Naila Bolus

Naila Bolus remembers the “perfect storm” of challenges that confronted organizations addressing peace and security just after 9/11.  “We suddenly faced the urgent need to reframe our issues in the context of the threats of nuclear terrorism and efforts by the U.S. to increase its reliance on nuclear weapons.  At the same moment, some of the primary foundations supporting these organizations unexpectedly folded, and a downturn in the economy was affecting individual support.”  The traditional response would have been for a few large foundations to make decisions about which organizations would survive and which would cease to exist. 

But Bolus, Ploughshares Fund’s executive director, had a better idea, and convened grant recipients and funders to cooperate, organize and collectively re-envision a vibrant, effective peace and security community.  The result was the Peace and Security Initiative (PSI), a collaborative where all sectors of the community continue to work together to increase their capacity to influence U.S. policy on shared priorities.

Bolus joined Ploughshares Fund in 1997, when it was a small but respected funder of arms control projects. Under her leadership Ploughshares Fund’s grantmaking more than doubled in size and is on track to double again in the near future.  Even more important is the convening role Ploughshares Fund has increasingly played thanks to her initiative.
 
And now, she and Ploughshares Fund face their greatest challenge and their greatest opportunity of all –helping build the movement for a nuclear weapon-free world. “Our role as philanthropists, experts and convenors is to support and facilitate this agenda, leading the way with innovative ideas, pivotal analyses and constituency support,” she says.  “Challenges and obstacles notwithstanding, we at Ploughshares Fund know that this is our moment and we are ready to respond with resources and resolve.”