Leslie MacKrell

Leslie MacKrell is a partner in Bridgespan’s New York office and head of Bridgespan’s Nonprofit/NGO Practice. She joined Bridgespan in 2011 and co-leads the firm’s Operating Model area of expertise.

Leslie led the development of Bridgespan’s operating model offerings, which have helped clients globally adapt or significantly transform how their organizations are designed. She is also a leader in Bridgespan’s gender equity community and focuses much of her client work on supporting rights-anchored philanthropies and NGOs. Her clients have included The Audacious Project and its portfolio organizations globally, the Gates Foundation, Apollo Impact, FP2030, the Center for Reproductive Rights, World Resources Institute, Last Mile Health, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Harlem Children’s Zone, and many others working to scale impact or respond to changes in the social sector landscape. She also serves as a coach in Bridgespan’s hybrid advisory program on Achieving Strategic Clarity.

Leslie has coauthored “Guiding a Giving Response to Anti-Black Injustice” (Bridgespan.org, 2020), “Operating Models: How Nonprofits Get from Strategy to Results” (Bridgespan.org, 2019), and “Cutting Costs to Increase Impact” (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2017).

Before joining Bridgespan, Leslie held a strategic planning role at the Ms. Foundation for Women, a national philanthropy focused on empowering women’s leadership for social justice, and worked as a fundraiser for the Ms. Foundation and other social justice organizations.

Leslie holds an MBA in organizational development from the Zicklin School of Business at the City University of New York and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, from Fordham University with a BA in American studies. She serves on the board of directors of the Center for Tech and Civic Life and the Omega Institute, and on the advisory council of Capitalize Good. She lives with her wife and son in Manhattan, near one of the city’s largest and finest forests.