Megan Kashner

  • Clinical Assistant Professor, Kellogg Public-Private Initiative
  • Director of the Social Impact Program
  • Founder, Benevolent

Megan Kashner is a Clinical Assistant Professor in Kellogg’s Public-Private Interface and Director of Social Impact. Kashner comes to Kellogg from an extensive career in the impact sector, most recently as the Founder of Benevolent, a philanthropic platform that invites donors to step in and fill gaps in the safety net for low-income families. Kashner is additionally an independent consultant, change-maker, and self-proclaimed “ticked-off social worker” with more than 20 years of strategic management, community partnership building and organizational planning experience across nonprofits, philanthropy, volunteerism and corporate social engagement.

Prior to founding Benevolent, Kashner served as an Executive Director at the Taproot Foundation and in executive and innovation roles in nonprofits and companies across the impact sector. Kashner and Benevolent have been featured at the White House, at national conferences on philanthropy and entrepreneurship, on CNN Headline News, in FastCompany, Mashable, Working Mother, MSNBC, the New Yorker and more.

In her leadership of Kellogg’s Social Impact offerings, Kashner brings new energy to the areas of impact investing, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, nonprofit management, policy, global development, values and ethics. Kashner and the Social Impact team in KPPI are helping Kellogg faculty, students and alumni lead the way in blending economic, social and environmental factors into management organizations and markets to deliver lasting benefits for society.

Kashner holds a B.A. in Public Policy from Brown University, an MSW from the University of Chicago and an MBA from Kellogg.