Community Change Statement on the Passing of Former Director, Social Justice Reformer, Pablo Eisenberg

Community Change Statement on the Passing of Former Director, Social Justice Reformer, Pablo Eisenberg

It is with great sadness that we share with you that Pablo Eisenberg, an incredible leader within our movement and former Community Change Executive Director, passed away this week.

Pablo Eisenberg, a social justice reformer who championed the voice of low-income people in America passed away this week at the age of 90. He was a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute. Prior to his role at Georgetown, he served for 23 years as Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, a leading national organization whose mission is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially people of color, to change the policies and institutions that impact their lives. 

Pablo Samuel Eisenberg was born July 1,1932 in Paris to American parents who had lived there since 1923. His father, Maurice Eisenberg, was a renowned cellist widely considered the foremost cellist of the time. His mother, Paula (Halpert) Eisenberg was a homemaker. Pablo was named for his godfather, Pablo Casals, the legendary master of the modern cello, mentor to Maurice, and a close family friend.

Eisenberg grew up in New Jersey where he excelled in basketball and tennis. He would later attend Princeton and Oxford, captaining both tennis teams and going on to play in Wimbledon five times, making the quarterfinals once, and winning a gold medal at the 1953 Maccabiah Games in Israel.  

After two years in the Army and over three years in Africa as a Foreign Service Officer, he became Program Director of Operation Crossroads Africa. He then served as Director of Pennsylvania Operations for the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and Deputy Director of the Research and Demonstration Division at the Office of Economic Opportunity. After leaving OEO, he served as Deputy Director for Field Operations at the National Urban Coalition.  

During his tenure as Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, Eisenberg played an instrumental role building up dozens of grassroots organizations across the nation, each taking direct action to address poverty and inequality.  Under his leadership, the organization helped reform community development investments to be directly influenced by the communities affected, fought to preserve and expand the nation’s stock of affordable housing, campaigned successfully to halt billions of dollars in cuts to anti-poverty programs and played a leading role in the reform of philanthropy.  He championed the importance of coalitions, and during his tenure, Community Change founded and incubated dozens of organizations to work on policy issues affecting low-income people. Eisenberg was founder of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.  The Foundation News described him at this time as “one of philanthropy’s most successful fundraisers, a man who berates establishment foundations even as he is soliciting grants from them. Nobody is more eloquent and unswerving in presenting the case for the Americans who generally get crumbs from the foundation table.” 

Pablo published numerous articles and chapters of books and was a regular columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. He authored Challenges for Nonprofits and Philanthropy: The Courage to Change. He was a visiting professor at both the University of Notre Dame and New Orleans University. He was a champion of the leading role of young people, especially people of color, in making social change and mentored many changemakers. 

He served on the boards of Youth Today, Eureka Communities, the Milton Eisenhower Foundation, ICChange and the University College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University,  New Faculty Majority Foundation, and was a trustee of Citizen Funds.  

Eisenberg was the recipient of the 1989 award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Service from the Alliance for Justice; the Weston Howland Jr. Award for Distinguished National Leadership from Tufts University; a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997 by the National Society of Fundraising Executives; and the 1998 John Gardner Leadership Award sponsored by Independent Sector. In June 2004, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Princeton University. 

Pablo Eisenberg is survived by his daughter Marina Eisenberg and his sister, Maruta Friedler, and preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Helen.