Who We Are.
Photo by Casey Kelbaugh
Our Founder
Kerry McCarthy
Kerry McCarthy, Principal, established 1:1 Advisory in 2024 to provide research, planning, and grantmaking services for philanthropies and nonprofits.
With 30 years of experience working with foundations and arts and culture nonprofits, she has designed programs, raised and awarded millions, influenced public policy, facilitated strategic plans, made grants, led communications and rebranding efforts, managed leadership transitions, and inspired and led teams.
She spent 15 years working at The New York Community Trust—the community foundation serving NYC, Westchester, and Long Island—in roles ranging from arts, culture, and historic preservation program officer to vice president. She ran multiple funder collaboratives, built and marketed a philanthropic advising program that runs grant programs for client foundations, created an online tool that lets donor-advised fund holders identify remarkable charities, and helped families and individuals create giving plans. She also launched an inaugural impact investing program for donor-advised fund holders, designed a family philanthropy program, oversaw the first major rebranding of the foundation in decades, created an institutional archive, and produced the centennial celebration.
Prior to joining the community foundation, she ran a consulting business, McCarthy Arts Consulting, for eight years for nonprofit arts and cultural organizations including, among others, the Asian American Arts Alliance, Cultural Institutions Group NYC, Dance/NYC, New York Foundation for the Arts, Queens Theatre, and USITT.
She serves on the board of trustees for the Hudson Valley land trust Mohonk Preserve, the economic justice agency FPWA, and the advocacy group New Yorkers for Culture & the Arts. She previously was vice chair of the national philanthropy-serving organization Grantmakers in the Arts, vice president of the visual arts residency program, Women’s Studio Workshop, and secretary for the historically Black theater company, the Billie Holiday Theatre.
Kerry holds degrees from New York University (MA) and Sewanee: The University of the South (BA), participated in Coro's Leadership New York program, and is a Crain’s New York Business Notable LGBTQ leader.
We Believe
A just world is possible : Collaboration is required : Context matters : Authenticity counts : Listening leads us forward :
Change begins with a first step.
Learn from it. Iterate. Repeat.
Collaboration
Kerry McCarthy is an expert at bringing people together to take on big challenges and inspire community action. Among her successful collaborations are:
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A collaborative grant program that distributed nearly $75 million in the first few months of the pandemic.
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A $16 million initiative for BIPOC arts and cultural organizations in NYC that became a national philanthropic model and has spun off from The New York Community Trust to become an independent entity. She has written about this work for Stanford Social Innovation Review and spoken about it on the Grantmakers in the Arts podcast.
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An effort to foster arts policy, advocacy, and equity as the city prepared to create its first municipal cultural plan.
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A grantmaking program for youth development programs advancing anytime anywhere learning.
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A 10-year initiative that improved organizational capacity, promoted and preserved documentation on the artist workspace field, and mentored a new generation of leaders.
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A partnership among four nonprofits founded as part of the second-wave feminist movement to learn from each other and chart a future for women’s art.
To learn more about Kerry’s approach to funder collaboratives—what works and what doesn’t—read her journal article.