Pamela J. Oakes, Managing Director of The Profitable Nonprofit, is a Fund Development consultant, speaker and trainer, helping nonprofits achieve funding sustainability in equitable and inclusive work cultures. Having worked successfully with nonprofits, foundations, universities, government and community organizations around the world, Pamela has trained organizational leaders and executives and personally underwritten or approved millions of dollars in grants and awards. Pamela’s passion is to ensure that those who want to change the world for ‘good’ have the funding and resources to do so.
While living and consulting in Johannesburg, South Africa, Pamela traveled extensively throughout the African countries of South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Nigeria and Zimbabwe conducting training workshops for government, corporate, community, and faith-based organizations in the areas of Diversity & Inclusion, Gender Equity, Change Management, Organizational Transformation, Employment Equity, Affirmative Action and Personal Empowerment.
Upon returning from Africa, Pamela worked for nearly a decade with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As a grant maker managing a multi-million dollar portfolio, her team worked to create a more equitable system of promoting social mobility and economic development for low-income, underrepresented, student populations of color. She has organized and managed convenings with the United States Conference of Mayors, worked with community advocates to launch a social impact enterprise addressing disproportional health disparities in low-income, underserved BIPOC communities, remains a spirited advocate for Equity & Inclusion and a champion for the empowerment of women and girls in developing nations.
Pamela is an active member in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Consultants Community of Practice. She attended the University of Washington where she majored in Political Science. A native of Seattle, Pamela enjoys travelling the globe, experiencing new cultures and collecting African-American art.