Family Foundations Community of Practice

Join Catalyst’s first 2026 gathering of our Family Foundations Community of Practice, a funder-only space designed for learning, knowledge exchange, and connection with fellow family foundation peers and staff.

At this first meeting of the year, we will offer a deep dive into the findings from the 2025 Pulse of the Practice report, Catalyst’s regional survey of philanthropic practices developed in partnership with The Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego. We will explore the data through a family-foundation specific lens, highlighting trends among similar funders in our region.

Whether you’re a newly established family foundation, steward a long-standing organization, or support family philanthropy as staff, we invite you to join us in navigating family giving challenges and opportunities, together.

Target Audience

This program is designed for Catalyst members in family philanthropy. If you are interested in Catalyst membership, please contact Melissa Leon.

Catalyst is committed to making our events accessible to everyone. Please let us know how we can help you fully participate by contacting Maryan Osman. 

Speakers

Katie Janowiak | Senior Vice President, Strategy & Impact | Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties

Katie spearheads learning and evaluation efforts at Catalyst and informs our annual planning and strategic priorities. She works across functional areas to ensure our work plan is bringing our mission and vision to life for our members, our partners, and our community.

Katie brings more than a decade of corporate philanthropy and communications experience to Catalyst. She formerly served as Director, Communications & Knowledge Insights at the Council of Michigan Foundations and has held corporate philanthropy roles nationally at the T-Mobile Foundation and internationally with the Medtronic Foundation. In addition, Katie has served as a consultant to the foundation community on both corporate philanthropy and communications. Her career began in experiential marketing, where she managed national event strategy across several publishers for Borders Group Inc.

Katie serves on the board of Kids Included Together, and Katie holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication and a Certificate in Public Relations from Michigan State University. When not at work she can be found attempting to keep up with her husband and two young kids in Encinitas.