Securities America. She began her career as a Development Associate at Association to Benefit Children, a New York City-based nonprofit that provides early childhood education, family preservation services, and mental health care services to underserved children and families. In Korea, where she was born and raised, Minji led a national student-run volunteer organization called 2for1 that supports North Korean defectors in South Korea and China. Minji holds a BA in Sociology from Princeton University and an MPA with a concentration in Social Impact, Innovation & Investment from NYU Wagner. She is proud to be part of the 10th cohort of the Samsung Scholarship and is a former fellow of Princeton Project 55 and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Alexander Volpicello

Alexander Volpicello

Director of Operations

Alexander Volpicello

Alexander Volpicello

Director of Operations

Alex is SeaChange’s Director of Operations, overseeing the organization’s policies and processes for governance, strategy, administration, logistics, communications, and technology. Alex also serves as the Secretary of SeaChange's Board of Directors. Prior to joining SeaChange, Alex worked as a litigation paralegal and pro bono legal specialist at Proskauer Rose LLP, a private law firm based in New York City, where he focused on directly representing and facilitating access to justice for low-income individuals, small businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Brown University, where his studies focused on American racial dynamics. Alex is a lifelong New Yorker with immense passions for mental health & wellness, disability justice, and gender equity.

Annabel Barreiro

Annabel Barreiro

Director of Finance

Annabel Barreiro

Annabel Barreiro

Director of Finance

Annabel is an accounting advisor from Kiwi Partners serving as SeaChange’s external Director of Finance. Annabel has over 18 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector. Prior to Kiwi Partners, Annabel was the Director of Finance at Aguila, a $35M+ organization that partners with the City of New York to provide housing and support services. She developed, implemented, and ensured compliance with internal financial and accounting policies and procedures. Annabel oversaw bank account reconciliations, maintained the general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and prepared annual budgets per program in consultation with the CEO & CFO. Previous roles included Alliance Home Services, a home healthcare services agency, where Annabel supervised the Fiscal Department and Accounts payable/receivable, and all billing matters. Annabel has federal funding experience managing DYCD contract funding. She is especially knowledgeable around NYC contracts and the essentials of nonprofit financial management such as pay and benefits, allocations, etc. She has an instinct for the financial performances of each program or group of programs, and this makes Annabel a very reliable financial navigator and valuable counsel to the Executive Director and Board. Annabel is fluent in Fund-EZ, MAS90, Financial Edge, Intacct, Paypro, QBO and Bill.com. She is a dedicated accounting professional and enthusiastic about her work within the nonprofit sector. She is a highly motivated, proactive, and well-organized accountant. At the same time, she is a curious and constant learner, always pushing herself to new heights. Annabel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Mercy College and an MBA in General Management from the Metropolitan College of New York. She is fluent in Spanish and English.

Board

Margaret Crotty

Board Co-chair

Margaret Crotty

Board Co-chair

Margaret Crotty is the President & CEO of JSI and World Education. Prior to JSI, Margaret served as CEO of the Partnership with Children, a New York City-based provider of community health services and school-based mental health programs.

In 2008, Margaret launched and ran Save the Children’s $2 billion initiative to reduce child mortality in the developing world. Previously, she was the President and CEO of AFS-USA, formerly the American Field Service, which has provided intercultural exchanges for over 300,000 high school students since 1947. Margaret was also the Executive Director of a workforce development agency serving NYC and Washington, DC. In the private sector, Margaret spent seven years at the global corporation EF Education, living in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris, first on the management team of EF’s online education business, and later as President of EF’s higher education business. She has lived in Indonesia twice, working for Save the Children and for McKinsey.

Margaret has a BA from Princeton, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She serves on the boards of Northwell Health, Lenox Hill Hospital, Crutches 4 Kids, the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, Third Street Music School Settlement. She is a YPO member, and chairs Emerging Leaders, a management development program for social sector leaders.

W. Bowman Cutter

Board Member

W. Bowman Cutter

Board Member

W. Bowman Cutter is Senior Fellow and Director of the Economic Policy Initiative at the Roosevelt Institute. He was a managing director of Warburg Pincus between 1996 and 2009, where he served both as the firm’s economist and as a leader in its international business, with particular reference to Asia. Mr. Cutter has served during two Democratic presidencies: at the National Economic Council, from 1992-1996, during the Clinton Presidency – as director of the National Economic Council and Deputy Assistant to the President; and at the Office of Management and Budget from 1976-1981, during the Carter Presidency, as Executive Director for Budget. Mr. Cutter also served as leader of the OMB transition team after the election of President Obama.

From 1981-1993, he was vice chairman and managing partner at Coopers & Lybrand, the global accounting and consulting firm that subsequently merged with Price Waterhouse, where he managed a major consulting practice and was also responsible for overall strategy.

Mr. Cutter is the current-past Chairman of the Board of CARE, the global development organization; a member of the executive committee and immediate past co-chairman of the Committee for Economic Development; and a member of the New York Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Cutter holds degrees from Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Valerie Gay

Board Member

Valerie Gay

Board Member

Val is a “Generalist” with “Specialist” tendencies. Over the years she has used her creativity to become a leader in several industries, including banking, academia, the arts, and nonprofits.

Val is a mission-driven leader and is very interested in making the world a better place and is guided by her personal Purpose Statement: “to use my gifts and talents to encourage, inspire and empower others to seek and find their own life’s potential so that we each can make the world a better place.”

A serial entrepreneur since 2006, Val exercises her Purpose creatively through all of her "work.” Val is also a Principal at Spector | Gay Consulting and Deputy Director of Audience Engagement & Chief Experience Officer at the Barnes Foundation.

Taylor Kushner

Treasurer

Taylor Kushner

Treasurer

Taylor Kushner is a co-founder and managing partner of Grove Point Partners, where he focuses on alternative investing opportunities. He is also a co-founder of Grove Point Marinas, an institutionally-backed acquirer of lifestyle-oriented properties throughout North America. Previously, Taylor was a Managing Director at HPS Investment Partners and prior to that held positions at TPG Special Situations Partners, the credit and special situations investing platform of TPG Capital, and at Goldman Sachs in its Special Situations and Investment Banking Divisions. He has led complex debt and equity transactions involving real estate, operating businesses, other alternative assets, and platforms. Throughout his career, Taylor has acted as a director for a number of privately held companies. In addition, he has served as a trustee and co-Chairman of the Urban Arts Partnership, a New York-based nonprofit that advances the intellectual, social and artistic development of underserved public-school students through arts-integrated education programs. Taylor is a graduate of Georgetown University. He lives in Miami with his wife, Nessia, and three sons.

Georgia Levenson Keohane

Board Member

Georgia Levenson Keohane

Board Member

Georgia Levenson Keohane is the CEO of the Soros Economic Development Fund, the economic development and impact investing arm of the Open Society Foundations. She has more than twenty years of leadership experience in the private and nonprofit sectors at the intersection of the capital markets, innovative philanthropy, responsible business and investing, and public policy.

Previously, she served as President of the Navab Capital Partners (NCP) Foundation and head of the firm's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practice, and before that Executive Director of the Pershing Square Foundation. A former McKinsey consultant, Keohane has advised CEOs, boards, management teams, and institutional, corporate, and philanthropic investors on strategy, operations, ESG, sustainable and impact investing, and inclusive growth.

She is also an adjunct professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, where she hosts the Capital for Good podcast. Keohane speaks and writes regularly on social and economic policy, philanthropy, stakeholder capitalism, and the role of business in society, and is the author of two award winning books, Capital and the Common Good: How Innovative Finance is Tackling the World's Most Urgent Problems (2016) and Social Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century: Innovation Across the Nonprofit, Private and Public Sectors (2013). Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Time, and the Harvard Business Review, among other publications.

Keohane serves on several corporate and nonprofit boards, and holds a BA from Yale University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MSc from London School of Economics, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.

Frank Liu

Board Member

Frank Liu

Board Member

Frank is an award-winning strategic creative thinker with over 35 years of experience in branding, advertising, and nonprofits. He is the founder of Brand Justice, a brand identity consultancy that builds diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into the foundations of brands.

He has worked at agencies and firms such as Waring & LaRosa, Grey, Gotham, Deutsch, JWT, and Siegelvision. Some of the clients he has worked with are Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Chase, American Express, Microsoft, Sony Ericksson, Hennessy, AT&T, Microsoft, Air France, Liz Claiborne, and Maybelline. Frank's passion for purpose-driven work led him to the Robin Hood Foundation. As the Chief Creative Officer at Siegelvision, he worked with numerous organizations fighting for social and equity justice.

Frank was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when he was 11 years old. While learning to speak English, he used drawings to communicate with other children at school. That experience taught him the power of visual communication and it became his passion. The skills he acquired to reconcile his own multi-layered identity gave him a passion for the brand identity business. He studied art and business at Cornell University, and advertising at School of Visual Arts. He has exhibited paintings in galleries and museums around the world.

As the founder of the Dinner Guys Giving Circle, Frank and his friends fund under-resourced Asian American and Pacific Islanders LGBTQ+ organizations. He was named by AAPIP (Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy) as one of the top 25 Leaders in Action. He served on the board of the Stonewall Community Foundation. Frank is currently the chair of the Governance Committee on the SeaChange Capital Partners board.

Sr. Paulette LoMonaco

Board Member

Sr. Paulette LoMonaco

Board Member

For the past 39 years, Sr. Paulette served as the Executive Director of Good Shepherd Services until her retirement in December 2019. Paulette began her work at Good Shepherd as the program director of one of the residential programs for adolescent girls and subsequently was the first director and developer of the Human Services Workshops, a professional development program. Under Paulette’s leadership, Good Shepherd evolved from a small provider of out-of-home care into one of NYC’s largest, most respected multi-service agencies with an annual budget of $100 million. During her tenure, she fostered the development of many innovative model programs which have been replicated across the city and nation, including the agency’s transfer high school, LifeLink, a college prep and retention program and supportive housing programs, as well as its Program Evaluation and Planning department.

Sr. Paulette holds a Master’s in Family and Community Relations from Columbia University’s Teachers College and has received numerous awards, including the Robin Hood Hero Award (2003), the Lewis Hine Award (2008), and City & State’s 50 Over 50 Lifetime Achievement Award (2017). She was also selected by City & State as one of New York’s 50 Over 50 (2016), Power 100 (2017), and Nonprofit Power 50 (2018). Sr. Paulette holds honorary doctorates from St. Francis College and Fordham University. Along with SeaChange, she currently serves on the boards of SCO Family of Services, the Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation, the Good Shepherd International Foundation, Collier Youth Services, and Brooklyn Jesuit Prep.

John MacIntosh

Board Member

John MacIntosh

Board Member

John spends much of his time exploring new ways that SeaChange might help nonprofits facing complex challenges. Prior to joining SeaChange in 2008, John was a partner at Warburg Pincus in that global private equity firm’s New York, Tokyo, and London offices. At Warburg Pincus, he was responsible for overseeing the firm’s expansion into several new international markets and industry segments, designed the firm’s investment performance and measurement system, was co-head of professional development, and served as a director of 16 portfolio companies. John remains involved with Warburg Pincus as a limited partner. Earlier in his career John worked as a software engineer in Tokyo and a management consultant at Oliver Wyman.

John did a mid-life masters in philosophy at the London School of Economics. At the same time, and in conjunction with Lord Richard Layard of the Centre for Economic Performance (at the London School of Economics) and Dr Martin E.P. Seligman of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, he coordinated a three-year program in resilience-building and depression prevention for more than 3,000 children across 25 middle schools in the United Kingdom.

John has a BSE from Princeton University and a MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics. In conjunction with his role at SeaChange, he serves as an observer on a number of nonprofit boards (or finance committees), is a trustee of John Jay Foundation, and is an equity investment advisor to MicroVest Capital Management. John lives in Brooklyn with his wife and four daughters.

Mark Reed

Board Member

Mark Reed

Board Member

Mark Reed is founder and manager of Contact Fund, a private investment fund focused on high-impact community development in New York City. Founded in 2005 and working on behalf of over 50 investors, the fund makes short and medium term loans of $100,000 to $600,000 in housing, food, social services, charter schools, micro-finance, and financial services and credit unions.

Mark is a former Vice President of Portfolio Management at Bank of New York, where he concentrated on North American corporate credit risk management. While at the bank, he co-managed a $500 million bond portfolio and a $300 million credit derivative portfolio. Mark was also a Principal at Alembic Community Development, a mission-driven real estate developer operating in New York City and New Orleans.

Since 1997, Mark has served on the Board of Directors of Simpson Investment Company and its sister company, Green Diamond Resource Company. Green Diamond is a fourth generation family-owned forest products company selling FSC-certified wood products in Washington and California. Early in his career, Mark managed an after-school program for public housing residents in San Francisco’s Mission District and managed a youth community center. He holds a BA in Anthropology from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Business at NYU. He lives with his wife and three children in Manhattan.

Aaron Siegel

Board Member

Aaron Siegel

Board Member

Aaron is a managing director at Goldman Sachs in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group of the Investment Banking Division, where he leads the Entertainment Investment Banking team. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2003 as an analyst and was named managing director in 2015. Aaron serves on the Board of Directors of the Arthur Miller Foundation, a nonprofit that provides access to theater education in public schools and aims to increase the number of students that receive a theater education as an integral part of their academic curriculum. Aaron earned an A.B. in Computer Science from Harvard University in 2003.

Tata Traore-Rogers

Board Co-chair

Tata Traore-Rogers

Board Co-chair

Tata Traore-Rogers is a seasoned nonprofit executive and passionate advocate for women's rights in the US and abroad. Tata currently works with the American Civil Liberties Union as a Director of People and Business Management in the Affiliates Support Department where her role is to ensure that the ACLU national offices and their 54 affiliates work together as a cohesive nationwide organization that seamlessly promotes and pursues common objectives.

Prior to her work with the ACLU, Tata was the Executive Director of Manifesta, an independent digital campaigning platform grounded in human rights and feminist principles. In her role as ED, Tata sought to advance change and facilitate collective action for gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights, connecting individuals around the world to the work of feminist organizations and networks. Other previous roles include Executive Director of Turning Point Brooklyn and Deputy Executive Director of the Astraea Foundation.

Tata is often engaged to work internationally as a meeting planner, facilitator, and coach. She also serves on a number of local nonprofit boards. Tata is an adjunct professor at CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, where she teaches courses on Urban Public Health and Community Health. Tata has been a resident of various countries around the globe and is fluent in several languages, bringing a unique intercultural perspective to her work. She is currently training to become a psychoanalyst at Reik Institute of Psychoanalysis. She lives in Brooklyn with her two daughters.

Charles T. Harris III

Founder Emeritus

Charles T. Harris III

Founder Emeritus

Chuck was the co-founder of SeaChange, the first Executive Partner (2007-2011), and a member of the Board (2007-2016). Chuck’s energy, passion, and values have had a profound effect on SeaChange. Although Chuck stepped down from the Board in 2016, he remains actively connected with SeaChange in formal and informal ways.

Chuck serves as a Special Advisor to Blue Meridian Partners, providing strategic input to the Investor Relations team and overall operations, fundraising, and governance. Outside of this role, Chuck continues to explore ways to be most effective in the philanthropic sector. Before transitioning to Advisor in February 2021, Chuck served as Blue Meridian’s Chief Development Officer, and prior to that as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer. Having helped to launch Blue Meridian from its inception, he provided the leadership necessary to build the initial partnership structure and steward Blue Meridian’s relationships with philanthropists. He spearheaded continuous fundraising, allowing Blue Meridian to become an independent 501c3 in 2018 and raise over $2B in investable capital by 2020. He helped hone a pooled funding method that pulls insight and tactics from the best models in both the private and public sectors. Chuck’s work and advisement was key in establishing Blue Meridian’s capital aggregation and investing approach, pioneering a new, sustainable model of philanthropic giving.

Prior to joining Blue Meridian, he served as Portfolio Manager and Director of Capital Aggregation for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF), where he managed relationships with various grantees and oversaw the Foundation’s capital aggregation activities. Previously, Chuck co-founded and served for five years as Executive Partner of SeaChange. Chuck also spent 23 years in the banking business before retiring in 2002 from his position as a Partner and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, where he served as co-head of the East Coast High Technology Group in the firm’s Investment Banking Division and as co-head of Corporate Finance in the Americas.

Chuck has served extensively on the boards of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations as well as privately held and publicly traded for-profit corporations. Additionally, he has spoken broadly on the role of capital formation in advancing social change. Chuck is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a master’s degree in finance from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Making
an impact


We are privileged to engage with nonprofits of all shapes and sizes, pursuing a diverse range of missions, and facing a myriad of complex challenges. We ask questions, challenge assumptions, and analyze data to support nonprofits in making informed, mission-driven decisions.

We apply the same process to ourselves. We regularly assess our approach to ensure that we are using our human and financial capital in the most effective way. We are in an ongoing dialogue with our funding partners about impact. We constantly ask ourselves: Did we help our nonprofit partners address their specific challenges? What might we have been able to do better?

see our impact

What
we do


SeaChange provides grants, loans, analysis and advice to help nonprofits work through complex financial and organizational challenges.

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