Jan Masaoka
Speaker; Chief Executive Officer, California Association of Nonprofits
Jan Masaoka is the Chief Executive Officer of the California Association of Nonprofits (CalNonprofits) a statewide policy alliance and the voice for California’s nonprofit community. CalNonprofits is an effective advocate in Sacramento, able to mobilize 10,000 members covering 57 of California’s 58 counties. Jan is also a nationally recognized writer, researcher and speaker, with a focus on nonprofit business planning, boards of directors, and the role of nonprofits in society.
Her books include Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability (Jossey-Bass,co-authored with Jeanne Bell and Steve Zimmerman), the Nonprofit’s Guide to HR (Nolo) the Best of the Board Cafe (Fieldstone) and All Hands on Board: The Board of Directors in All-Volunteer Organizations (Boardsource). Before CalNonprofits, for 14 years Jan was the executive director of CompassPoint, a nonprofit consulting/training firm, and she founded and wrote Blue Avocado magazine, growing it to 64,000 subscribers before leaving in late 2015.
Jan was named Nonprofit Executive of the Year by Nonprofit Times, and is an eight-time designee as one of the Fifty Most Influencial” people in the nonprofit sector nationwide. She has testified on nonprofit policy issues at the federal and state levels, and her articles have been published in Nonprofit Quarterly, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Sacramento Bee, and Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Jan’s volunteer work has included serving as board chair of the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, founding chair of Community Initiatives, and a member of the Policy Committee of the Independent Sector, the San Francisco Telecommunications Commission, and the San Francisco Complete Count Committee in 2010.
First volunteer experience: One of Jan’s first volunteer experiences was during high school, when she volunteered with the Japanese American Citizens League. She helped the organization develop their mailing list the old-fashioned way--by reading through phone books and writing down the Japanese names.
