Stan Hutton became involved in the nonprofit world after co-founding a nonprofit organization in San Francisco. Since that time, he has worked as nonprofit manager, fundraiser, consultant, and writer. He served as executive director of the Easter Seal Society of San Francisco and a fundraiser for Cogswell College. For five years, he wrote for and managed a Web site about nonprofits for About.com. He has worked at the San Francisco Study Center and the Executive Service Corps of San Francisco. He currently is a program officer at the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation.

Frances Phillips is a senior program officer at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, where she also directs The Creative Work Fund. She also teaches grant writing and creative writing at San Francisco State University. Previously, Frances worked as executive director of Intersection for the Arts and of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University; and as a partner in the public relations and fundraising firm Horne, McClatchy and Associates. Frances serves on the boards of the California Alliance for Art Education and Grantmakers in the Arts; and she is co-editor of the Grantmakers in the Arts Reader.