Mike Berkowitz is co-founder of Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies. An experienced strategist and facilitator, and a passionate believer in long-term solutions that drive social change, Mike helps oversee the firm’s philanthropic management practice and leads its work on strengthening U.S. democracy.
Mike is a 21/64-certified philanthropy consultant and has counseled numerous individual donors, family foundations, and institutional foundations on their philanthropic strategies. He is a Senior Advisor to the Pritzker Innovation Fund, which supports the development and advancement of paradigm-shifting ideas to address the world’s most wicked problems. The Fund is primarily focused on U.S. Democracy and Climate and Energy. Mike is also a Senior Advisor to the John Pritzker Family Fund. In that role, he advises the foundation on its strategy, governance, grantmaking, and communications, and helps to oversee its investments in Democracy & Civic Health and Jewish Life.
Mike is founder and Executive Director of the Democracy Funders Network, a cross-ideological learning and action community for donors concerned about the health of American democracy. He is also co-founder of Patriots & Pragmatists, a cross-ideological, cross-disciplinary network and convening space through which civic leaders and influencers debate, envision, and realize a brighter future for American democracy. Additionally, Mike facilitates the Jewish Funders Network’s Grantmaking Professionals Monthly Online Convenings.
Prior to founding Third Plateau, Mike served as Senior Vice President for Operations and Strategy at the Bonner Group, Inc., a nonprofit and Democratic political fundraising firm in Washington, DC. Before joining the Bonner Group, Mike worked at Mammen, Pritchard & Associates, a Democratic direct mail firm on Capitol Hill. Previously, he was the Public Policy Fellow at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, where he was responsible for a range of policy issues, including election reform, hate crimes, and welfare reauthorization.
A native of New York City, Mike lives in Berkeley with his wife, Debbie Tuttle Berkowitz, and their sons Ari and Levi. He has a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
- Co-Founder
- Third Plateau Social Impact Strategies
- USA
- California
- California
- Berkeley