By Keemia Soltani-Zhang, B.A. ’26
Legal roots to impact
Judith Katz, the director of advancement at the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE), comes from a long line of lawyers.
“My brother is an attorney, my aunt is an attorney, my grandfather was an attorney, and my father almost became an attorney,” Katz says. “I was pre-law in college and I got accepted to a bunch of law schools but then I discovered I was better suited for fundraising. And fortunately for me, fundraising is pretty helpful to public service legal institutions these days.”
Hailing from Michigan, her father was a college professor in the area of social policy and her mother was an environmental activist who did puppet shows for a living. Katz says her father’s scholarly work made her comfortable in academic settings, while her mother’s activism and entrepreneurship instilled in her resourcefulness and persistence.
“I feel like I’m in a very appropriate spot given my parentage, which melds an intellectual orientation with a passion for the environment and a problem-solving mindset,” she explains.
Katz began her career at the Illinois office of the American Civil Liberties Union after earning her masters degree in nonprofit management. She subsequently brought her talents to Berkeley after launching fundraising efforts at the Bay Nature Institute, where her key mentor — who founded the local conservation media organization — showed her how relationship-based fundraising was done.
The call to CLEE
After 10 years at Bay Nature, Katz came to CLEE in 2018, when the center had a staff of approximately eight people — a far cry from its 30-plus count today.
“There had never been a fundraiser at CLEE, and it’s unusual for centers to have their own fundraisers,” Katz says, noting that the center previously received only sporadic gifts from individuals. Katz’s job has been to grow and develop a community of support, and in her first year that stewardship helped increase gifts to CLEE by 250%.
“Working with CLEE donors was a dream, especially at a place like Berkeley,” Katz says. “We’re part of the world’s top public research institution in the state leading the world on climate change policymaking. The kind of impact that we can have together is really unique.”
In addition to advancement, she also serves as a liaison to CLEE’s advisory board, and manages the center’s donor-funded undergraduate work-study program. “My work as a director of advancement isn’t just about securing gifts; it’s about helping people realize their vision for a better world by facilitating channels for their good intentions,” she says.
Katz notes that the nonprofit sector took a hit in July with the passage of the new federal tax bill, and that sees this time as an important call to action. She and her husband, who works in tech, opened a donor-advised fund last year to grow and give donations to different charities.
Calling it a “watershed moment” in her professional growth which gave her a different perspective on the fundraising process, Katz says, “It’s helpful to see things from a major donor’s point of view.”
She has also served on the board of another nonprofit, as both a professional development and a community service opportunity.
Love of humankind
Over the years Katz has refined her expertise in tax advantaged donations, a fairly technical area of fundraising that allows donors to maximize the benefits of giving through non-cash assets — like stocks and retirement accounts.
She’s worked with a number of donors who have different passions and interests. Major donors like Ruth and Joe Bell, Stu Gardiner, Julia Klee, Daniel Yost, and Erin Ziegler have since created unique funds for the center, each supporting a different facet of CLEE’s research, communications, and staffing. A number of donors have included CLEE in their will or living trusts, which Katz knows will make a “transformative difference” when they come into maturity after a donor passes on.
“I feel very privileged to be part of the conversations that lead to those kinds of commitments,” Katz says. “It can be very intimate, and I feel fortunate to have those discussions about what people value, and how they want to make an impact.”
In the face of political divides and funding rollbacks that directly impact CLEE’s activities, Katz’s work remains vitally rooted in working together with others.
“The word ‘philanthropy’ comes from the Greek words ‘philos,’ which means love, and ‘anthropos,’ which means humankind,” Katz says. “So, literally, philanthropy means the ‘love of humankind.’ That’s really what my job is about — nurturing the love of humankind, and helping people express that love.”
This article was made possible through support from the Erin Ziegler Fund for CLEE.