Dr Madeleine McKinnon

Madeleine is Impact & Learning Director for a leading private philanthropic trust that provides grants to areas of climate change, disability, faith and First Nations communities.

Prior to relocating back to Australia in late 2023, Madeleine was based in San Francisco, California, where she worked for major foundations and high-net-worth individuals including in the family office of Eric & Wendy Schmidt, the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, Oceankind and the Paul G Allen Foundation. She has collaborated with scores of partners and supported hundreds of projects in 40+ countries to measure their impact.

With a background in applied ecology and conservation, Madeleine directed monitoring and evaluation for Conservation International, a major international environmental NGO, for more than five years. She has presented and published widely, including in Nature and Science, and her research has been cited more than 3000 times. She previously served on the Board of the Conservation Measures Partnership, a global community of NGOs, government agencies and funders seeking better ways to design, manage and measure the impacts of conservation action.