Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter has appointed Sara Gold to the newly created position of strategic partnerships and initiatives officer where she will serve as a liaison for philanthropic partnerships including private foundations, non-profits, and other non-governmental funders.
“Partnerships with community organizations are an essential way we can provide a wide array of critical services for our residents,” says Coulter. “Sara’s vast experience in the non-profit sector, including helping us administer federal COVID relief grants that have helped hundreds of thousands of Oakland County residents, is a perfect fit to help us continue this important work.”
Gold will work to increase the visibility of the county’s public-private, grant-funded initiatives, and increase philanthropic funding for county priorities.
“Funding from the philanthropic community can help us to pilot and evaluate new ideas, leverage existing funds to strengthen impact, and fill gaps that would otherwise remain unfunded,” says Gold. “I’m excited to work with departments and stakeholders across the county to learn where good work needs additional support and to partner with the philanthropic community to meet our shared goals.”
Before joining Oakland County, Gold spent time as a strategy and social impact consultant for the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors with the Monitor Institute by Deloitte, a small social impact-focused team within Deloitte.
She also spent more than 10 years with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, overseeing the department responsible for health and basic needs-related grant fundraising, annual grant-making and stewardship, and community impact programs in Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland counties. Gold is a member of the 2022 Class of the Oakland County executive’s Oakland Together 40 Under 40.
Gold earned a bachelor’s degree in social relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University in East Lansing and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Huntington Woods.
