Caroline Whistler is CEO and co-founder of Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc., where she leads the firm’s work to drive public sector resources to measurably improve lives. Under her leadership, Third Sector has launched six of the nation’s Pay for Success contracts, driving over $100 million in government funding to outcomes-oriented programs. Third Sector’s work has grown to serve over twenty state and local government jurisdictions, with strategic partnerships including: the White House Office of Social Innovation, New Profit, Ballmer Group, the Kresge Foundation, and the Stanford University Center on Poverty and Inequality. The organization has grown from 2 to 35 staff members and increased its revenue by approximately 400 percent. In 2013, Caroline opened the San Francisco office (where she is based) followed by the firm’s third office in Washington, DC in 2016.

Caroline is recognized nationally as a leading expert in outcomes-contracting. In 2016, the Chronicle of Philanthropy named her to their “40 Under 40” list recognizing nonprofit and philanthropic leaders who are driving forward innovative solutions to pressing problems. In the same year she was also recognized by Living Cities as one of the country’s “25 Disruptive Leaders” working to improve economic outcomes for low-income people in America’s cities. Her work has been published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review and the Community Development Investment Review, a publication of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. She also serves as an affiliate at the Stanford University Center on Poverty.

Caroline co-founded Third Sector after completing a Fulbright Fellowship in Brazil researching nonprofit sustainability. Prior to Third Sector, she worked at Nonprofit Finance Fund where she structured growth capital campaigns to raise over $320 million in capital for nonprofits. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University where she studied Political Science and African-American Studies, and was a Robertson Scholar.