At our June lunch, Fund for the Arts President and CEO Christen McDonough Boone and Metro United Way Chief Development Officer David Lopez talked with a “room of disruptors” about how their organizations are leaning into the changing business landscape in unique ways. They discussed why businesses must address our community’s social needs, arguing that people move to a region for a job but they stay because of culture and a healthy ecosystem. Click here to read more in Insider Louisville!
Fund for the Arts is the regional arts agency that raises $9 million annually through a united arts campaign, drives arts access, education and innovation throughout the region, and supports more than 100 organizations, artists and initiatives. Boone led the creation and implementation of the community’s cultural plan, Imagine Greater Louisville 2020, released in 2017. Before joining the Fund for the Arts, she served in leadership roles for some of the country’s most treasured cultural institutions. She has raised more than $250 million for regional nonprofit organizations, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Cincinnati’s Fine Arts Fund and The Parklands of Floyds Fork. She served as Director of the Greater Louisville Project and founded the Boone Group, coaching and consulting in nonprofit and community development. Boone also serves as the Chair of the national Private Sector Council for the Americans for the Arts, and locally on the board of Greater Louisville Inc., Louisville Downtown Partnership, Center for Nonprofit Excellence, Arts and Cultural Alliance, the Governors Scholars Program and as Chair of the GSP Foundation.
Metro United Way is committed to changing lives in our community by fighting for the education, financial stability and health of every person in Bullitt, Jefferson, Oldham and Shelby counties in Kentucky and Clark, Floyd and Harrison Counties in Indiana. Prior to joining Metro United Way, Lopez was the founding Executive Director of Teach For America – San Diego, where he partnered with local philanthropists and business leaders to start the Teach For Innovation Awards – a set of prizes that recognized the most innovative education practices in the region. He got his start in the nonprofit sector in 2008, leading an education outreach program for United Farm Workers, an organization started by Cesar Chavez. Before transitioning to nonprofits, David spent nearly a decade as a technical sales and marketing professional – a career that took him all across the country, including to Louisville for the first time back in 2006.
