As co-founder of Creating the Future, Hildy Gottlieb has been called “the most innovative and practical thinker in our sector.” Her book, The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing “Nonprofit Organizations” to Create the Future of Our World, details her groundbreaking approach to aiming the work of the Community Benefit Sector at its highest potential – creating the future of our world. (Click here to read the first 4 chapters of the book.)
A prolific writer and advocate for the sector’s potential and a consultant to community organizations since 1993, Hildy helped develop the current Masters degree program in Community Leadership at Duquesne University, where she and her partner, Dimitri Petropolis, have taught as professors. Hildy’s books and workbooks have all become industry standards and are used as texts in both undergraduate and graduate programs around the world.
Hildy began her career as the legislative aide with the Tucson City Council. A serial entrepreneur, after leaving politics, Hildy started and operated several successful for-profit ventures, including a commercial construction company, a plant nursery, and along with Dimitri, a commercial real estate brokerage, management and business turnaround firm
In 1993, Hildy and Dimitri co-founded the consulting firm Help 4 NonProfits & Tribes, assisting community organizations and Native American tribal communities with strategy, governance and resource development. By 1998, Hildy and Dimitri had grown frustrated with the lack of significant long-term community improvement being created by “nonprofit” community benefit organizations around the world. Aiming their business turnaround skills at social change and leadership systems themselves, the result has been the world-changing work now being advanced by Creating the Future.
Hildy’s numerous awards include a Points of Light Citation from President Bill Clinton for her work in co-founding (along with Dimitri) the world’s first diaper bank- an effort that grew to spark the Diaper Banking movement across the U.S. Her writing has been seen in dozens of publications throughout the community benefit sector, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she hosts the monthly podcast, Making Change – interviewing change leaders from around the world.
When not working, Hildy can be found in the garden, at the movies, shooting photos, or watching the Daily Show.