Dr. Linda Talbott sees herself as a builder—a builder of the infrastructure that supports philanthropy and fills the gap between nonprofit needs and funding. As president and CEO of Talbott & Associates, a consultant to foundations, corporations and the nonprofit sector worldwide, her building blocks consist of management development, research, education, advocacy and strategic planning.

Talbott’s own education includes a Ph.D. with honors in educational administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and post-doctoral work at the Harvard Business School in management and planning. Her career in philanthropy began, she says, when she returned to Kansas City in the mid-70s. She was working with then-UMKC Chancellor James Olson when she wrote the original case for the UMKC Performing Arts Center.

In her work, Talbott discovered many Kansas City families involved in philanthropic efforts, but whose collective efforts suffered from a lack of organization. This led her to co-found and become president of the Clearinghouse for Midcontinent Foundations, which she says “helped funders know better where community needs were.” She worked with the clearinghouse for 18 years before starting Talbott & Associates in 1993.

Along the way she has served as a member of the board of directors for KCP&L, she was significantly involved with the formation of such women’s development associations as the Central Exchange and the Women’s Employment Network, and she has lectured on nonprofit leadership and voluntarism throughout the U.S., Europe, China and the former Soviet Union. She has received recognition for her work from presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton.

In spite of her global scope, Talbott knows that charity begins at home, and that the local nonprofit infrastructure has been shaken by the events of Sept. 11. “We’re in a place of great ambiguity,” Talbott says. “We just have to remember to keep our antennae up and to be responsive to community and family.”