The Bridgespan Group

The Bridgespan group has consulted for many left-of-center non-profits and grant making organizations. These organizations notably include: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, National Public Radio, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Family Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. ² In 2019, MacKenzie Scott, billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, pledged to give away most of her wealth. Scott retained Bridgespan group to consult with her in the process. ³

Bridgespan group has received grants from many left-of-center organizations, including: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, as well as Pew Charitable Trusts. ^{4 5}

History and Leadership

Tom Tierney and Jeff Bradach formed The Bridgespan Group in 1998. Tierney previously worked as the head of the San Francisco office of the management consulting firm, Bain and Company. There, Tierney worked to expand Bain’s consulting to include non-profits. Jeff Bradach was a former Bain consultant, and he taught at Harvard Business School. Tierney and Bradach conducted research into the potential of consulting in the non-profit market, and Tierney decided to create an independent organization to provide Bain-like consulting to non-profits. Tiereny, Bradach, and former Bain partner Paul Carttar, pitched the idea to Bain and Company, and Bain’s North American office voted unanimously to sponsor the new charitable consultancy. ^{1 6}

The founders opened the first office of The Bridgespan Group in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2000. Since then, Bridgespan has grown to include more than 150 consultants, with offices around the globe. ^{7 8 9} As of 2021, Tierney and Bradach continue to head Bridgespan, with Tierney serving as the chairman of the organization’s Board of Trustees and Bradach serving as the managing partner. ^{10 11} According to the most available tax documents, Bradach received compensation of $620,231 in 2019 for his work at Bridgespan. ¹²

Along with support from Bain & Company, Bridgespan has also received grants from left-of-center organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts. ^{4 5}

The Bridgespan Group consults with large non-profits and grantmaking organizations. Bridgespan launched its Leading for Impact program to consult with small, local non-profits in different American cities for five years at a time. ^{13 14} In 2015, Bridgespan established its Bridgespan India Initiative to bring its consulting to NGOs in India. ¹⁵ In 2019, the group established its Bridgespan Africa Initiative to bring its consulting to organizations across Africa. ¹⁶

Political Activism

As of 2019, Bridgespan Group had consulted for numerous left-of-center non-profits, including: A Better Chicago, the Anti-Defamation League, the Bail Project, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence,  the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Immigrant Justice Corps, National Public Radio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, PolicyLink, Upstream USA, and Zero to Three. ² Jeff Bradach has described one of the services that Bridgespan provides as helping clients to reach “transformative scale” in their impacts. Bradach listed ways to achieve that scale as “through government policy change, through analyzing markets, [and] through influencing practices and behaviors of others.” ¹⁷

Bridgespan Group also consulted for many left-of-center grantmaking organizations, including: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Family Foundation, Blue Meridian Partners, the ClimateWorks Foundation, Co-Impact, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Pritzker Family Foundation, the Raikes Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Bridgespan Group also consults for the centrist Peter G. Peterson Foundation. ²

MacKenzie Scott, billionaire ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, pledged in 2019 to donate the majority of her wealth. She retained The Bridgespan Group to consult with her on the process. ³ Scott donated nearly $6 billion in 2020, and in June of 2021 she announced another 2.7 billion dollars in donations. ^{18 19} As reported in the New York Times, Scott has been criticized for lack of transparency in her process of deciding how and where to donate funds. ³

Bridgespan also controls TBG Social Impact, an organization that offers consulting to for-profit “social justice” groups. ²⁰