Chief Development Officer

The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility (Tenure Facility), the first and only international, multi-stakeholder financial mechanism exclusively focused on securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, is pleased to announce the appointment of John Urschel as the inaugural chief development officer (CDO), effective February 1, 2025. Reporting to Tenure Facility’s executive director, Nonette Royo, and serving as a key member of the senior management team, Urschel will construct the infrastructure of and advance priorities for the organization’s development enterprise to amplify the mission and impact of Tenure Facility’s work at a critical time of growth and momentum. 

Urschel joins Tenure Facility from Partners In Health (PIH) for which he has served in leadership roles since 2016. First as director of partnership development, Urschel constructed and successfully led a $200 million comprehensive campaign for the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), the educational arm of PIH, located in Rwanda. Since 2020, Urschel has served as senior director of impact philanthropy with responsibility for building PIH’s principal gifts operation and overseeing the organization’s most transformative and consequential philanthropic partnerships. Over the course of his tenure at PIH, Urschel has provided important thought partnership to many colleagues across the organization, helping to guide the development of donor strategies, multi-year fundraising initiatives, and engagement plans. 

Prior to PIH, Urschel served as director of leadership gifts at Mount Holyoke College and as director of gift planning and a regional major gift officer at Amherst College. His early career experience also includes development roles with The Loomis Communities, a continuing care retirement community; the Raphael House of Portland, a nonprofit dedicated to domestic violence prevention and intervention; and the Oregon Children’s Foundation. 

Urschel holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Lewis & Clark College and a master’s degree in nonprofit management and philanthropy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

Rachel Ellenport and Nicole Poe led this search with Megan Gorman.