Bill Pitkin has worked in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors for three decades, in fields as diverse as teaching, community organizing, research and planning, and strategic philanthropy. Since 2019, he has advised dozens of organizations and foundations on catalyzing social change and equity through investments in collaborative leadership and systems and policy change. His consulting practice through Ayni Community Strategies LLC focuses on three areas: 1) Research, strategy advising, and strategic planning for organizations, programs and initiatives; 2) Development of implementation tools for organizational and programmatic strategic plans; and 3) Planning and facilitating meetings and learning communities. Recent clients have included Measure of America, Downtown Women’s Center, Brilliant Corners, and First 5 LA.
Bill was also Senior Policy Fellow at the Urban Institute from 2021 to 2026, where he led research and work on upward mobility, racial equity, and housing justice in the Research to Action Lab. At Urban, he helped secure resources to implement the Upward Mobility Initiative and oversaw strategic communications and the development of key tools such as the Upward Mobility Data Dashboard and the Toolkit for Increasing Upward Mobility. He is also a Fellow at the FrameWorks Institute, collaborating on strategic communications to influence media and public discourse on key social issues and Consultant/Collaborator at the Equilibrium Collaborative.
Previously, Bill was Director of Domestic Programs at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, overseeing the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of the domestic priority areas (homelessness, transition age foster youth, substance use prevention and youth workforce development). Among his accomplishments, he developed the strategic initiative approach and Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation (MEL) framework for the foundation and oversaw the development of a new communications function, leading a communications audit and redesign of the website. He also helped establish the Home for Good Funders Collaborative, which brought together over a billion dollars of public and philanthropic funding toward collective solutions to homelessness in Los Angeles County, and the LA County Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool, which is a model for coordinating public funding toward rental subsidies.
Prior to joining the Hilton Foundation, he was director of research and planning at United Way of Greater Los Angeles, where he oversaw the publication of research reports and led a strategic planning process resulting in that organization’s 10-year action plan to fight poverty in Los Angeles. Other past positions include executive director at the Los Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation and research director at the Advanced Policy Institute in the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
Bill served on the Funders Together to End Homelessness board of directors from 2008-2021 (chair from 2015-2018) and currently sits on the advisory board of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies and the steering committee for Neighborhood Data for Social Change. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in theological studies from Wheaton College (IL) and master’s and doctorate degrees in urban planning from UCLA.
Bill and his wife live in Los Angeles with their dog and have two adult children.
