Charlie Casey
President of Premier Foundation Services
I speak Spanish fluently and have maintained my permanent residency (equivalent to a US green card) in Chile since I lived there in the late 1990s.
For my 50th birthday, I was a “Ball Dude” on the first base line at Oracle Park, home of my beloved San Francisco Giants.
With a group of friends, I have travelled around the country to eat barbecue. We have covered the Carolinas, Alabama, Austin (TX), and Memphis. Kansas City is on the list for 2026.
In today’s issue of our Featured Friday series, we’re excited to introduce you to our President of Premier Foundation Services, Charlie Casey, the former CEO of Pacific Foundation Services (PFS) team. PFS, a San-Francisco-based philanthropy services organization, was acquired by Foundation Source earlier this year, and we’re looking forward to highlighting our team members in future editions of this series!
Charlie loves working at the intersection of dedicated philanthropists and inspired nonprofits creating change. PFS has expanded considerably during more than 20 years of Charlie’s leadership, and he stays focused on nurturing client relationships and maintaining the highest level of responsive, professional service. Now as the President of Premier Foundation Services at Foundation Source, Charlie oversees the retention and expansion of all PFS client relationships, as well as overseeing business development with large, complex foundations that want specialized support.
If you could share one milestone accomplishment, what would it be? What are you most proud of?
I am generally really proud of everything we have accomplished over these past 20 years. My goals have never been around revenue, income, or the number of clients. We’re not trying to be the largest or most prominent philanthropic management company. We have very little ego and see our role as facilitators of great grantmaking. The focus has been on evolution and change to be the very best company we can be. That change has been progressive and incremental as we have grown.
I will say that one milestone (or more of a realization) is that we have an incredible reputation and our team is deeply respected in the community. With that increased visibility, we have started to find ourselves more comfortable and better equipped to take positions on issues around philanthropy. Not about what foundations should be giving to, necessarily, but rather how they should be giving. We have embraced trust-based philanthropy and have taken a position about how donors show up and partner with their grantees. It has been liberating to speak up and have our clients acknowledge our perspective.
I look forward to hearing the stories from our clients. It’s absolutely inspiring to learn about the causes they’re supporting and their reasons why. I find every phone call, email or meeting with them to be uplifting and it’s a great reminder that the work we do matters and is really making a difference in the world.”
Charlie Casey
President of Premier Foundation Services
What has kept you in the philanthropy sector?
I have always been super aware that it is the nonprofits, and not the philanthropy, that is doing the hard work. Nevertheless, giving money (particularly when it is other people’s money) is challenging work, especially if you want to do it well. I have my frustrations with our sector – someday I will write about the many ways that institutional philanthropy colludes against the very organizations that we are trying to help. A consultant we have worked with made an astute comment: Philanthropy is not a system of giving; it is a system of withholding. While I agree, there is a lot of good done with philanthropic dollars and we have the privilege of supporting many incredibly generous and thoughtful boards. Our model allows foundations to be more efficient, which we hope provides more dollars for the community. So it feels good to work at the intersection of nonprofits and philanthropists. It is a privileged position to be in and I tend to see the good in people.
Want to join our team?
Check out our careers page for open opportunities.
