LANTHROPIC
Strategic advisory for social impact
Lanthropic is a strategic consultancy for organizations at an inflection point - when ambitions need to become measurable, lasting impact.
Founder Sheila Miller Rivera advises corporate foundations, social impact teams, and advocacy organizations — drawing on more than 20 years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, across six continents, and at the intersection of philanthropic strategy and AI-enabled systems design
Every engagement is grounded in data, shaped by deep stakeholder engagement, and designed to outlast the consultant.
Clients & Partners
Several clients and partners are not listed
out of respect for their privacy and our commitment to confidentiality.
Services
Lanthropic works with corporate foundations, social impact teams, global foundations, and advocacy organizations that are ready to operate with greater rigor — and greater impact. Engagements are typically multi-month to multi-year, built on genuine partnership, and designed to leave the client with durable capacity rather than a deliverable on a shelf.
Strategy & AI-Enabled
Systems Design
Building the governance, strategy, and technology infrastructure that foundations need to move from reactive to strategic.
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Foundation strategy refresh and governance design
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AI-enabled grantmaking systems — from theory of change through agentic AI implementation
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Corporate contributions policy design
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Foundation board orientation and capacity development
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Social impact strategy aligned to corporate priorities and community needs
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Theory of change and measurement frameworks
Policy, Advocacy & Global Partnerships
Shaping policy, building coalitions, and designing the partnerships that move systems.
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Advocacy strategy and coalition design — domestic and international
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Field research and stakeholder engagement
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Education equity policy, postsecondary systems, and workforce pathways
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Digital financial inclusion and women's economic empowerment
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Climate collaborative strategy and funder engagement
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G7/G20-adjacent policy positioning and communications
Facilitation & Leadership Alignment
Bringing leaders and teams together to think more clearly, trust more deeply, and act more decisively.
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Executive offsites, strategy retreats, and funder convenings
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Leadership alignment across complex, multi-stakeholder environments
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Cross-sector and cross-cultural facilitation
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Board and leadership team support through strategic transitions
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Reflection and learning processes embedded into team rhythms
Projects
Corporate Social Impact & Community Engagement
Corporate Citizenship Strategy · AI-Enabled Grantmaking
Serving as Senior Strategic Advisor to Micron's Social Impact and Community Engagement team and Foundation, Lanthropic is supporting a strategy refresh including development of the Corporate Contributions Policy, Foundation Board orientation, and the Community Impact Grants program — an agentic AI-enabled participatory grantmaking system and Micron's first enterprise-wide AI enablement initiative. CIG directs $2.5M across 16 global sites, engages 600 employees and helped Micron earn the 2026 Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship Innovation Amplifier Award.
Women's Digital Financial Inclusion Advocacy Hub
Women's World Banking · UNCDF · Gates Foundation
Designed a strategic partnerships plan for a global advocacy hub co-hosted by Women's World Banking and the UN Capital Development Fund — expanding its coalition to include the World Bank Group, IFC, CGAP, GSMA, the Cherie Blair Foundation, and others, and sharpening its evidence base for G20-adjacent policy conversations on women's access to digital financial services.
California's Education Governance
K-12 Governance & Equity Strategy
Developed strategic recommendations to strengthen governance and improve equity outcomes across California's 58 county offices of education — the regional layer of a $97.2B system responsible for 6.2 million K-12 students. Work addressed structural gaps in accountability, equity practice, and student outcomes in math, science, college readiness, and career preparation.
Aspen-AASCU Transfer Student Success Intensive
Aspen Institute · K-12 & Postsecondary Leadership
Facilitated a cohort of community college and university leaders committed to improving transfer outcomes for students navigating the path from two-year to four-year institutions. The intensive produced specific, measurable institutional commitments and the cross-institutional relationships needed to sustain them.
Climate & Clean Energy Collaboratives
Strategic Counsel & Facilitation
Provided strategic counsel and facilitation across three distinct, major climate and clean energy donor collaboratives — including two global funders convenings that secured alignment among 50+ leading philanthropies, and a funding application that won the Audacious Project. Work contributed to over $500M in aligned philanthropic commitments across domestic and global clean energy initiatives.
All clients are confidential.
Education Policy & Transfer Reform
California Community Colleges & SOVA
Conducted a landscape scan and policy assessment — drawing on 100+ stakeholder interviews across California and the nation — to inform AB 1111, transfer policy implementation for the country's largest postsecondary system, serving 2.1 million students. The assessment identified structural barriers to equitable student transfer and surfaced the potential of AI-assisted course equivalency tools to improve access at scale.
Panorama Global
Executive Strategy & Organizational Facilitation
Supported Panorama Global — a fast-growing global social impact platform — across two engagements: a strategic planning retreat for the executive leadership team, producing a unified vision and actionable near- and long-term commitments; and an all-staff offsite session on partner relationships and emotional intelligence, embedded in the organization's "5 to 30" journey toward its 2030 goals.
Work With Lanthropic
Selective Advisory Engagements
Lanthropic takes on a limited number of advisory engagements, working directly with senior leaders on challenges at the intersection of philanthropic strategy, governance, and AI-enabled systems design. If you are navigating a complex challenge in this space, I welcome a conversation.
About
Sheila Miller Rivera
Principal
Sheila Miller Rivera is the founder of Lanthropic, a strategic consultancy helping foundations, corporations, and social-sector organizations design and operationalize rigorous strategies that translate ambition into measurable, lasting impact. Before founding Lanthropic, Sheila spent more than a decade at the Gates Foundation. She served as Senior Policy Advisor to Melinda French Gates, developing global advocacy strategy on women's economic empowerment and influencing G7 and G20 policy discussions. She also served as state lead for Georgia and co-lead for California within US Programs, building coalitions focused on K-12, postsecondary, and workforce policy reform. Her earlier roles at the Foundation included developing the policy advocacy strategy for the Inclusive Finance team and helping launch the Foundation's women's economic empowerment strategy. Through Lanthropic, Sheila has advised Fortune 500 foundations, top-ten global foundations, and multi-billion-dollar collaboratives. Sheila has most recently led the development of an agentic AI-enabled grantmaking system helping her client win the 2026 BCCCC Innovation Amplifier Award; has helped align over $500M in climate collaborative funding and a winning application to the Audacious Project; and advises on postsecondary policy design and implementation for the nation's largest education systems. Sheila holds a Master of Public Policy (International Policy & Economic Development) from Georgetown University's McCourt School, an international business certificate from Oxford, and dual bachelor's degrees with departmental honors from the University of Oregon's Clark Honors College, where she later delivered the commencement address. She serves on the University of Oregon College of Education Advisory Board. Outside of work, Sheila practices mindfulness and yoga, leads her children's scouting troops, and has officiated weddings in Seattle and Peru.
