Michelle Sklar

Vice President, Development and Business Services

As vice president of development and business services, Michelle is responsible for developing the strategy that seeks out and brings new donors to the community foundation.

Before joining the community foundation in April 2010, Michelle was the senior director of development for Second Harvest Food Bank where she increased fundraising more than 40 percent. She worked with individuals, corporations, foundations and other nonprofit entities and under her leadership, the number of donors to the food bank increased 53 percent.

Prior to joining Second Harvest in 2006, Michelle spent seven years as director of stewardship and development for St. Nicholas Parish and School in Los Altos Hills, where she helped complete a campaign that eventually grew the school's endowment into the largest of any elementary school in the Diocese of San Jose. She began her career in development at Stanford University's Institute for International Studies.

She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and serves on the board of the Silicon Valley Chapter as the vice president elect of education and was named "volunteer of the year" by the Writing Center in San Diego for her outreach efforts on their behalf.

A long-time resident of the Bay Area, Michelle grew up in Santa Clara and Los Altos, crossing the bay to attend UC Berkeley. She graduated from Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. When not at the community foundation, she can be found cheering on her older daughter at regional volleyball tournaments, cooking with her younger daughter or doing a trail run.