Foundation Staff

  Nick Hardigg, Executive Director

Nick arrives with 15 years of innovative experience in fundraising, advocacy, and public-private partnerships. Before joining Portland Parks Foundation, Nick was executive director for a fundraising organization, the Alaska Conservation Foundation, where he led a highly successful restructuring that tripled funds raised for nonprofits to over $4 million annually. During his four and a half years as executive director, he successfully launched new multi-million dollar programs in such diverse areas as climate change, salmon habitat protection, sustainable jobs creation in the Tongass National Forest, Alaska Native environmental justice, and organizational capacity for the 60+ grantees his team supported annually. Nick has worked for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon as director of finance and operations, and has managed public-private partnerships for the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon ($130 million annually) and Denali National Park, where he initiated nationally-recognized reforms and fundraising efforts. Nick has an MBA from Yale University, and a BA in environmental science from Wesleyan University. He has served on the governance and advisory boards of Alaska Geographic (the nonprofit partner for Alaska’s parks), Bicycle Commuters of Anchorage, the MBA Nonprofit Connection, the Foraker Group, and the Grand Canyon Community Center.

Nicolas McCarthy, Office Administrator

(Background coming!)

Sherry Manning, Philanthropy Consultant

Beginning in 2012, Sherry transitioned after over three years as Development Director to providing consulting services to the Foundation. With a BA in English and a desire to change the world, she left the Bay Area in the eighties to learn the value of networking, lobbying and working with the media as a campaign organizer for Greenpeace. The love of learning and research resulted in positions in the nonprofit arena where skills in grant writing and program development evolved. Years in between were dedicated to raising a family, volunteering, building houses, and seeing as much of the world as possible. Returning to work, she collaborated on projects with a number of local nonproft organizations including Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Humanities, and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Prior to coming to the Foundation she directed the Bicentennial Program at Lewis & Clark College.