Austin Hickory
Development & Strategic Partnerships | Infrastructure, Climate Resilience & Early-Stage Organizations
Approach • Process • Impact
About
Driven by Collaboration & Durable Impact
I'm excited by upstream challenges that are complex, technically sophisticated, require bridging capital gaps, and narratives still in formulation. Across these efforts, I’ve worked closely with founders, funders, and institutional partners to translate ambitious ideas into fundable, executable paths forward.
A common theme across these projects is cultivating long-term relationships and stewarding funder confidence while technical, regulatory, and delivery conditions evolve. I'm interested in early-stage, high-impact work in the philanthropic and climate sectors. I prioritize trust, communicating reality clearly, and staying engaged for the long term.
Early-stage translation & alignment
Helping funders and partners understand what is feasible, where risk lives, and how ideas can responsibly move toward execution.
Capital-aware systems thinking
Designing operating models and decision frameworks that reinforce credibility, accountability, and long-term partnership trust.
Cross-stakeholder leadership
Working across founders, technical teams, and institutions to align priorities and maintain momentum through uncertainty.
Complex initiative support
Supporting infrastructure- and systems-heavy initiatives from concept through delivery, with an emphasis on sustainability and long-term viability.
How I Approach Development Work & Partnerships
Much of my career has taken place at the intersection of ambitious ideas, complex realities, and early-stage fundraising. I’ve worked on initiatives where certainty is limited, timelines are long, and establishing early trust between funders, partners, and implementers is essential.
I approach these relationships by helping partners understand what is truly possible, aligning expectations early, and maintaining momentum as conditions evolve. My focus is on translating complex concepts into clear, decision-ready narratives that funders and stakeholders can use as reference points throughout a project’s lifecycle.
What Guides My Work
Credibility before scale
I prioritize substance, transparency, and follow-through to build trust early. This is especially important when projects are new, technical, or politically sensitive.
Alignment over optimism
I work to align capital, technical feasibility, and execution realities before momentum outpaces what delivery can support.
Long-horizon stewardship
I stay engaged beyond initial commitments, recognizing that the strongest partnerships extend well beyond a single project or funding cycle.
From Approach to Practice
The projects that follow reflect this approach across infrastructure, climate resilience, and founder-led initiatives. Each required patience, discipline, clear communication, and sustained partnerships to move from idea to impact.
Featured Project
Elmore Stout High School (ESHS) Redevelopment — Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Year: 2022
Budget: $15M USD
Timeline: 17 months
Partners: Construction for Change; BVI Recovery & Development Agency; HDR Inc; Expedia Group; BVI Ministry of Education
Capital & Relationship Context
  • Stage: Post-disaster recovery → implementation readiness
  • Capital Types: Public reconstruction funding, philanthropic support, pro bono technical expertise
  • My Role: Partnership development, relationship coordination, scope translation
  • Stakeholders: National government, education authorities, funders, technical partners, community leadership
This project required sustained stakeholder and funder confidence as technical, political, and delivery conditions evolved in a highly visible national context.
Project Overview
Following catastrophic damage from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, Elmore Stout High School—the only public secondary school on Tortola—was rendered inoperable. Its redevelopment was designated the British Virgin Islands’ highest national infrastructure priority, placing the project at the intersection of urgent public need, political visibility, and capital accountability.
The challenge was not simply rebuilding a school, but restoring confidence: aligning government priorities, technical feasibility, funding constraints, and long-term operational sustainability in a post-disaster environment where certainty was limited and timelines were compressed.
Role & Focus
My role centered on shaping the project’s early partnership and funding ecosystem. This included helping establish the initial working partnership with the BVI Recovery & Development Agency to define a viable redevelopment pathway, recruiting Expedia Group as a funding partner to support early planning and execution readiness, and engaging HDR Inc as a philanthropic technical partner to contribute pro bono design and planning expertise.
Alongside partnership development, I served as the operational and coordination lead aligning government agencies, funders, and technical teams around a shared planning and decision-making framework. My focus was translating post-disaster urgency and technical complexity into a funder-credible path from uncertainty to implementation readiness.
Key Success Factors
  • Established early trust and alignment across government, funders, and technical partners through a clear governance and decision framework
  • Translated complex planning into funder-credible decisions aligning scope, cost, phasing, and long-term sustainability
  • Maintained stakeholder confidence and reduced early capital risk as technical assumptions, timelines, and delivery strategies evolved
Featured Project
Caribbean Solar Resilience Initiative — Dominica, Puerto Rico, St. John & St. Thomas
Years: 2018–2022
Sites: 15 distributed installations
Capital Deployed: $465K
Partners: Construction for Change; Sextant Foundation; Expedia Group; Clinton Global Initiative; Project HOPE; Digicel Foundation; Rocky Mountain Institute; FEMA
Capital & Relationship Context
  • Stage: Post-disaster recovery → distributed climate resilience infrastructure
  • Capital Types: Philanthropic funding, corporate support, in-kind technical contributions
  • My Role: Program coordination, partner alignment, implementation oversight
  • Stakeholders: Funders, local governments, schools, medical facilities, community leaders
This initiative required sustained partner confidence while deploying climate infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions with varying regulatory, logistical, and recovery conditions.
Project Overview
Hurricanes Irma and Maria exposed the Caribbean’s deep vulnerability to centralized power systems, severely disrupting recovery efforts across multiple islands. Reliable electricity quickly became a gating factor for healthcare, education, communication, and community coordination.
The Caribbean Solar Resilience Initiative focused on deploying distributed solar systems at schools, medical facilities, and community centers. These sites serve as critical refuges during emergencies. The objective was to pair immediate recovery needs with long-term climate resilience, delivering infrastructure that could operate independently when the grid failed.
Role & Focus
I supported the coordination and delivery of a multi-island solar program spanning 15 sites across four jurisdictions. My role focused on aligning funders, technical standards, and local partners to ensure systems met FEMA and Rocky Mountain Institute resilience recommendations while remaining feasible within post-disaster constraints.
This included recruiting and working with philanthropic and corporate partners to maintain momentum across staggered installations, navigating permitting and procurement challenges, and ensuring that technical solutions aligned with on-the-ground operational realities.
Key Success Factors
  • Maintained funder and partner confidence while delivering climate infrastructure across multiple islands and regulatory environments
  • Translated resilience standards into deployable, site-specific solar solutions for schools, medical facilities, and community centers
  • Enabled critical facilities to function as emergency refuges with independent power during grid outages
Featured Project
Steamboat Social Club — Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Years: 2022–2025
Capital Deployed: $300K
Partners: Routt County Economic Development Council; 30+ local businesses and nonprofits
Capital & Relationship Context
  • Stage: Early-stage social enterprise → stabilized operations → ownership transition
  • Capital Types: Founder capital, local economic development support, earned revenue
  • My Role: Founder, partnership development, operating model design
  • Stakeholders: Local government, small businesses, nonprofits, members, community leaders
This venture required building trust, revenue, and partnerships simultaneously without institutional backing or guaranteed capital.
Project Overview
Steamboat Social Club was launched as a community-centered coworking and innovation hub designed to foster connection, creativity, and cross-sector collaboration in a small mountain town. The goal was to translate principles from global development work (shared ownership, inclusion, and sustainability) into a locally rooted, revenue-supported social enterprise.
The challenge was building a viable organization from zero which required establishing credibility, securing partners, and generating recurring revenue while balancing financial discipline with community purpose in an early-stage setup.
Role & Focus
I founded Steamboat Social Club and served as the operational and strategic lead from inception through transition. This included developing the operating and revenue model, initiating and stewarding partnerships with local government, nonprofits, and businesses, and building systems that could support growth without compromising mission.
My focus was on early-stage execution aligning stakeholders around a shared value proposition, translating community needs into a sustainable business model, and maintaining momentum through ambiguity until the organization reached operational stability.
Key Success Factors
  • Built early credibility and trust with local partners and members, enabling fast partnership formation and community adoption
  • Designed a revenue-supported operating model that balanced financial viability with community-centered impact
  • Established systems and governance that supported long-term sustainability and a successful transition to new local ownership
Portfolio Highlights: Visual Showcase
| Hetauda House - earthquake resilient safe housing - Nepal |
| Optimize Health Hospital Crew Members - Madhya Pradesh, India |
| Hetauda Community Members - Nepal |
| STEP School - before and after - Kampong Cham, Cambodia |
| Dearborn Park, Elementary School Renovation — Seattle, WA |
| iKure Advanced Health Center - Kalkata, India |
| Flying Kites Academy Development - Njabini, Kenya |
These moments capture the essence of my professional journey— from architecting scalable systems and leading organizations through periods of rapid growth, crisis response, and strategic transition. I've guided startups, nonprofits, governments, and global coalitions in standing up new operating models, funding structures, and multi-region delivery platforms that accelerate impact. Each image represents a chapter in my commitment to this work.
"Life becomes more meaningful when you work for your fellow beings." - Dadu, Project Partner & Founder of Hospital for Hope - Jharkhand, India
Contact & Connect
I'm open to discussing new opportunities, collaborative projects, or simply connecting with fellow professionals who share a passion for global development work, innovation and impact.
Email
athickory@gmail.com
Phone
+1 (206) 370-3010
Portfolio Website
www.austinhickory.com
Thank you for taking the time to learn about my professional journey. I look forward to the possibility of contributing to the meaningful work of your organization and finding opportunities to create a healthy and equitable world.
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