Jason Franklin recently was named executive director of Bolder Giving, a Boston area nonprofit that encourages people to give to charitable organizations, which was credited as a key inspiration for the recently formed Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates Giving Pledge.

Before joining Bolder Giving, Franklin most recently served as deputy director of the 21st Century School Fund, an organization in Washington that works to improve school buildings.

Previously, he coordinated the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership Network housed at the NYU Research Center for Leadership in Action and has also worked for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, White House Office of National AIDS Policy, and Oregon Commission on Children and Families.

He serves on the boards of Resource Generation, North Star Fund, 21st Century School Fund, and Social Justice Philanthropy Collaborative and on the advisory board of Wealth for the Common Good.

A serial social entrepreneur, he co-founded Oregon Students Supporting Education (a statewide student organizing effort that helped prevent major budget cuts to Oregon public schools), the Multnomah Youth Commission (a youth-led agency that advises city and county leaders on program and policy decisions), and IAM LLC (an urban brownfield development planning firm that won the 2004 Goldman Sachs Global Social Venture Competition).

He has an MS degree in urban policy and nonprofit management from the New School’s Milano Graduate School and a BA degree in political communication from the George Washington University.

Impetus for Pledge Campaign

Melinda Gates has credited Bolder Giving with being an impetus behind the campaign to persuade the world’s billionaires to commit at least half of their fortunes to charity, according to a recent article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Bolder Giving received a $675,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in May, two months before the pledge campaign was announced.

Bolder Giving was founded in 2007 by Christopher and Anne Ellinger, nationally-recognized writers, counselors, workshop presenters, and organizers on issues of wealth and philanthropy, who recognized how rarely even very committed people gave at their full potential.

The organization was launched with “The 50% League,” stories from 50 people who had given at least 50% of their income, assets, or business profits. Earlier this month, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates launched Giving Pledge, a promise by 40 billionaires to donate at least half of their fortunes to charity.