Alexa Cortes Culwell

Advisory Board Member

Alexa Cortes Culwell is the co-founder of Open Impact, a strategic advisory firm partnering with exceptional social change leaders to envision, design and accelerate their impact. Her work focuses on strategic advising and planning, leadership development, and speaking and teaching. She is a co-author of the groundbreaking report, The Giving Code: Silicon Valley Nonprofits and Philanthropy, which has been featured in over 50 media stories since its release in Fall 2016.

From 2010-2015 Alexa served as a visiting practitioner at Stanford University’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Prior to this, Alexa spent nearly two decades building and managing significant philanthropies for successful entrepreneurs, including serving as the founding CEO of the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation.

She is known for creating diverse teams relentlessly focused on developing impactful grants, initiatives, and operating programs across a wide range of issues. She now actively coaches her clients on how to drive strategic clarity and grow cultures of accountability and learning.

Alexa is currently a member of the advisory board of Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2), a Leap of Reason Ambassador (promoting higher performance in the social sector), and a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley. She also served two-terms as a trustee for both Northern California Grantmakers and the Center for Effective Philanthropy in Cambridge, MA.

For the past 20 years, she has committed her passion, time, and personal resources to developing New Door Ventures, a nationally recognized nonprofit in San Francisco that creates economic opportunity for disconnected youth through job training and internships.