Barbara Blumenthal

Barbara joined CRE in January 2005 and brings 17 years of consulting experience to our work with community groups. Her client work is often focused on organization development, leadership coaching, strategic planning, data driven management and board development topics. In addition to direct client work, Barbara leads the CRE Institute for Applied Research, a new effort to consolidate a growing number of research initiatives at CRE, from a longitudinal study of CRE’s work with clients to funded research on capacity building strategies and nonprofit management topics. In 1999 Barbara began a study to compare approaches to capacity building offered by funders and intermediaries, and identified several problems common to traditional technical assistance. This work resulted in a book, Investing in Capacity Building: A Guide to High Impact Approaches, published by the Foundation Center in 2003, that highlights two alternative approaches to the delivery of management support to nonprofits that promise greater impact, and features CRE as an example. Barbara has a Ph.D. in Management from the University of Michigan and has taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University since 1998, and brings extensive private sector experience.