About Michael J. Balaoing, Esq.

This is how Michael J. is a Changemaker:
Michael J. Balaoing, Esq. is a career philanthropist committed to social change. For more than a decade, he has strategically invested other people's money and his own in leading nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations around the world. Michael’s passion and purpose: identify and leverage resources - time, money, talent, networks, ideas, hope - to help touch and enhance the lives of others. Michael is the Senior Vice President of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF, www.eifoundation.org). Celebrating over 65 years of giving, EIF represents the collective philanthropy of the entertainment industry – from major movie studios and television networks to key guilds, unions and talent agencies. EIF taps the unique creative assets of the U.S.-based entertainment community to raise funds and awareness focused on health, education, the environment, the arts, and children, youth and families. As a foundation executive for more than a decade, Michael advises Fortune 100 corporations, select high net-worth individuals, and celebrated artists in TV, film, and music on how to maximize impact with integrity through philanthropy.

A public interest attorney, Michael has twenty years of nonprofit experience, serving on over a dozen boards in the public sector locally and globally, including nonprofits, foundations and government agencies. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the Liberty Hill Foundation (www.libertyhill.org) -- the leading social justice funder in Los Angeles County since 1976. Focused on “change not charity,” Liberty Hill builds and invests in a grassroots network of activists, donors and community-based organizations dedicated to combating racism, homophobia, poverty and inequality. He is the Secretary of the Board of the Council on Foundations (www.cof.org), the voice of philanthropy in the United States, representing more than 2,000 grantmaking foundations and giving programs worldwide, with assets totaling over $280 billion. As Board Secretary of the Ayala Foundation USA (www.af-usa.org), Michael bridges U.S. donors with the Philippines to mobilize resources for major social development projects such as GILAS (Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students) - a public-private education initiative to bring the internet to 1 million+ students at all 6,000 public high schools in the Philippines. Appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, he is the former Chairman of California Volunteers (www.californiavolunteers.org), the state commission led by First Lady Maria Shriver to engage 37 million Californians in service and volunteerism.

Born in Manila and raised in Los Angeles, Michael previously worked in city, county and state government – at the Family Violence Division of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, the Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, and the California Senate. He spent over five years at The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF), one of the nation’s largest private health foundations with an endowment of $1 billion. As Program Director at TCWF, he managed the Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI), a ten-year, $70 million collaborative of nine foundations focused on preventing violence against youth in California through public education, policy advocacy, research and leadership development. During his tenure, the VPI helped to reframe violence in California as a public health issue and created new resources – political will, community dialogue and public dollars – to promote prevention programs as an alternative to the increased incarceration of youth.

Since 1989, Michael has volunteered with Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), the nation’s largest health and human service agency for Pilipino American youth and their families. As SIPA’s Board Chairman from 1995 to 1999, he led the successful efforts to create a youth and community center and a community development corporation that housed services for at-risk children and built homes for low-income families. He has advanced the rights of girls and women through his service on the boards of the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Girls Inc. of Los Angeles, and a local domestic violence shelter.

At the age of 16, Michael started Princeton University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations. At 17, through Harvard University, he worked in the Philippines with farmers, orphans and the homeless. He is a graduate of the UCLA School of Law. In November 2002, the German Marshall Fund of the United States awarded him the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship – an honor given to emerging U.S. leaders under the age of 40. He finds joy and adventure through dancing, yoga, hiking, cooking, poetry, and roaming the planet – so far, 30 U.S. states and 30 countries on 5 continents. Inspired by the faith and sacrifice of his parents and so many immigrant families, Michael dedicates his life to love, honor and service.