Amanda Marshall
Chair
Amanda Marshall is the founder of Fair Chance one of Washington, DC’s leading non-profit organizations, and the co-founder of Families4Families, a national effort that is creating the next generation of change-makers by harnessing the power of young leaders to address food insecurity and basic needs nationwide.
Amanda attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated from the Honors Program with a BA in Economics in 1997. While at UNC-CH, Amanda received a North Carolina Statewide Humanitarian Award for founding the University’s first chapter of the international medical charity, Operation Smile.
Amanda began her professional career as a health care consultant at Ernst & Young in New York City but soon returned to her passion for helping others. After working at the Women’s Prison Association (NY), Jumpstart (NY), the Robin Hood Foundation (NY), and K-World (Sweden & UK), Amanda moved to Washington, DC in 2002 to launch Fair Chance. Fair Chance, now in its twentieth year of operation, builds partnerships with promising community-based youth and family organizations and provides them with the knowledge and tools they need to increase their capacity, effectiveness, and sustainability. Fair Chance has partnered with over 200 organizations in the Washington area and has positively impacted the lives of over 150,000 of the City’s most at-risk youth. On average, Fair Chance partners double the number of children they serve and triple their fundraising because of their partnership with Fair Chance.
Amanda and her family launched Families4Families in March 2020 as a way to address the critical food emergency in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. F4F began as a grassroots neighborhood affair collecting groceries in the Marshall’s driveway and delivering them to families in need throughout the Washington D.C. region. Within weeks, F4F quickly became a nationwide initiative. The Families4Families model has been replicated in 15 cities throughout the country and has over 50 students-led F4F clubs nationally. Since March 2020, F4F has provided close to one million meals to families in need in the United States.
Because of her commitment to children and families in Washington D.C., Amanda received Washington Life Magazine’s 2005 Women of Substance and Style Award. Amanda was also the recipient of the Greensboro Day School (Greensboro, NC) Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005 and was the first Greensboro Day School Alumna to give the school’s Commencement Address (2011). Amanda was the recipient of the 2012 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award. In addition, Amanda was selected as one of Washingtonian Magazine’s 2018 Washingtonian’s of the Year. Amanda received the 2023 Potomac School Award for Exemplary Service.
Amanda proudly serves on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship Advisory Board (spearheading the strategic planning efforts to help define next steps for the program’s growth and impact on the lives of these innovative and inspirational students); the DC United Foundation Board (helping the DC professional soccer team, DC United, to create their first foundation so that they can make a meaningful and effective impact on the DC community); FAN-DC Advisory Board; Fair Chance Board of Directors and Families4Families Board of Directors (Board Chair).
Amanda lives in Washington DC with her husband, Alex, and their four boys.