Our People

Biography

As a director of CSG, Janet Topolsky leads the program's Rural Development Philanthropy Learning Network (RDPLN), which engages statewide and regional community foundations in peer-learning activities to grow locally controlled rural endowment and enhance the economic security of low-income rural families and their communities. She also works with rural regions and stakeholders who are developing more strategic ways to use public and private policy to improve the economic success of rural families and communities and build connections to rural and urban areas, while sustaining the value of the nautural resources, culture and social connections that comprise a rural way of life.  Among other accomplishments over the decade, Janet helped manage the participation of over 30 community foundations and the Saguaro Seminar at Harvard in the Social Capital Community Benchmark Initiative, and designed peer-learning exchanges for the Africa Foundations Learning Group and the Community Capacity Building Learning Cluster. Prior to joining CSG, she worked as an independent policy analyst, as communications director for the Corporation for Enterprise Development, as special assistant to the director of the Michigan Department of Commerce, and as a political organizer.