Lauren Shaughnessy

Lauren Shaughnessy is a partner in Bridgespan’s San Francisco office. She joined the organization in 2012 and works with a wide range of philanthropic and nonprofit clients addressing systemic inequities and advancing economic mobility, with a particular emphasis on place-based change.

Lauren has supported and led engagements focused on strategic planning, performance measurement, and community engagement and planning. Her past clients include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Learn to Earn Dayton, StriveTogether, and several organizations through Bridgespan’s Leading for Impact program. She also works closely with high-net-worth individual donors and family foundations to define philanthropic goals and strategies, design sourcing and selection processes, and optimize operating models to improve giving effectiveness over time.

Lauren is a co-author of “Inflection Points in Family Philanthropy: Start Up, Scale Up, Tune Up” (Bridgespan.org, 2025) and “Philanthropic Sourcing, Diligence, and Decision Making: An Equity-Oriented Approach” (Bridgespan.org, 2023).

From 2015 to 2019, Lauren served as Director of Measurement & Learning at Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, where she led the development and implementation of the organization’s performance measurement strategy. Her work resulted in programmatic theories of change, the definition of key beneficiary outcomes, and primary research design.

Prior to joining Bridgespan, Lauren worked in marketing across both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, beginning her career in brand management at Kraft Foods. She holds a BBA and an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.