Woodrow McCutchen Obituary

Over a 17-year tenure at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Woody McCutchen authored and secured approval for more than $900 million in investments (grants) to high performing direct service nonprofits with demonstrated effectiveness in improving the life trajectories of disadvantaged youth and families.

Woody’s responsibilities as Portfolio Manager; Vice President / Senior Portfolio Manager; and Blue Meridian Partners Managing Director included sourcing prospective grantees, due diligence, strategic growth planning, high engagement relationship management, and brokering/providing extra financial supports in board development, fund development, executive search, policy review and analysis, and organizational capacity building.

He managed the foundation’s relationships with an array of regional and national grantees including Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Nurse Family Partnership, Harlem Children’s Zone, Big Brothers Big Sisters National, Girls Inc., Citizen Schools, BELL, Youth Villages, Center for Employment Opportunities, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, PACE, the Hillside Work Scholarship Program, and the See Forever Foundation. McCutchen negotiated and secured commitments from co-investment partners for EMCF’s Growth Capital Aggregation Pilot and True North (Social Innovation Fund) Funds. He managed grants administration and reporting to partners that included the Bill and Melinda Gates, Robert Wood Johnson, Kresge, Kellogg, JPB, George Kaiser Family, and the Jenesis Group foundations; the Duke Endowment, and Strategic Grant Partners. He worked with Social Finance, the Harvard Social Impact Bond Lab, philanthropic partners, JPAL, and the SCDHHS on the development and approval of the South Carolina / Nurse Family Partnership Pay for Success Project and served on both the Operating and Executive committees.

Prior to joining the foundation, Woody was Executive Director of Minority Small Business Development Centers in Richmond and Baltimore; State Director of Small Business Development Centers in Maryland and the District of Columbia; and President/CEO of the National Association of Small Business Development Centers. Woody was a graduate of Howard University, holding a BA in Economics and an MBA in Management from Virginia Commonwealth University.