Name: Adam Nation
Pronouns: he/him/his
Title: Network Engagement Director
Phone: 216-367-9512
Email: [email protected]
Here’s what I can help you with:
- I can convene conversations between you and other funders to create networks that can scale impact and solve complex problems.
- I can help facilitate conversations within your organization or existing collaborative partnerships to help you better understand your capacity, capabilities, potential and future directions.
- I can connect you to resources to help you improve or maintain your workflows, whether that’s grantmaking, operations or otherwise.
- I can help you understand how the data you collect every day can be used to help benchmark progress and be used to drive you toward your goals and objectives.
What’s your role at Philanthropy Ohio?
It is my primary goal to strategically connect our members with peers, resources and programming to accelerate their pace of change. In some cases, I may facilitate conversations that can help organizations and collaborative partnerships thrive. Ultimately, I want to help build the connective tissue between organizations, regions and people to form constellations that can truly improve communities.
What’s the best part about your job?
The thing I get excited for is having the opportunity to engage with members as individuals and as organizations and connecting them to the resources to help them improve and sustain their grantmaking. It allows me to take what I understand of a member’s needs and capabilities and recommend resources that they can benefit from. In many cases, that may also mean connecting them to other members who could benefit from seeing how they navigate particular issues or solve some vexing problem. Overall, it is about weaving together a network of members and resources will strengthen philanthropy across the entire state.
When did you start work at Philanthropy Ohio?
June 2026
Career background/education?
I have had a varied career that has spanned lots of capacities in the nonprofit and government spaces. I was most recently a senior consultant for a social impact consulting firm that worked with funders, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to help them utilize human-centered strategies and data practices to help them increase their impact. Previous to that, I was a program officer focused on health policy and community health at the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation in Cleveland. Other roles I have held include government relations, communications and health center operations.
My academic background includes a Master of Public Policy degree from The University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from The Ohio State University.
Current city, what do you like about it?
I currently live in Cleveland Heights, which I love for its blend of urban sensibility and close-knit community feel. I live within walking distance of three distinct neighborhood districts that have their own unique set of retail, coffee shops and restaurants but am also close with my neighbors. I was born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and have otherwise lived all over the Midwest since graduating college.
What’s something people might not know about you?
I do a physical crossword puzzle almost every day and I always do it in pen even though I usually make plenty of mistakes.
What do you do outside of work?
Most of my free time is scheduled around dog-walking or playing fetch at the park and includes things like finding cool places to go for hikes with my wife, playing golf with friends, birdwatching, trying to not forget how to play the guitar and reading things on physical media.