Ben Goldfarb is the director of strategic initiatives for democracy, media, and policy. In this role, he advances programmatic alignment while also bringing a focus on specific bodies of work that help support and are critical to the success of overall programmatic strategies. This includes core efforts to strengthen democratic participation, bolster journalism and local news and information ecosystems, and advance public policy that connects and amplifies the goals of McKnight’s programs.
Ben joined McKnight in 2022 as its inaugural director of program alignment, assessing opportunities for greater strategic and operational alignment within McKnight’s programs. He is a seasoned nonprofit executive, campaign manager, organizer, trainer, and facilitator, with more than two decades of experience building leadership, organizations, and movements for economic and racial justice.
Most recently Ben was a partner at The Management Center, where he coached executive directors and senior leaders of national and state-based justice organizations to be more equitable, sustainable, and results-oriented, and helped to navigate nonprofit executive transitions involving new BIPOC leaders. Ben also served as a strategy consultant to organizations, campaigns, and foundations. Notably, Ben co-founded the Rural Democracy Initiative, a funder collaborative supporting multiracial civic engagement in rural and small city America and efforts to bridge the urban-rural divide.
Prior to his coaching and consulting practices, Ben served as executive director of Wellstone Action (now re:power), a capacity-building center providing training and technical assistance to economic and racial justice organizations on the leading edge of innovations in organizing, advocacy, and civic engagement. Ben was the startup organizer of U.S. Senator Tina Smith’s first campaign in 2018, was a senior advisor to the first-ever successful campaign to defeat a state constitutional amendment limiting the freedom to marry in Minnesota in 2012, and was campaign manager for U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar’s first successful election in 2006. As executive director of Progressive Minnesota, Ben initiated and oversaw the merger that led to the founding of TakeAction Minnesota in 2005.
Ben holds a mini MBA in nonprofit management from the University of St. Thomas and a bachelor of arts in urban studies from Macalester College. He lives in Minneapolis with his partner and three kids, and enjoys soccer, cooking, music, bicycling, and backpacking.
