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Clara Miller    

President Emerita of the Heron Foundation, which helps communities help themselves out of poverty

Clara Miller is President Emerita of the Heron Foundation, which helps people and communities help themselves out of poverty. She was President of Heron from 2011 through 2017.

Clara Miller was President and CEO of Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF), a national leader in nonprofit, philanthropic and social enterprise finance. NFF, which Ms. Miller created and ran for over 25 years, serves as a "philanthropic bank" serving both social sector organizations and their funders. A 2007 Fast Company Social Capitalist award-winner, NFF has helped thousands of nonprofit organizations strengthen their financial health and improve their capacity to serve their communities. NFF is a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Directly and with others, NFF has leveraged $1 billion of capital investment into nonprofits, and also has provided over $ 200 million in direct loans. Other products available to both nonprofits and funders include workshops, business analyses, loan guarantees and multi-year contracts to build balance sheet strength.

Ms. Miller was named among The NonProfit Times "Power and Influence Top 50" in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009. Miller serves on the boards of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Family Independence Initiative, and StoneCastle Financial Corp. She is a board member of the U.S. Impact Investing Alliance and is a Bridgespan Fellow. In 2017 she was named Social Innovator of the Year by the University of New Hampshire.

Ms. Miller was a Clinton appointee to the U.S. Treasury's Community Development Advisory Board, initially as a member and later as its Chair. She chaired the Opportunity Finance Network board for six years.

Ms. Miller speaks and writes extensively about nonprofit capitalization and finance and has been published in The Financial Times, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Community Wealth Vanguard, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Nonprofit Quarterly, and Worth Magazine.

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