Doug and Anna Balfour
Doug’s two passions - apart from Formula 1, the Premier League soccer, and chocolate, are change - on a big visible scale - and collaboration to make organizations effective. Underlying it all is the desire to tilt back the scales of justice towards the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable.
Anna loves to integrate many different ‘entryways’ to help people go deeper into their interior lives to bring psychological, spiritual and emotional wholeness.
She also loves to create and change things too - be it something arty, or using a heat torch to make animals out of plastic piping!
DOUG AND ANNA’S EARLIER LIFE
Doug has had many jobs including diamond exploration geologist in Namibia, London stockbroker, management consultant, aid worker and philanthropic consultant.
Anna as a Clinical Psychologist has worked in a variety of settings that have covered the range of human experience and life stages, using an ever-expanding skillset and an evolving understanding of humankind.
They both LOVE the big picture ideas and resources that can trickle down into what they do!
Way back, Anna and Doug worked with street children in Bogota, Colombia in the early 90’s, and with addicts and prostitutes in Amsterdam, working for YWAM, a Christian mission. In addition to leading teams, Anna worked in Member Care and served the expat community as a Psychologist.
In 1991-2 they led a MedAir emergency relief program in Liberia West Africa. They created and delivered, with a team, an essential drug program following the civil war and also a war trauma rehabilitation program. Following subsequent evacuation from Liberia, Anna was involved in debriefing offered to various mission agencies in the Ivory Coast.
Returning to the UK, Doug resumed a management consulting career for a few years before being appointed to head up Tearfund UK for 9 years, one of the United Kingdom’s largest aid agencies. There he led a multinational staff of more than 650 people in the implementation of advocacy, relief and development programs through 300 partners in 70 countries.
During this period, he played a key role in creating the Micah Network, and Micah Challenge - a global advocacy campaign. He also built a network of international relief agencies - Integral - firmly convinced, of the value in joint working and collaboration, and co-creation.
THE TRANSATLANTIC MOVE!
In 2006, Anna and Doug moved to Philadelphia, with their three teenage children to join Geneva Global, a philanthropic consultancy. In 2008, after being head of programs, Doug bought the company in a management buyout.
Doug managed and built Geneva Global into a full-service social impact advisory, offering foundations, wealthy individuals and non-profits a broad expertise, including international development, global health, finance, consulting, risk management, marketing, communications and fundraising support.
He is passionate about bringing creative solutions to address social problems and achieving big positive change in the world.
Through his writing and speaking engagements, Doug became a thought leader in the social sector, advocating for a systems-change approach to social issues and for the importance of co-creation between donors and grantees.
He has been involved in the creation of many innovative donor collaborations for clients including the END Fund, the Freedom Fund, the Girls First Fund, and others, whilst championing topics such as maximizing social impact, measuring social change, creating sustainable transformation though grassroots organizations, and the positive blending of strategic philanthropy and impact investing.
While Doug was doing all this big stuff, Anna was helping 3 teens adjust to life in America and building her own psychological practice. Chartered in the UK, she became Licensed in Pennsylvania and taught as an Adjunct Professor on the Graduate Psychology program at Eastern University.
Anna’s specialty as an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, focusing on experiential aspects, led her to lead workshops at International Conferences, including the NEXUSGLOBAL conference, for Next Gen philanthropists, impact investors and social entrepreneurs, at the UN offices in NYC. She was invited to co author a chapter in a textbook for Schema therapy. She also has a background in spiritual direction and leading guided retreats.
Anna closed her Philadelphia practice in 2018 and they moved south to NW Florida, where it is warmer! In 2019 Doug sold his company to a DC based charity Global Impact.
