About Our Principal & Founder

Lemolo Bay Advisors works with select charitable organizations to meet the great challenges of our time. By helping nonprofit organizations better fulfill their charitable purposes, we hope to restore public confidence in America’s voluntary institutions and build a stronger, more inclusive civil society. 

Jeff is the former CEO of the global fitness chain CrossFit, Inc. He is also founding partner of the national philanthropic consulting firm AmPhil, which he sold in 2017 along with Philanthropy Daily, the popular trade website that he created. 

Jeff has served as president and chief executive of the Santa Barbara, CA, based Arthur N. Rupe Charitable Foundation; director and secretary of the Lillian S. Wells Family Foundation in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; and director of the CrossFit Charitable Foundation. He’s held numerous executive leadership roles at higher education and public policy think tanks and has advised scores of nonprofits on fundraising, capital campaigns, marketing, management, and governance. 

Jeff speaks and publishes on philanthropy, civil society, generational change, nonprofit management, fundraising, and literature. He authored The Forgotten Foundations of Fundraising: Practical Advice and Contrarian Wisdom for Nonprofit Leaders (Wiley, 2019) and Protecting Donor Intent: How to Define and Safeguard Your Philanthropic Intentions (Philanthropy Roundtable, 2012).  See more of Jeff’s publications. 

Jeff taught courses in English Literature, mythology, and world history at Washington State University (where he received an M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature). More recently, he’s taught courses on management, leadership, conflict resolution, and systems thinking in the Business and Technology school at Olympic College in Bremerton, WA. 

Jeff served honorably in the United States Marine Corps as a combat motorcycle operator in the Second Marine Division. He founded Lemolo Bay Advisors in 2023 to work with nonprofits whose missions are unambiguously good.

You can email me directly at jeff[at]lemolobay.com