Introducing Jeffrey Franco

Jeffrey (Jeff) Franco comes to Rising for Justice with over 25 years of experience in leading and managing large-scale nonprofits, and providing strategic consulting, business development and change management for both public and private sector organizations. As CEO of Camino Consulting Group and founder and co-leader of Transformation Leadership Institute, Jeff has worked with local and national nonprofit CEOs  to support and advise on strategic planning, board training and development, executive coaching, interim leadership, fundraising, and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice facilitation and training.

Jeff also serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland where he currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in nonprofit management and leadership. He also serves on the boards of Potomac Conservancy, Outward Bound, and the Center for Inspired Teaching.

Jeff has focused on supporting and leading non-profits through organizational transitions by serving as the interim Executive Director for City Year in Miami; One Common Unity in Washington, DC; and Youth Speaks in San Francisco; and as the Chief Program Officer at Jewish Volunteer Services. In these interim roles, Jeff was responsible for managing the staff, operations, programs, and fundraising, and leading the organization through major change management processes, organizational turn around, leadership transition, and new Executive Director onboarding and coaching. Jeff continues to serve as an executive coach for many of the new leaders of these organizations.

Prior to founding Camino Consulting Group, Jeff served over 12 years as both the Executive Director of City Year’s site in Washington, DC and as Vice President and senior leader of the $200 million national organization. Under his leadership, City Year Washington, DC tripled the size of its staff, quadrupled the number of students served, increased its budget from a $2.3 million to $8.6 million operation, and established City Year’s first multimillion-dollar contract with the DC Public School System. During this time, Jeff secured multiple seven-figure individual gifts and established national corporate investments for multiple City Year sites across the country. 

Jeff’s professional accolades and accomplishments include being named the 2013 American University Kogod School of Business Alumni of the Year, alumnus of the Aspen Institute Socrates Program, graduate of the Co-Active Teaching Institute Leadership Program, graduate of Leadership Greater Washington, and graduate of the Leadership Sanctuary. He graduated with a BA from Fairfield University,  and has both a MA in International Affairs and an MBA from American University. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, enjoys traveling, has completed five marathons and an Ironman triathlon, walked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain, and completed the 150-mile Annapurna Circuit in Nepal.