Practice background
Built inside the work.
I’ve worked on both sides of the grantmaking table. Before advising mission-driven institutions, I worked inside them, learning how money is raised, how grants move, and what it takes to keep relationships and systems working after the strategy meeting ends.
01California ChangeLawyersPrograms need operating discipline.
I supported the operations behind scholarship and fellowship programs designed to widen access to the legal profession: application processes, grant payments and reporting, events, records, and the day-to-day coordination that made the programs work for students and fellows.
02UC Law San FranciscoFundraising begins with long-term relationships.
In alumni relations, I coordinated communications, events, and relationship-building across a broad professional community. It was an early education in advancement as long-term stewardship: sustaining trust and a connection to the institution, not simply making an ask.
03Stupski FoundationA grant must remain clear from diligence through closeout.
At Stupski I moved to the funder side, managing the grantmaking practice across education, food, and health portfolios in the Bay Area and Hawai‘i through the foundation’s planned spend-down. I helped carry grants from due diligence and agreement through payment, reporting, amendment, and close-out, and built the dashboards and workflows that gave staff and leadership a live view of the practice. I also helped turn grantee feedback into changes in how the foundation worked: clearer processes, more flexible grantmaking, less burdensome reporting.
04The practice nowFunding, evidence, and execution belong together.
I know what a proposal asks of nonprofit staff, what a funder needs to document a decision, and what the operating system has to do after the grant is approved.
Operational infrastructure decides whether policy actually reaches people. I build the infrastructure.
About
I'm Daniel Oviedo, a strategist and operator for mission-driven institutions. I spent eight years in the sector, first raising money for California nonprofits, later managing the grantmaking practice at the Stupski Foundation, before completing an MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School with a concentration in public finance.
In 2026, fellowships took me inside the City of Worcester's Executive Office of Economic Development (through the Rappaport Fellowship, a competitive Harvard placement inside city government) and the Nevada Clean Energy Fund, Nevada's statewide green bank.
I work in plain language, show my sources, and build things the client can run without me. Born and raised in Costa Rica; based in San Francisco; working anywhere.
The best fit: real work already done, evidence scattered across drives and memory, and a decision that can't stay abstract much longer.
- Education
- MPA, Harvard Kennedy School · B.A. Political Science, UC Davis
- Training
- Certificate of Effective Philanthropy · Education for Philanthropy Professionals, Stanford PACS
- Fellowships
- Rappaport Fellow, City of Worcester · Fellow, Nevada Clean Energy Fund
- Before
- Stupski Foundation · ChangeLawyers · UC Law San Francisco
- Practice
- Philanthropy · Fundraising strategy · Grant writing · Grants management · Grantmaking operations · Public finance · Financial modeling · Data storytelling
- Organizations
- Nonprofits · Foundations · Cities · Public agencies
- Held to
- Accuracy before persuasion · Plain language · Built to hand off · You own everything we make
- References
- Available on request