How Nadege Souvenir is redefining philanthropy, leadership, and community impact in San Antonio
By Dawn Robinette, APR, Fellow PRSA | Photography by David Teran
When Nadege Souvenir, CEO of the San Antonio Area Foundation, arrived in San Antonio, she expected to focus on the work.
What she didn’t expect was how quickly the city would embrace her – and how deeply she would embrace it in return.
“Less than a year after being here, I had a lovely dinner with three other couples who I consider dear friends,” she says. “I thought, ‘I haven’t even been here a year, and I’ve got this circle of people that I already know, love and trust.’
“That says something about this community and their willingness to sort of adopt and bring new people in, and to truly do it in a genuine way,” she explains. “Everybody is willing to be kind in a way that I don’t know that every community can say.”
For Souvenir, that moment captured something essential about the city she now calls home: a sense of connection that mirrors the very work she leads every day.
With more than 600 charitable funds and $1.3 billion in assets, the San Antonio Area Foundation is one of the largest community foundations in the country. Through the generosity of its donors, the foundation has awarded hundreds of millions in grants and has become the region’s largest provider of scholarships, helping students access education and opportunity. By stewarding these philanthropic investments, the Area Foundation plays a vital role in strengthening the nonprofit ecosystem, advancing opportunity, and supporting communities across San Antonio.
Souvenir leads the foundation with a clear sense of purpose: to connect people, resources, and ideas in ways that create lasting impact. Her work spans a wide range of issues – from education and economic mobility to nonprofit sustainability – reflecting her belief in the power of philanthropy to address complex challenges.
That approach is evident in collaborative efforts like All Hearts on Deck, an initiative designed to support nonprofit organizations facing increased demand and evolving funding realities.
While just one part of the foundation’s broader strategy, it reflects Souvenir’s commitment to bringing people together around shared goals. “These nonprofit leaders are leading organizations that are critical to our community,” she says. “And the sector is struggling.
They’re having to deal with the realistic challenges of funding cuts.
“The ability to lift these organizations, the leaders, the work that they’re doing, is really important to me personally, but also to the Area Foundation and to all the funders in this community. We want to do whatever we can to help support them so that they can continue to provide the vital services that they do in San Antonio.”
That commitment to supporting others is rooted in a deeper understanding of who she is as a leader, one shaped by a willingness to bring authenticity into every space she enters.
Even in the most structured environments, Souvenir has always found ways to express individuality. During her time as an attorney, working in formal courtroom settings, she discovered small but meaningful ways to stand out while still honoring expectations.
“I bucked the uniform by having probably six or seven different pairs of glasses in various colors,” she says. “That’s how I brought a little personality to the black suit that I needed to wear in the courtroom.”
That instinct to bring authenticity into even the most rigid spaces has stayed with her throughout her career. It’s reflected not just in how she presents herself, but in how she approaches leadership, decision-making, and growth.
When asked what advice she would give her younger self, Souvenir’s response is both practical and revealing. “The non-serious advice would be, take a speed-reading course,” she says with a laugh. “I really wish I could read faster… there’s so much content that I want to consume.”
But beneath that lighthearted answer is a deeper reflection on confidence and identity. “The more serious advice is to really lean in to being myself,” she says.
While she brings years of experience to her role, Souvenir’s path to philanthropy wasn’t linear. But it was intentional. “Everything I’ve done, even though sometimes it feels fully unrelated, has shaped who I am,” she explains.
She built a successful practice as a litigator, working in complex commercial litigation, trademark law, and employment matters. Yet she recognized a disconnect.
“I was literally sitting in a trial and thought, wow, this is not driving me the way it’s driving my colleagues,” she says.
That realization became a turning point, leading her to rethink not just what she did, but why she did it. “What I love about community philanthropy is the breadth of issues that it can tackle,” she says.
Her transition into the nonprofit sector would take her to the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, where she served as chief operating officer, overseeing operations, governance, and evaluation efforts. There, she helped lead complex systems and initiatives designed to strengthen communities – experience that now informs her leadership in San Antonio.
Early in her career, Souvenir admits she spent time trying to model what success was supposed to look like, often mirroring others in environments where she didn’t always see herself reflected.
“I was trying to be the version of what I thought was successful,” she says. “But none of them looked like me or approached things like me, and so it never felt fully authentic. I think I finally got good at being a leader when I got really comfortable being myself.”
That shift and resulting authenticity show up in both her leadership style and her day-to-day presence, whether she’s guiding complex philanthropic strategy or connecting with community partners. It’s also reflected in her ability to balance seriousness with approachability.
“You’re going to hear me occasionally flub a word, and I will laugh right through it and keep going. I don’t take myself too seriously if I don’t have to. You can do serious things with joy and laughter and creativity.”
Souvenir’s personal life reflects the same attitude, creativity, and connection. She met her husband, attorney Joshua Dorothy, in law school, and the two share a love of travel and exploring new culinary experiences. “We are willing to travel for a good meal,” she says with a laugh. “I may or may not have gone to Portland three times in the same year, within the span of 6 months, to go to a new, high-level, modern Haitian American restaurant by a chef from ‘Top Chef’ that we love.
“I mean, that may or may not have happened, but it totally did,” she laughs with no guilt whatsoever.
She also brings a sense of creativity and individuality to her everyday life, including a growing collection of statement earrings. “It started during COVID because this is what you see on a screen [motioning to her head]. Then it just kept going, and frankly, earrings always fit in a suitcase when you travel.”
At the center of her world is her daughter, Addison, an elementary school teacher in Chicago whose kindness and creativity continue to inspire her.
“She is possibly the nicest human I have ever met in my life,” Souvenir says. “I’m still not sure how I’ve been blessed to be her mother.”
When asked what advice she carries with her every day, Souvenir doesn’t hesitate. “Trust your gut,” she says. “That is 100% how I operate. I follow my instinct. Obviously, I show up, I’m informed, I do the research, I do the work.
“But I really feel like most of us have an intuition that we don’t listen to enough,” she says. “When I trust my gut, it has usually served me well.”
As she continues to build her work in San Antonio, Souvenir remains focused on what matters most: creating meaningful, lasting change.
“I’ve always seen myself more as a fixer,” she says. “I love coming to something and saying, you know how this could be better?”
It’s a mindset that reflects both her professional journey and her personal values – one grounded in curiosity, collaboration, and a belief in what’s possible.
“I’m not a builder. I’m not an entrepreneur in the sense that I want to start from scratch, but I kind of love coming to the messy pile of clay or bricks or whatever, and saying this could be better, you know how we could do this different, or you know how we could maximize what we’ve got here, changing something and knowing I can actually look back and say, ‘It was better for me having been there.’”
For Souvenir, success is not defined by titles or milestones, but by impact. “For me, success is leaving something better than I found it,” she says.
In a city known for its warmth and connection, Souvenir has found both a place to belong and a platform to lead.
And in return, she’s helping San Antonio grow stronger – one partnership, one initiative, and one meaningful connection at a time.
