David La Piana is founder and President of La Piana Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in solutions to the strategic issues faced by nonprofit organizations and their funders. Recognized as a leading expert on nonprofit management and governance, David has worked extensively with funders and nonprofits in health, human services, the environment, education, and the arts. He has also taught at the University of San Francisco’s Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management and at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

A nationally popular speaker and teacher, David is the author of Play to Win: The Nonprofit Guide to Competitive Strategy (2004), The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook, Part II: Unifying the Organization After A Merger (2004), Strategic Restructuring: Mergers, Integrations, and Alliances (2003), The Start-Up Assessment Tool (2003), In Search of  Strategic Solutions (2003), Real Collaboration (2001), The Nonprofit Mergers Workbook,Part I: Considering, Negotiating, and Executing a Merger (2000), Beyond Collaboration: Strategic Restructuring for Nonprofit Organizations (1997), and Nonprofit Mergers (1994) as well as numerous articles and opinion pieces on nonprofit boards, strategy, and executive leadership. 

David coined the term “strategic restructuring” to refer to the continuum of partnership configurations — including (but not limited to) mergers, joint ventures, consolidations, and joint programming — through which nonprofits attempt to anticipate or respond to environmental threats and opportunities. He works closely with major foundations and national nonprofits to promote an understanding of strategic restructuring and the effective use of nonprofit boards of directors.

Since 1979, David has worked in a variety of roles in the nonprofit sector, including as a staff member, executive director, trainer, consultant, and board member. A former VISTA volunteer, he has held senior management positions with the YMCA, The International Institute, and the East Bay Agency for Children, a multifaceted human services agency which grew ten-fold under his leadership. David has received awards for his work from both the California State Assembly and mayor of Oakland, California. In 1997, he was selected to participate in an international seminar on “Race and Ethnicity,” held in Salzburg, Austria, with fellowship support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

David received his Master of Public Administration degree in nonprofit organization management from the University of San Francisco, and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley. He has also studied at University of California at San Diego, and at the University of Madrid, Spain.

You can reach David at 510-655-3455 or lapiana@lapiana.org.