We are strategists, advocates, and implementers partnering with public and private organizations to increase social impact.
Hawthorn was founded on the idea that the best strategies are informed by deep expertise, forethought into how you can build coalitions and influence policy, and dedicated execution planning. Hawthorn Principal Josh Drake has designed $1 billion in economic development, health, environment, and diplomatic strategies and projects in the United States, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. Hawthorn works with clients from the social, public, and private sectors with a particular focus on leveraging new technologies and scientific breakthroughs for social impact.
STRATEGY| We help you identify the best strategy for your desired impact, including making evidence-based decisions on how to optimally employ financial, staff, and reputational resources.
ADVOCACY | We amplify your efforts by building coalitions of partners for collective impact as well as by identifying and developing approaches to address public opinion and policy shaping your objectives.
ACTION | We see your vision through to outcomes in the field using implementation planning, program and grant design, project management, and measurement, learning, and evaluation.
Select experience
Cyber Policy Reform
STRATEGY | Refined a philanthropy's $50 million strategy to influence and improve cyber policy.
Complex trade-offs in cyber policy between civil liberties, national security, and commerce remain unresolved. Since 2014, the Hewlett Foundation has led the effort to create a multi-disciplinary network of experts capable of bridging the gap between tomorrow’s tech and today’s policies. Josh led a strategic evaluation of the Hewlett Cyber Initiative's first 3 years informing significant strategy shifts, a Board-approved 5-year extension, and a doubling of Initiative resources. Specific work included: field, actor, and policy influence mapping, development of 10 case studies with actionable lessons-learned, 50+ evaluative interviews, and distillation of all findings into a set of actionable next steps.
Data to End Hunger
ADVOCACY | Helped build a $300 million coalition bringing Ag data to policymakers in 50 countries.
800 million of the world's poorest and hungry rely on farming to survive. Policies that could improve their lives remain hobbled, however, by persistent gaps in the agricultural data needed for better decision-making. Josh helped the Gates Foundation conceive and launch the $300 million 'Data to End Hunger Initiative,' a multi-stakeholder coalition bringing state of the art agricultural surveys to 50 developing countries. Specific work included researching and co-authoring the initial proposal from which the Data to End Hunger initiative was born, as well as follow up support to coalition building and political negotiations to ensure its funding, launch, and ongoing implementation.
Sudan Peacekeeping Support
ACTION | Translated U.S. Sudan policy into $450 million in peacekeeping support grants and contracts.
Conflict causes most of the world's extreme hunger and displacement. Josh developed and managed $100 million in annual U.S. programs to reduce the violence in Darfur, Sudan by training, equipping, deploying, supporting, and providing advisory services to 10,000+ African peacekeepers. The resulting African Union and later United Nations peacekeeping missions reduced (but did not end) what was then the world's largest humanitarian, refugee, and security crisis. Specific work included building and leading a six-person team to manage 20 projects employing over 1,000 contractors to deliver peacekeeping support across Darfur and seven additional troop contributing countries.
About Hawthorn
About Josh
Josh Drake is a social impact advisor with 20 years experience in strategy and management consulting, non-profit leadership, and public policy, advocacy, and implementation. He started his career as an American diplomat in Washington and Sub-Saharan Africa, and subsequently worked as an advisor to the CEO and Board of international relief and development NGO Mercy Corps. Before Hawthorn, Josh led project teams for 5 years at Camber Collective, a boutique strategy and management consulting firm working on both domestic and international engagements. Josh holds an MA in Public Policy from Harvard, a BA in Political Science and Geography from Middlebury, and was a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Hiring Hawthorn
Josh is deeply involved in every Hawthorn project. He provides advisory and consulting services directly to clients, and builds and leads teams from a network of consultants when clients’ objectives require additional bandwidth or subject matter expertise. You can learn more about our engagement model and rates by contacting us directly.