Brian W. Walsh

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Brian Walsh is an attorney and former commercial litigator with two decades of experience developing and leading broad and diverse, left-right coalitions in Washington, D.C., to achieve innovative policy goals.

Under his leadership, Faith & Giving has played key roles in:

• Spurring the introduction and enactment for 2020 and 2021 of bipartisan legislation in Congress to provide a “universal” charitable deduction (UCD) to lower- and middle‑income Americans who do not itemize on their federal returns.
• Ensuring that Congress’s pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and other relief programs permitted government-shuttered faith-based organizations to participate on an equal basis without compromising their faith missions.
• Repealing the novel “church parking tax” that imposed a federal income tax on fringe benefits faith-based and other nonprofits provide to their employees.

In the early 2000s, Brian led a left-right coalition to break down partisan gridlock on criminal‑justice reform in Congress. The coalition’s diverse members ranged from the progressive American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) to the libertarian Cato Institute and conservative Federalist Society. The coalition’s work led to bipartisan congressional hearings, the formation of the bipartisan Over‑Criminalization Task Force in the House Judiciary Committee, and reform legislation in the U.S. House and Senate.

In the 2010s, Brian developed initiatives supported by national faith leaders collectively representing tens of millions of Americans. His coalition efforts have included national leaders of Bahá’í, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Native American, Orthodox and Reform Jewish, Sikh, and other minority faith communities—as well as a broad range of Christian denominations and traditions.

Brian has testified before U.S. House and Senate committees and subcommittees as well as before the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. His commentary has appeared in a wide range of publications, including USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Real Clear Politics, and Philanthropy Daily. He has been interviewed by media outlets including CNBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, New York Times, and NPR.

Brian was a commercial litigation associate with global law firm Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., and with Willcox & Savage in Norfolk, Virginia. He served as a law clerk to Judge Pasco M. Bowman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.