Amanda Weingarten is the Founder and Principal of Seven Cranes Consulting, where she advises nonprofit leaders, donors, families, and foundations on fundraising strategy, organizational readiness, philanthropic strategy, and transformational giving.

Amanda built her career at the intersection of ambitious ideas, strong organizations, and the philanthropic capital required to make them possible. As a nonprofit executive and consultant, she has led global fundraising and communications teams, advised organizations across sectors, conducted more than 20 feasibility studies, program audits, and organizational assessments, and worked with foundations, trustees, governments, multilateral institutions, and ultra-high-net-worth philanthropists.

Before founding Seven Cranes, Amanda served as Chief of External Affairs and Chief Development Officer at International Crisis Group, where she led a 28-person global fundraising and communications function. She surfaced a transformational funding opportunity that resulted in a $20 million commitment from Open Society Foundations and secured an $8 million cash and legacy commitment from an individual donor. She also designed an organization-wide impact evaluation framework and tracking system that achieved 90% staff adoption, strengthening the organization's ability to assess performance, allocate resources, report impact, and secure renewed funding.

Earlier in her career, Amanda was a Senior Consultant at Graham-Pelton, where she advised more than 20 organizations across social justice, education, healthcare, environmental, and international aid sectors on organizational capacity, fundraising strategy, campaign readiness, and growth. At The Citadel Foundation, she helped align institutional strategy with fundraising and led a steering committee of philanthropists supporting a $175 million capital campaign. At the College of Charleston, she launched the institution's first parent giving program, increased annual fundraising by 37.4%, and raised $2.3 million in major gifts.

Through Seven Cranes, Amanda has expanded that experience to the philanthropic investment side of the relationship. Her work has included assessing the organizational capacity and impact potential of a $100 million big-bet funding strategy for a medical research grantmaking foundation; researching funding landscapes, emerging opportunities, and philanthropic trends; and advising grantmaking and nonprofit organizations on strategy, growth, and readiness for significant investment.

This combination gives Amanda a distinctive perspective on philanthropic decision-making. She understands how organizations present their ambitions to funders, but also what it takes behind the proposal to deliver on them. She evaluates opportunities through the interconnected lenses of leadership, strategy, financial and operational capacity, fundraising strength, evidence and impact, organizational ambition, and ability to execute—helping donors understand not simply whether an organization makes a compelling case, but what additional philanthropic capital could realistically enable.

Amanda holds a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the Board of Advisors of Penn's Weingarten Learning Resources Center.