Lindsay McClung

Associate Director

Lindsay McClung

Associate Director

Lindsay started at the Gifford Foundation in April 2007, rising through the ranks to serve as the Foundation’s Associate Director. In her role, she manages the Community Grantmaking program designed to support nonprofits in Central New York through strategic investments, as well as the Foundation’s cohort-based capacity building initiatives.

In 2009, she began overseeing the Foundation’s capacity building initiative ADVANS (Advancing and Developing the Value and Assets of Nonprofits in Syracuse) which grew to a $3.9 million capacity building initiative under her leadership.

Realizing that nonprofit needs change depending on their developmental stage as well as environmental factors, Lindsay spearheaded POWER (People and Organizations with Energy and Resilience) targeting grassroots organizations and organizations in the start-up lifecycle phase. In response to the 2020 pandemic, she implemented Embracing Disruption: Resilience Amidst a Changing Environment – a capacity building initiative designed to address the rapid change and unprecedented disruption many organizations were facing and continue to face in the wake of Covid.

Through her involvement in these capacity building initiatives she has become a conduit for nonprofits and consultants in our community.

Lindsay has also implemented a variety of organizational effectiveness training initiatives for nonprofit organizations and consultants in CNY. She is a Certified Nonprofit Lifecycles Consultant and has been a member of the Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute since its inception (an Institute designed for a community of nonprofits, foundations and consultants driving organizational capacity and resilience in the nonprofit sector to build stronger communities).

Lindsay’s strong grants management experience has led to overseeing public sector partnerships in addition to her nonprofit work. She currently manages the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhood program through a partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Northern New York since 2009 and with the Southern District since 2018, New Jersey District in 2020, and Eastern New York in 2022.

In 2013, Lindsay converted the Foundation to an online grantmaking system, Foundant, which is in use today and remains the platform through which most Gifford Foundation initiatives are organized and tracked.

Lindsay is involved in community collaborations such as the Work Train Collaborative and has represented the Foundation in various community conversations.  Since 2009, Lindsay has served on the board of AccessCNY and is a member of their executive team. She has presented at a variety of professional conferences and webinars including: Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute, Foundant Annual Summit, Foundant webinars and the New York Funders Alliance.

Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from Iowa State University. She has received training and/or certification in Federal Financial Management, Certified Nonprofit Lifecycles Consultant, Lifecycles Consulting and Nonprofit Finance – Nonprofit Lifecycles Institute, Advanced Knowledge Management Essentials, Effective Grantmaking, and is a 2011 graduate of Leadership Greater Syracuse.

Originally from Iowa, Lindsay has lived in the Syracuse, NY area since 2007. She enjoys spending time with her family and her two dogs.