National Philanthropic Trust Welcomes Two Board Members

Warren Thaler and Tamara Watts join the Board of Trustees at the largest national, independent donor-advised fund public charity

JENKINTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), the largest national, independent public charity that manages donor-advised funds (DAFs), and one of the leading grantmaking institutions in the U.S., is pleased to announce the appointment of Warren Thaler and Tamara Watts to its Board of Trustees.

“On behalf of National Philanthropic Trust, I am delighted to welcome Warren Thaler and Tamara Watts to our Board of Trustees,” said Holly Welch Stubbing, CEO of National Philanthropic Trust. “Warren’s significant investment expertise and Tamara’s extensive tax-exempt legal knowledge will prove valuable to NPT’s mission of increasing charitable giving worldwide. Recently, NPT surpassed 800,000 grants to charitable organizations in the U.S. and more than 50 countries by supporting our donors’ philanthropic objectives. We look forward to Warren and Tamara’s contributions to our Board of Trustees as NPT prepares for the future of philanthropy while helping donors support what means most to them, every day.”

Warren Thaler is a private investor and former President of Gund Investment Corporation, where he managed the investment capital of Gordon Gund and his family for 27 years. Impressed by the potential of Align Technology’s “Invisalign,” he was an early investor in the company and served on its board for 19 years while investing for the Gund family in other early-stage public and privately held healthcare companies.

Thaler’s nonprofit work has included serving as an officer on the board of the Foundation Fighting Blindness (FFB), where he helped conceptualize and chair the organization’s venture philanthropy initiative, The Retinal Degeneration Fund, which invests in early-stage companies working in the field of retinal degeneration. Thaler also served on the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Cavaliers and represented the franchise as its Alternate Governor at meetings of the National Basketball Association’s Board of Governors.

Warren holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He rowed on the lightweight crew team at Princeton and was on a boat that won the Eastern Sprints in 1981.

Tamara Watts is an attorney with 25 years’ experience advising tax-exempt organizations on a wide range of legal issues, as both in-house and outside counsel. Watts currently acts as Vice President, Legal and General Counsel for The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation. Previously, she was a Managing Deputy Director within the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation legal team, primarily supporting teams within the Global Health and Global Development Divisions and Finance.

Watts is also a former partner and Co-Practice Group Lead of the K&L Gates, Tax-Exempt Organizations Practice Group and served as Co-Chair of the International Philanthropy Subcommittee of the Tax Section of the American Bar Association for more than a decade.

She has spoken frequently on a variety of legal topics relevant to tax-exempt organizations’ domestic and global philanthropic activities. Watts received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Stanford University and her Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School.

About National Philanthropic Trust

Founded in 1996, National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) is the largest national, independent public charity that manages donor-advised funds and one of the leading grantmaking institutions in the U.S. Since its founding, NPT has made more than 806,000 grants exceeding $32.5 billion to nonprofits around the world while it raised more than $66.2 billion in charitable funding. NPT annually publishes the Donor-Advised Fund Report, the sector’s authority on the state of DAF philanthropy. Visit NPT’s resource library to learn what you can do with a DAF and about NPT’s impact investing options. More at NPTrust.org and NPTGivingPoint.org.