Vance Yoshida

Vance grew up in his family’s flower business that produced potted plants in the San Francisco Bay Area.  His father was frequently asked if he would serve on the boards of organizations in their community. His answer was always “You don’t need me, you need my son to serve on your board.”  It was Vance’s father’s way of teaching him the importance of giving back to the community.  Vance was amazed at how those organizations were able to have such great impact with so few resources.  When his family decided to sell its business, Vance knew instantly that he wanted to help organizations build strategies to not only sustain themselves, but to increase their mission impact to change the community.

As the Director of Operations for the Tides Center, Vance helped to provide critical support services and fiscal sponsorship to over 300 projects across the country.  In six years at Tides, Vance managed every part of the organization from programs and external relations to finance and operations. Next, at the Pangea Global AIDS Foundation Vance served as Director of External Relations and Development. A highlight was working for Dr. Eric Goosby, President Bill Clinton’s White House Chief of HIV/AIDS policy who was later appointed by President Barrack Obama to head the United States’ global HIV/AIDS giving. Most recently Vance was the Senior Manager for La Piana Consulting, where he helped develop innovative partnership strategies for organizations (including ACLU, NAACP, Kellogg Foundation, California Endowment, Transgender Law Center, and Marin Humane Society) to increase their capacity and mission impact. As he developed more partnership strategies, he realized that organizational change was critical for a successful implementation. Vance and his spouse Dan love to travel and bike around the San Francisco Bay Area. During COVID they’ve been spending Saturdays playing mahjong with Vance’s  94-year-old mother (who most often takes them to the cleaners).