Doug Lakey

Doug Lakey has spent his career in nonprofit management, board development, and fundraising.  A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Doug was an administrator at the George Washington University health center (Medical Faculty Associates).  In 1995, he made an early career change when he joined the Human Rights Campaign as a membership manager.  For 5 years, he helped lead HRC through a complete reorganization and rebrand, and as a deputy director of development, he was part of the team that laid the foundation for the organization’s phenomenal growth as the nation’s leading lgbt+ advocacy group.  

In 2000, he joined the Alliance for Justice as its development director, where he expanded the organization’s fundraising and board development efforts.  After moving to California in 2006, he led AFJ’s office in the state, expanding the team of lawyers working to educate state-based nonprofits on how to navigate c3/c4 advocacy rules and regulations to be more active in policy and political issues.  When he returned to Washington in 2009, he stayed with the organization as the head of its Bolder Advocacy Project, which works to support aggressive advocacy by nonprofits at the national level.

In early 2011, Doug returned to a focus on fundraising and organizational development when he joined Food & Water Watch as its first development director.  For the next 11 years he was part of the senior management team that solidified and expanded the relatively new organization, making it a leading progressive voice on environmental issues and community based organizing.  FWW launched its 501c4 Food & Water Action during this time and it has helped win remarkable policy achievements to protect our food and water, including a ban on fracking in New York State.  

He “retired” at the end of 2021 in order to help his ailing father, after having helped raise more than $300 million for progressive nonprofits in his development career.  Since stepping away, he has never gotten too far away from progressive issues and politics, and has been keeping close tabs on the work of FWW/FWA.