Betsy Fairbanks, Founder & President/CEO

Betsy serves as President/CEO of the Fund for Nonviolence as part of her commitment to work on behalf of our donor. Formerly associated with the Resource Center for Nonviolence/Eschaton Foundation for 21 years, Betsy Fairbanks established the Fund for Nonviolence in 1997. In 2000 she initiated the Tides Death Penalty Mobilization Fund, an activist/funder collaborative. The Fund was initially established to provide small rapid response grants on a monthly basis. As of 2009, the fund has grown to provide approximately $3.2 million to state-based activist organizations working on death penalty reform, abolition or moratoria efforts in the US.  Betsy spent 6 years (2001-2006) as a board officer with Murder Victims’ Families for Reconciliation. All other board members had lost a family member to murder and/or execution and oppose the death penalty in all cases.  She has been very active with Funders for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, including participating in an extensive, field-wide process to develop a comprehensive strategy to abolish the death penalty. Betsy and her partner have three children, two successfully launched adult sons and one aspiring-to-be-launched teen daughter.