Douglas Rutzen
President & CEO Member Ex-Officio - Board of Directors
Doug Rutzen is President and CEO of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which has worked on the legal framework for civil society, philanthropy, and public participation in 100 countries. Doug also teaches international civil society law at Georgetown Law.
Doug serves on the Open Government Partnership’s steering committee and the OECD Civic Space Observatory’s advisory group. He previously served on the UN Democracy Fund’s advisory board and co-chaired the State Department’s Global Philanthropy Working Group.
Under Doug’s leadership, ICNL received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. In addition, Doug received InterAction’s Outstanding Leadership Award, Georgetown Law’s Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award, and the WINGS award for exemplary service to philanthropy. The Nonprofit Times has recognized Doug as one of the top 50 nonprofit leaders since 2014, and he was named its “influencer of the year” in 2026.
Doug presented remarks at a meeting moderated by President Obama for heads of state attending the 2013 UN General Assembly. He has also testified before the US Senate and House of Representatives on international civil society law.
As Czechoslovakia transitioned to democracy, Doug served as a legal advisor in the Czechoslovak Parliament, where he helped draft the country’s nonprofit laws. In private practice, Doug was co-counsel on the first lawsuit against Qaddafi for the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Doug taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Charles Law Faculty in Prague, and he has lectured at Stanford, Cornell, and Yale Law School. Doug has published in the Harvard International Review, Foreign Policy, and the Journal of Democracy.
In addition to his legal career, Doug developed social enterprises for persons with disabilities, and he co-authored a manual for Helen Keller International that helped transform the production of low-cost eyeglasses worldwide.
Doug is a graduate of Yale Law School with undergraduate studies at Cornell and Oxford.
