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Adene Sacks
Professional Background
Adene Sacks is a renowned philanthropic advisor and social strategist who has dedicated her career to creating more equitable and just communities. With a passion for problem-solving and a commitment to social innovation, Adene thrives in collaborative environments where she partners with visionary leaders and organizations to re-imagine and design communal systems that inspire change. Her work spans multiple sectors, blending the art of network strategy, human-centered design, and systems thinking to build collective capacity.
In her capacity as co-founder of the With/in Collaborative, Adene has played a pivotal role in facilitating conversations and fostering partnerships among diverse stakeholders aiming to address societal challenges. Additionally, she has served as the program director for the New Leadership Network at the Irvine Foundation, where she worked to cultivate the next generation of leaders equipped to tackle pressing community issues.
Throughout her impressive career, Adene has also been embedded with the Organizational Effectiveness team at the Packard Foundation, where she has contributed to enhancing philanthropic strategies that improve organizational impact. Her expertise extends to the Hawaii Community Foundation, where she stewards the Network of Network Leaders, and she has provided valuable insights as a senior advisor to prominent organizations like DataKind and the Fellows Program at Stanford’s d.school.
In a different facet of her career, Adene made a significant impact as the first senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation where she developed programs aimed at enhancing Jewish education and engagement. She also served as the founding US director of the Israel Venture Network, focusing on innovative solutions to strengthen the Israeli nonprofit sector.
Adene’s dynamic career is complemented by numerous accolades, including the prestigious JJ Greenberg Award for Philanthropic Leadership from the Jewish Funders Network in 2011. This award is a testament to her commitment to leadership and her ability to inspire others in the philanthropic landscape.
Education and Achievements
Adene Sacks holds a Bachelor Of Arts in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, where she gained foundational knowledge in social structures, processes, and community dynamics. Her education served as a springboard for her extensive career that blends academia with real-world impact, emphasizing the importance of empirical research in driving systemic change.
As a thought leader, Adene’s writing has made significant contributions to the discourse on social change. In collaboration with Heather McLeod Grant from Open Impact, she co-authored the book Leading Systems Change in 2019. This influential work examines the journey of two communities in California’s Central Valley as they navigated cross-sector collaboration, racial equity, and communal transformation. The book offers funders and practitioners detailed case-studies, actionable lessons, and tools necessary for implementing equity-centered systems change, solidifying her role as a key figure in the field of social strategy and philanthropy.
Achievements
Adene's distinguished career is marked by substantial contributions to the field of philanthropy and social strategy. As a co-founder of the With/In Collaborative, she has been instrumental in fostering community-driven approaches to addressing systemic challenges. Her directorship at the New Leadership Network at the Irvine Foundation signifies her dedication to nurturing future leaders who can bring innovative solutions to pressing societal issues.
Her previous roles reflect a trajectory of increasing responsibility and influence, showcasing her expertise in nonprofit strategy and effective philanthropic advising. Particularly noteworthy is her time as the founding senior program officer at Jim Joseph Foundation, where she developed critical initiatives aimed at enhancing educational experiences within the Jewish community. As the founding US director of the Israel Venture Network, Adene helped pioneer new approaches to strengthen nonprofit organizations within Israel, showcasing her ability to bridge cultural divides through strategic governance and support.
Adene's role as a senior advisor to top-tier organizations, including the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford and Open Impact, highlights her consultative skills and breadth of knowledge in fostering innovation in social impact. Her dedication to mentorship and leadership development continues to position her as a respected voice in philanthropic spaces.
Final Thoughts
Adene Sacks exemplifies a commitment to collaboration, innovation, and social change. Her rich tapestry of experiences confirms her status as a leading philanthropic advisor and social strategist, shaping the future of community engagement and equity through thoughtful leadership, inspiring co-design, and a steadfast belief in the power of collective action. Whether she is convening leaders from diverse sectors or authoring influential texts, Adene remains a pivotal figure in the ongoing pursuit of creating a more just world—one conversation, one design, and one network at a time.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.