Valerie Lies
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Position: President and CEO
Organization: Donors Forum of Chicago
Location: Chicago, IL
Valerie Lies is a co-convener of the Government Oversight and Self-Regulation Work Group.
Valerie S. Lies is president and CEO of the Donors Forum of Chicago, a regional association of grantmakers with more than 180 foundation and corporate members and more than 1,200 nonprofit partners. In early 2004, the Donors Forum launched the Preserving the Public Trust Initiative, which has developed principles and best practices on governance and management for grantmakers and nonprofits. The forum also works closely with the Illinois Attorney General's Office and staffs the Attorney General's Charitable Advisory Council, which Ms. Lies co-chairs. Ms. Lies has worked in philanthropy since 1974, first at the Otto Bremer Foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota, including as executive director, and then as vice president of the Public Education Fund in Pittsburgh. Ms. Lies has served as a board member of Independent Sector, Minnesota Council on Foundations, Council on Foundations, National Council of Nonprofit Associations, National Center for Family Philanthropy, and Women and Philanthropy. She served as the founding chair of the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers.