Founder, Upwardly Global
Jane Leu is Upwardly Global’s founder and served as the Executive Director for its first decade. She is an internationally recognized serial social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow with more than 30 years of experience in founding and leading social ventures. She was the founder or on the founding team of the Craigslist nonprofit venture forum, RefugeeWorks, seven Welfare-to-Work programs, the Hauser Research Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and her latest venture, Smarter Good. Founded in 2012, Smarter Good is a global professional services firm with a team of 100 professionals, and a dual mission to improve the efficiency and impact of small nonprofit organizations and create purposeful careers for aspiring changemakers in emerging markets. Jane currently serves as a Sr. Advisor to the Livelihood Impact Fund and is building out a grantmaking strategy and portfolio at the global intersection of migration and livelihoods. In 2023 she was the Sr. Advisor to the Inter-American Foundation, a US federal government agency focused on community development in Latin America. She has also been a Lecturer at the Center for Social Innovation, Stanford University Graduate School of Business and is the co-author of a book on trust-based philanthropy, Unicorns Unite: How Nonprofits and Foundations can build EPIC Partnerships. Her board and advisory roles have included Unlock Aid, Five One Labs which operates in Iraq and Colombia, Welcoming America, Migration Policy Institute, Dignity in Work for All, and Career College of California, among others.
Jane’s contributions and leadership have been recognized by BYU Social Innovator of the Year, John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, Jefferson Award for Community Service, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneur Award. She holds an MA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA from Tufts University. Jane lives in San Francisco, CA with her husband, Ted Levinson, an impact investor, and their dog, Tully.
