Tom Callanan

"Tom Callanan is a philanthropic advisor, founder of the Wisdom Funders’ Network, and trainer for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.

"Tom’s career in philanthropy began over 20 years ago when he served as Program Officer for Global Leadership and Conflict Transformation at the Fetzer Institute where he was widely regarded as one of the top program officers in the country in the domain of personal and social transformation. While at Fetzer, Tom helped to found such innovative programs as The One Voice Dialogues which brought together eleven Nobel Peace Prize winners including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and HH The Dalai Lama in a series of global dialogues that produced the book, We Speak as One; The Conflict Transformation Collaborative, which convened the world’s top 50 peace-building practitioners in a think/do tank; and The Collective Wisdom Initiative, a ten-year, action/research initiative that resulted in the book, The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly (2009, Berrett-Koehler) which was co-authored by Tom. In 2006, Tom also co-founded The Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, which pooled over $5 Million from a dozen foundations and individual donors on behalf of social justice initiatives.

"Tom now serves as an advisor and consultant to individual donors and foundation leaders, helping them align their programs with their passions and purpose. He also assists non-profit leaders with fundraising strategy. His current and past clients include the 1440 Foundation, the Berrett-Koehler Foundation, the Global Philanthropists Circle, and the Contemplative Alliance. Tom is also founding Director of the Wisdom Funders’ Network, a group of over 200 individual donors and foundation leaders who are dedicated to both inner and outer transformation, and to a way of working that’s focused on creating the conditions for wisdom to emerge.

"Tom is also a trainer for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. He leads a 2-day program for organizational leaders called Search Inside Yourself (SIY). The program, which was created at Google and is based on the latest in neuroscience research, teaches mindfulness to build the core emotional intelligence skills needed for focused attention, peak performance and effective leadership. Tom first learned to meditate when he was 16. Since then, he’s lived and practiced in ashrams and monasteries around the world and studied personally with such venerable teachers as Krishnamurti, Dadi Janki, HH the Dalai Lama, Maezumi Roshi, Muktananda, and Munindra. After experiencing so many different practices for developing the mind, Tom has chosen to teach SIY as the most effective mechanism for bringing mindfulness to secular, business audiences."