Marcia Festen

Marcia Festen has over 30 years of leadership in Chicago’s nonprofit community. She is the Executive Director of the McDougal Family Foundation, which supports high school reform efforts and Great Lakes protection. In addition, Marcia also regularly works with local and national foundations to develop and assess their grant strategies. She served as Director of the Arts Work Fund for Organizational Development, a funder collaborative that supports capacity building for small arts and cultural organizations, from 2006 to 2026.

Marcia was a Senior Program Officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation from 1991–1999. There, Marcia designed, implemented, and evaluated national grantmaking strategies focusing on child and youth development, women’s health, and workforce development. From 1988 to 1991, Marcia was a case manager at Project Match. This organization tested new approaches for welfare-to-work policy using lessons learned through direct service provision in the Cabrini-Green public housing development. She also worked as a newspaper and direct mail catalog writer early in her career.

Marcia’s publications include Level Best: A Step-by-Step Guide to Evaluation for Grassroots Nonprofits; How Effective Nonprofits Work: A Guide for Donors, Board Members and Foundation Officers; and Community Panels for Youth—A Community-Based Alternative to Juvenile Justice Local Action Guide (for Northwestern University Legal Clinic).