Silvia Bastante de Unverhau is a global philanthropy expert and executive with over 25 years of experience working across the business, international development, non-profit, and government sectors. She has extensive experience in grantmaking for education, health, economic opportunity, human rights and gender equality, as well as enabling philanthropists and foundations to utilize their investments for positive impact. She is a regular writer and speaker on philanthropy and has been quoted by leading publications including the Financial Times and Forbes.
Silvia provides independent philanthropy advisory and consulting services to philanthropists and philanthropic organisations through Braymont. She is also a Senior Advisor with LGT Philanthropy Advisory. She previously served as Chief Philanthropy Officer at Co-Impact, a global collaborative of leading philanthropists focused on systems change. Silvia teaches systems change philanthropy and emerging trends in global philanthropy in the Master of Advanced Studies in Philanthropy at the University of Geneva.
Silvia is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth. She serves on the Board of the I AM WATER Ocean Conservation Foundation, a global organisation advancing ocean and species conservation through transformative human experiences, across both non-profit and mission-driven business models. She is also an Advisory Board member of VALUEworks, an independent multi-family office in Zurich with a values-based approach, and serves on additional boards and advisory boards. She has been recognised as a Creative Activist by To.org , a platform that brings together venture capital, philanthropy, and creative work to support solutions to major global challenges.
From 2021 until 2024, Silvia served as a Senior Advisor to Co-Impact. Previously, from early 2018, she was the Chief Philanthropy Officer, where she joined the founding team and helped to bring together over 40 philanthropists and foundations from 16 countries who contributed more than US$ 500 million for grants to partners in the Global South. Between 2013 and 2017 she was the Global Head of Philanthropy Advisory at UBS where she led a team of specialists helping wealthy philanthropists. In that role, she created the largest community of billionaire and UHNW philanthropists and social impact investors with over 400 members worldwide. From 2004 to 2013, she was an Associate Partner at the strategy consulting firm Monitor Group where she worked with national leaders, executives and social entrepreneurs on social change, strategy, leadership and organizational design. Early in her career, she held management roles at the Organization of American States in Washington DC, the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London, and served in the Office of the President of Peru in Lima.
As a globally recognized thought leader, her work has been widely published. She has authored and contributed to pioneering guides and reports on strategic philanthropy, global giving, systems change, fundraising, and the role of wealth in driving impact. She has also produced regional and country reports covering Sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa), Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru), the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden), China, and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates).
Silvia graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a bachelor’s degree in Government and Economics, and holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) in Cambridge, MA where she was also distinguished as a Mason Fellow. She also holds a Certficate in Corporate Governance from INSEAD and has completed executive education courses at Harvard Business School and Singularity Univerisity. Silvia brings a unique and global perspective to her work. Originally from Lima, Peru, she has visited and worked in over 80 countries across six continents. She lives with her husband and two children in Zurich.