Nishka Chandrasoma

Nishka Chandrasoma is vice president, secretary, and general counsel of the foundation. She is responsible for managing the overall legal affairs of the foundation relating to its governance, grant making, global operations, and investments. 

Nishka joined the foundation in 2015 as assistant secretary and deputy general counsel before being named vice president in 2019. Prior to joining the foundation, she practiced law with the tax-exempt organizations group at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where she represented clients ranging from universities and museums to private foundations and donor-advised funds. 

Nishka is a member of the Nonprofit Forum of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at New York University School of Law, the American Bar Association’s Exempt Organizations committee, and the Government Relations committee of the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York. She serves on the board of the Foundation for Detroit’s Future and on the Leadership Council of Lawyers for Children. Nishka is a frequent speaker at programs for tax-exempt organizations on topics including social media and nonprofits, fiscal sponsorships, international grant making, and foundation governance. 

She earned her bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Berkeley and her law degree from Yale Law School.