Heather Larson

Outside Advisor to the Board of Directors

Heather Larson is the Founder and Principal Advisor of the philanthropic consulting firm LiveGive, a professional services company dedicated to helping generous people and families achieve maximum impact with their philanthropy dollars. 

Heather has 22 years of non-profit experience, including more than a decade of executive leadership and overseeing an organization’s $77M annual revenue and 350 employees.  Heather has worked for the American Red Cross and Willow Creek Community Church in addition to overseeing strategic partnerships with over 150 non-profit organizations around the world.  Heather started Celebration of Hope, an annual initiative to engage people in global causes.  During the ten years of Heather’s leadership, Celebration of Hope mobilized 20,000 volunteers annually and raised over $21 million.  She also directed the distribution and granting of approximately $50 million. 

Heather also led a $10 million Care Center project which included fundraising, strategic planning and the facilities that serves 17,000 under-resourced families each year. During her time as Executive Pastor, she created and led a performance effectiveness system that was used by over 100 ministries.

Through LiveGive, Heather now serves as the philanthropy advisor for clients ranging from multi-generational families to growing businesses and publicly traded companies.  She also serves as a senior C-suite advisor for numerous businesses and organizations, providing consulting in areas of leadership, strategy, transitions and board relations.  Heather is currently an outside advisor to the Board of Directors for Clearwater Capital Partners, LLC.

Heather is an alumnus of Taylor University and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.  She has served on the Board of Trustees at Taylor University since 2014, and she received the G. Roselyn Kerlin Woman in Leadership Award.  She has spoken internationally on issues of leadership and philanthropy and has been a plenary speaker in many forums, including The White House Forum on Social Innovation, the Global Leadership Summit in Germany, the LED Conference in Norway, the Salvation Army Sustaining Good Conference, AIDS Conference, and Mosaix National Multiethnic Conference.

Whether dreaming with a woman in a hut in Malawi, brainstorming with an entrepreneur in Guatemala or connecting with a business owner in Chicago, Heather loves helping people maximize their potential.  Her favorite time, though, is hanging out with her husband and their two teenage daughters.  She loves traveling, exploring nature, getting lost in great music or a good book, cooking and hosting parties, gardening, walking the beach (whenever she can get near one), and polishing rocks to find the hidden beauty.