Washington, DC native Christian Clansky is a strategic communications, marketing, and digital specialist who understands the incredible power of authentic community engagement to create lasting change. He brings fifteen years of experience forging relationships among local and national nonprofits, foundations, corporate partners, community leaders, and social enterprises. 

Christian proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the brilliant United Planning Organization (UPO) and is a member of the board’s Development Committee. UPO is the District of Columbia’s only Community Action Agency, supporting more than 55,000 DC residents as they lift themselves out of poverty to achieve economic security.

Prior to joining LINK, Christian served for nearly eight years as Director of Marketing and Digital Strategy for Independent Sector, a national association of grantmakers and grantseekers of every kind of mission. In that role, he focused on amplifying innovative local solutions—specifically for achieving equitable outcomes for underserved and underrepresented communities—that hold tremendous possibilities for generating national transformation. Christian also led the organization’s web and digital projects, worked with the fundraising and partnerships team to build new collaborations, and takes special pride in having been a co-architect of Upswell, a high-energy, high-impact community of driven changemakers created in 2017.

Christian co-founded a boutique creative strategy and services firm that worked with clients across a wide variety of industries, including hospitality, construction, defense, craft beer, federal government, nonprofit, and social enterprise. He also previously served as the communications director for the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and, a long time ago, completed the traditional Washington rite of passage as an intern on Capitol Hill.

Christian has a uselessly encyclopedic knowledge of movie trivia, loves to make all kinds of pizza, and nurtures his soul with live music. He also feels tremendously fortunate to be witnessing the unbelievable career of the greatest hockey player of all time, Alex Ovechkin. And he spends much of his free time exploring DC with his curious dog, Rocket.