Scott Nielsen

Scott Nielsen is founder and principal of Alexander Nielsen Consulting.  ANC partners with individuals and organizations to develop pragmatic strategies that promote social change. Specific services include: strategic grantmaking, issue research, program design, program management, program and field evaluation, communications, and strategic planning.

Recent clients include Minnesota Public Radio, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Open Society Institute, Joyce Foundation, General Service Foundation, California Endowment, Ford Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, McKay Foundation, Proteus Fund, Democracy Alliance, and the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Prior to forming Alexander Nielsen Consulting, Nielsen was a program officer for 13 years at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, including seven years in the MacArthur Fellows Program ("Genius Grants").  Nielsen's primary fields of grantmaking expertise include issue advocacy, public policy, public interest law and journalism, community development and advocacy, the arts, and academic social science and humanities disciplines.  He designed, managed, and assessed major Foundation initiatives in the areas of campaign finance reform and civic engagement, Native American education and culture, international human rights, economic globalization, and racial and ethnic pluralism in the U.S.

Nielsen has served as an advisor and board member to several national and international nonprofits, and is a regular author, panel contributor, and speaker to groups working with or in the nonprofit sector.  In addition, Nielsen has been a journalist and worked in the public relations and financial services fields.

Nielsen holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago Divinity School, and a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.  He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship (Denmark) in 1984.