Taryn Watanabe Fordes

For over 25 years, Taryn Watanabe Fordes has helped nonprofit organizations build the programmatic infrastructure and raise the funds they need to fulfill their missions. As an independent consultant for the last 12 years, her focus has been on developing diversified funding plans, board development and philanthropic outreach strategies, fiscal year budgets/institutional revenue projections, and grants management systems and tools, for education and environmental nonprofit organizations, including: Riordan Programs/UCLA Anderson School of Management; Children’s Defense Fund-California; Jumpstart; Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP); Silicon Valley Community Foundation; the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce/UNITE-LA; USC Keck School of Medicine/USC Environmental Health Science Center; Moving Forward Network; and GREEN LA.

On a limited basis, Taryn also supports and/or manages special projects, including: an intergenerational early education and workforce conference for Generation to Generation Los Angeles; the national launch of LAUP/Child360’s Clinton Global Initiative Commitment, Take Time. Talk!; a capital campaign for the renovation of the Classics library at Brooklyn College; Riordan Programs 30th Anniversary Gala; and an online fundraising series for national members of the Moving Forward Network. She currently serves on the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) Board of Directors.

Previously, Taryn Fordes served as Deputy Director of Change Initiatives and Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations for the Liberty Hill Foundation, Director of Foundation and Corporate Relations for the Fulfillment Fund, and Director of Program Development for the American Lung Association of Los Angeles County (now Breathe LA). A veteran of the corporate world, she began her nonprofit career with the former Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) West Coast flagship station, KCET. A native Angeleno and product of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Taryn graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from UCLA, where she also received her Master of Arts degree in history.