Our Team

Jakki (she/her) joined Solidaire in 2017 to support operations and recently transitioned to become our Movement Partnerships Coordinator, where her love for order and documentation shine. Her professional background is focused on operational optimization and project management with social justice organizations and technology startups. Jakki holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and Technology from the University of Minnesota. Originally from Wisconsin, she is currently a full-time nomad exploring the US with her partner and cats.

What Liberation Means to Jakki

Tell us why you do what you do.

Traditional grantmaking models can take ages to move money. We are trying to make grantmaking as painless and quick as possible while still being compliant so that our grantees can spend more time doing their amazing work.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I worked for many years with companies that did not align with my beliefs. At the end of the day, I’m proud of the work that I am doing to help create change in the world.

What does liberation mean to you?

To me, liberation means freedom from unnecessary restrictions and oppression.

 

Nigel (he/him) joins the Solidaire team as a donor organizer, supporting individuals and institutional partners in their work to advance racial, gender, and climate justice. Nigel brings to this work a cross-class analysis of philanthropy, grantmaking, and community organizing developed through 10 years of community engagement in Philadelphia. Before coming to Solidaire he was the Director of Donor Organizing for Bread & Roses Community Fund, a funder of grassroots organizing for racial, social, and economic justice in the Philadelphia region. In this role he supported multiracial, cross-class, and intergenerational groups of community members through the Giving Project program, a process of community building, political education, grassroots fundraising, and participatory grantmaking. Nigel earned an undergraduate degree from Temple University and a Masters in Urban Studies with a focus on community development from Eastern University.

Nigel is a first-generation afro-caribbean with a deep love for Philadelphia, his native city. Held and motivated by a familial legacy of resistance and community he is drawn to organizing spaces that honor and celebrate black lives. You can often find him photographing marches, protests, and actions by movement organizations as a way of capturing and preserving our collective story of resistance.

What Liberation Means to Nigel

Tell us why you do what you do.

I have witnessed the power of community transform impossibilities to achievements. I stand on the shoulders of giants who refused to hand me a world unimproved by their lives. It is my intention to honor them by doing the same.

What’s most important to you being part of Solidaire?

I have the pleasure of connecting and laboring with people who use their radical imaginations to move us towards a radically different world. As a part of Solidaire I know my hope for a just and equitable world is shared and valued by all parts of this community.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means that everyone has the space to honor and enjoy the abundance that the world provides. It means that love, joy, and peace are valued as real resources and invested in. Liberation is also a call to those who experience it, even to a degree, to create an environment where it can be shared with others. In a liberated world we all are safe, seen, and supported.

Shannon (she/her) is thrilled to join Solidaire as a Donor Organizer after being an active member of the network since 2017. She is also a trustee at the Homestead Foundation, a small, family foundation based in Atlanta, Georgia. Shannon is passionate about resourcing Southern, social and racial justice movements led by impacted communities and holds an endless belief in the power of grassroots organizing. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was born and raised, with her family.

 

What Liberation Means to Shannon

Tell us why you do what you do.

To be in service of social movements is both an honor and a moral obligation during the increasingly difficult conditions we find ourselves in.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I relish being part of a collective, made up of both individual and institutional donors, who are striving to fund social movements like we want them to win, the mandate given to donors by Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson of Highlander. “Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone.” – Mariame Kaba.

What does liberation mean to you?

All people having unencumbered access to the tools, resources and opportunities necessary to thrive as they see fit.

 

Malachi (he/they/them) is currently the Strategy & Innovation Director at Solidaire. In this role, Malachi works to implement many aspects of our 2023-2033 strategic direction including growing and strengthening Solidaire Action, sharpening our narrative change work, deepening sector-wide collaborations and furthering our vision for building progressive power. Before coming to Solidaire, Malachi served as the Senior Strategist and National Network Director at the W. Haywood Burns Institute building community-based alternatives to juvenile justice systems across the United States.

Malachi serves on the boards of SONG Power, Auburn Theological Seminary, and GLSEN. Malachi is a Rosenberg Foundation Leading Edge Fellow and a founder of the widely acclaimed Brown Boi Project. Malachi’s work in popular education, community organizing, and institutions spans over 20 years.

What Liberation Means to Malachi

Tell us why you do what you do?

I am a child of spiritual leaders who trained me to organize as far back as I can remember. As I grew older, I chose the name Malachi, in part because it means “my messenger.” I was born and bred to be of service. I have committed my life to this calling, choosing to embed myself in the places love accelerates justice. I believe this honors what the Gods ask of us.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I have spent over 20 years working in and leading local, regional, and national grassroots work and formations. I have been blessed to understand through practice and politic what it takes to lead within various sectors of our movements. I am honored to be of service bringing these relationships and wisdom forward to bless this formation. I seek to deeply listen to movements, Solidaire members, and our organizational leadership with the goal of realizing our theory of liberation.

What does liberation mean to you?

I believe that we all share places of common struggle, places where the salve of what is just soothes our soul and brings forward wholeness. To me, liberation is our unique contributions working in collective harmony toward building power. This power allows for the shaping of this world toward collective wellbeing.

 

Lori (she/her) manages Solidaire’s financial information while ensuring that our processes and systems reflect our organization’s values and Theory of Liberation. She leverages over 15 years of experience in operations and programs in nonprofit organizations focused on community health, political voice, and economic equity. Her previous experience includes financial oversight, accounting, operations, human resources, strategic planning, program development, technology design, and community-based participatory action research.

What Liberation Means to Lori

Tell us why you do what you do.

I want to contribute my skills and experiences in community with those working towards transformative change. I like to work with numbers, solve problems, and ensure internal processes and functions are grounded in an organization’s mission and values.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Being a part of an organization that reflects a commitment to justice in their culture and operations.

What does liberation mean to you?

It means interconnectedness in that we are able to see and value one another, which shows up in how we reimagine the systems and societies we operate in, our interactions with each other, and our relationship with the natural world.

Daniel Lee is the Director of Philanthropic Transformation at Solidaire, leading efforts to transform philanthropic culture and practice toward long-term structural change by engaging senior-level executives in our network. He recently served as Executive-in-Residence at the Council on Foundations. Daniel spent 17 years in a variety of roles at the Levi Strauss Foundation, including service as Executive Director from 2008 to 2021. He led the foundation’s Pioneers in Justice initiative, building the capability of emerging social justice leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area over five-year durations. The foundation received an inaugural Impact Award by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and was named best corporate donor by Inside Philanthropy for its focus on marginalization and equality. He cut his teeth as Senior Program Officer for Asia Pacific at Outright Action International and did a stint as researcher-writer for Let’s Go travel guides in Southeast Asia.

Daniel’s board service includes Community Change, New Breath Foundation, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Global Health Advisory Council of Open Society Foundations, Astraea Foundation, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Funders Concerned about AIDS and Starr King School for the Ministry. He received his AB in religion from Princeton, Master of Divinity from Harvard and Honorary Doctor of Sacred Theology from Starr King School for the Ministry.

 

What Liberation Means to Daniel

Tell us why you do what you do.

I am the offspring of spirited, tenacious refugees who spent their childhood years in North Korea and uprooted their lives several times before settling our family in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I developed an inexorable sense of what it means simultaneously to be an insider and an outsider – something that I still carry everywhere. I went to divinity school, finding my spiritual home not inside the walls of institutions but in the clamor and pluck of social movements advancing human rights based on sexual orientation, gender identity and HIV/AIDS status.

An advocate at heart, I am drawn to championing underdog causes and unheralded leaders, speaking truth to power, bringing together unlikely bedfellows and moving capital and resources.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Philanthropy, which means ‘love of humankind,’ is a dance of power and love, as these words of Martin Luther King illustrate. I’m honored and delighted to be part of Solidaire, which brings unconventional courage, candor and kink to collaboration in this dance:

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

What does liberation mean to you?

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” The Gospel of Thomas

“Nobody’s free until everyone’s free.” Fannie Lou Hamer

Vivette Jeffries-Logan is a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. She served her People as an elected member of the Tribal Council and as Founding Director of the OBSN Tribal Health Circle.

Vivette was a trainer with Dismantling Racism Works (dRworks), served as the Director of Training and Technical Assistance at a state domestic violence coalition, and served on the Advisory Board for the American Indian Center at a local university. She also served as Curriculum Designer and Instructor for the Working Effectively with Tribal Government course for the Centers for Disease Control and as Core Faculty with the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations.

She was honored recognized as an Honoree at the Women’s Honor Ceremony during the American Indian Women of Proud Nations Conference. United Tribes of North Carolina also honored her with the Distinguished Service to Indian People Award. Vivette earned a B.A. in Psychology and Community Studies from Guilford College and an Associate Degree (A.A.S) in Hospitality Management from Alamance Community College. She is a graduate of the North Carolina Native Leadership Institute of the American Indian Center at the University of North Carolina. She is also a Certified Executive Chef with 17 years’ experience in Hospitality Leadership and Management.

When not at work you can find Vivette laughing with relations, talking story in beloved community, baking legendary pound cakes and other southern delicacies, and attending powwows and gatherings across the state.

What Liberation Means to Vivette

 

Tell us why you do what you do.

It is my intention to honor my Ancestors, my Relatives, and the Coming Generations and be of service to Indigenous People.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

The opportunity to resource the First People of Turtle Island is one aspect of interrupting, ameliorating and healing historical trauma.

What does liberation mean to you?

The time and space for our communities to breathe, re-member our original teachings and heal.

As the Senior Philanthropy Organizer at Solidaire, Jennifer (she/her) organizes institutional members, campaigns to help transform philanthropy, and supports development of an integrated capital strategy. Her background in philanthropy includes serving as a Director of Philanthropy & Donor Relations at a community foundation, philanthropic advising for families and individuals, working with professional advisors, and advising philanthropic collaborations as legal counsel. Jennifer has been a Solidaire member since 2015 and joined staff in 2020. She has held both funder and fundraising roles, in both personal and professional capacities, and draws from these experiences to organize for Solidaire.

Jennifer also serves as General Counsel to Solidaire. Prior to working in philanthropy, she practiced nonprofit, corporate, and litigation law, and taught as a law professor. Jennifer has believed in the power of social movements since studying political theory at Cornell University. She also has a JD and LLM in International & Comparative Law from Duke Law School. Jennifer loves all forms of art and spent substantial time in Spain studying flamenco dance. A native Texan from a Chinese immigrant family, she has been living in the New York City area with her family for nearly two decades.

What Liberation Means to Jennifer

Tell us why you do what you do.

I believe in the power of social movements to lead us to a more just, transformed world full of possibilities. I also believe in leveraging the power of organizing and access to assets–whether social, capital, or skills in influencing philanthropy, amplifying different narratives, and co-creating a transformed future together. I refuse to believe that humans cannot course-correct their paths towards self-destruction.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

This community understands the necessity of solidarity with social movements, building trust, and bringing courage and humility to the work, as well as the importance of leading by example to show that transformation is possible.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is creating the conditions possible to live into one’s full potential, joy, authenticity, and dignity on both an individual and societal level.

As Administrative Coordinator, Amie (she/her) supports the activities of the Donor Organizing and Political Education team with her diverse skillset, creative solution-finding energy, systems thinking, and love of spreadsheets. She lives with her family in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Northeast Tennessee, where she was born and raised.

 

What Liberation Means to Amie

 

Tell us why you do what you do.

We are someone’s ancestors, now. I want to leave a heathier planet, a more just society, and a freer world to our kids and theirs.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Being part of a collective working toward a shared vision. From day one, I felt like I joined a community that had convened to do something important and I’m grateful to have a role in that.

What does liberation mean to you?

To me, liberation is a north star. It’s a set of values that prioritizes justice and recognizes all forms of life as precious and interrelated. We can and should align our goals with liberation, imbue our systems and practices with it, let it guide us in constructing a reality where all are safe, valued, have the means and opportunity to live freely and realize our potential.

Beezer (they/them) brings to Solidaire an organizing background building broad alliances that join organizers on the frontlines of struggle with those who create capacity for social change behind the scenes and at sites of power many cannot access. Originally from the Chicago area, Beezer moved to the Bay in 2011 to begin graduate studies at UC Berkeley while organizing alignments among the free education, anti-privatization, housing justice, and labor movements. They have connected these commitments to struggles for Black liberation, Indigenous justice, anti-fascism, migrant organizing, queer and trans liberation, and justice for poor and houseless people. As a whole, their work focuses on creating networks of mutual aid in movements that center accountability to those most impacted by oppression to inspire transformative change and collective liberation. When they aren’t organizing, Beezer likes to cook and make music with their friends.

What Liberation Means to Beezer

Tell us why you do what you do.

In my role as a Donor Organizer, I strive to help members identify and build alignment across shared values rooted in liberation work. I am moved by the work of animating people’s senses of solidarity and helping them recognize the roles they might play in this collective work.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I believe in Solidaire’s commitment to collective liberation and in the work of taking leadership from those most impacted by oppression in transforming our shared reality. I believe this community has a unique and important role to play in collaborating with movements for racial, gender, and class justice.

What does liberation mean to you?  

To me, liberation is building deep solidarities across lines of struggle, where each of us recognizes how we can contribute to getting ourselves and each other more free.

Cory (she/her) has provided executive and senior leadership and consulting services to social justice and community-based organizations throughout her career. She enjoys serving as a strategic partner and resource to leaders and organizations working to advance the rights of those impacted by injustice and systems that fail them. Cory has supported the growth and development of organizations and networks – large and small and has successfully led numerous Bay Area organizations through challenging leadership transitions. As a lifelong nonprofit professional she has held just about every title essential to the healthy functioning of an organization. This has led to her deep respect and understanding of every person’s contribution to ensuring an organization’s well-being and impact.

Cory’s former roles include serving as CEO of California’s statewide network of CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) programs; this role was especially meaningful to her as someone who grew up in and emancipated from foster care.

What Liberation Means to Cory

Tell us why you do what you do.

My inspiration for everything I do including my work choices was forged in my youth. Throughout my childhood, I was a “ward of the court” – not seen, not heard, not protected, not consulted. And then, staff from a progressive organization invited me in and created space for me to speak from my heart to those in power by naming the harm suffered and encouraging me to use my voice to advocate for systems change. It was a pivotal experience that resulted in being entrusted with a job that would allow me to do the same for others. No turning back. Four decades later, I’m still paying it forward, still learning, and still experimenting together with people and leaders I love.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I am honored by the opportunity to work alongside Solidaire’s incredible staff and board, donor members, and partners; to contribute my learning, resources, and energy to a loving community that is resourcing a powerful vision.

Solidaire’s emphasis on collective liberation, collective learning, experimentation, and trust, resonates deeply with me. I am moved by the example of its donors who are working together to radically disrupt wealth narratives by trusting first, and then resourcing the collective capacity, sustainability and wellbeing of Black, Brown, and Indigenous frontline movements and leaders.

What does liberation mean to you?  

Enough for all. Life in balance with each other, with nature, with spirit. Spaciousness and encouragement to truly be who you really are with dignity. Creating individually and collectively the conditions we dream of for future generations. And of course, as Solidaire has expressed so beautifully: a world where racism, economic exploitation, and disregard for the wellbeing of the planet no longer destroys whole communities to benefit a few; a world where all people have power to shape the decisions that affect their lives, and to flourish.

Barni (she/her) is a filmmaker and communications specialist who is committed to amplifying the work of communities on the frontline of social justice movements. In her role as Communications Director, Barni works to capture stories and develop tools to amplify the work of Solidaire donor organizers.

Before coming to Solidaire Barni was the Digital Organizing Director for Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, a grassroots organization working to close youth prisons and build youth leaders. Barni co-founded Devlabs and helped to launch a venture capital fund investing in Indigenous software companies in southern Chile. Barni worked as a communications consultant for grassroots organizations such as Puente Arizona, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, and the Somali Association of Arizona. She has directed independent documentary features and shorts including Catching Babies, Youth on the Dividing Line, and A Little Rebirth. Barni was the production director for Third World Majority, a woman of color media collective training grassroots organizers about media production and digital security. Barni holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Interdisciplinary Arts and a Master of Arts in Broadcasting and Electronic Communication.

What Liberation Means to Barni

Tell us why you do what you do?

Storytelling and technology are the tools I use to continue my parents’ work to envision a just and sustainable world. My work is rooted in the philosophy that those most impacted by injustice are capable, strong, and the most qualified to tell their own stories. I am inspired by the strength and resilience of all people fighting for justice.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I have spent two decades working with directly impacted communities fighting for immigrant rights and racial justice. I have been searching for ways to not only challenge injustice, but to create new systems that are sustainable.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means that all people are free to live as their authentic selves in harmony with Mother Earth. Liberation means every human being is unfettered from oppressive states and poverty, so that we can heal our trauma and flourish collectively.

 

Janis (she/her) is a Black immigrant who was born in Guyana, South America. For over two decades, Janis has organized with communities most impacted by injustice, following their lead and demanding just and right repair for past and ongoing harms. She currently serves as the Director of Movement Partnerships and Grantmaking at Solidaire. Previously, she worked as Executive Secretary for Racial Justice with United Methodist Women and was formerly Executive Director at Families for Freedom, a national anti-deportation organization center. Janis was a Fulbright Fellow to South Africa, where she documented the struggles of migrants, shackdwellers, and other working-class activists. She lectured for five years in the Department of Sociology at John Jay College on the criminalization of migrant life. Janis serves on the North Star Fund’s Let Us Breathe Community Funding Committee. She holds an MA in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Janis enjoys yoga, meditation, hiking, and vegan baking.

 

What Liberation Means to Janis

Tell us why you do what you do.

In my work, I am an organizer first and foremost. I believe in the power of impacted people to mobilize together to resist and transform oppressive systems. We are organizing to resist immediate harms and to build long term capacity for a radical new future. I am Black, a woman, an immigrant. These identities, and many others, orient how I see the world and the kind of world I am organizing to realize. Organizing works. Period.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I do this work as part of a long tradition of folks who know that collective resistance is the only way we will truly get on the road to liberation. I continue to believe in Solidaire’s work because it constitutes a needed effort to organize people with access to wealth to be class traitors in a way that helps them bolster and deeply align with liberation movements.

What does liberation mean to you?

For me, liberation is an ongoing effort to realize the most just, loving, verdant, and compassion-filled world we can. For me, we win liberation one step at a time, over and over again.

Jesenia (she/her/ella) has over 15 years of experience dedicated to intersectional liberatory movements centering racial and gender justice.  She is currently the Senior Resource Strategist at Solidaire Network where she works to mobilize resources for and build trusted relationships with movements advancing gender, racial and climate justice.  Prior to Solidaire, she held the role of Program Officer for NoVo Foundation’s Initiative to End Violence Against Girls and Women, where she led the United States and Global South movement-building portfolios and oversaw the foundation’s accompaniment and capacity strengthening program.

Previously, Jesenia has served as a tenant rights advocate; led projects advancing the rights of criminalized survivors of violence in New York City; and co-designed narrative power building campaigns alongside currently and formerly incarcerated women. As a member-organizer with the Coalition for Women Prisoners, she contributed to the successful campaign to pass the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act.

Jesenia brings with her the values of collaboration and solidarity in her work towards collective liberation.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University and a Master of International Affairs, with a concentration in Human Rights, from Columbia University.  She currently serves on the board of Grassroots International. A daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, she was born and raised in Harlem and makes her home in Brooklyn, NY with her family.

 

 

What Liberation Means to Jesenia

Tell us why you do what you do.

I am guided by the belief that movements for social justice will get us to the liberated world we need for every person and the Earth to thrive. I see my role in mobilizing resources to people and communities most impacted by the systems and structures created to oppress and harm, as one way to contribute to this re-imagined world.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Being in beloved community with people who are committed to justice, equity and building trusted relationships. I am excited by Solidaire’s values and principles and the intentional ways it embodies them in how we organize donors and move resources.

What does liberation mean to you?

It means that every person is living each moment free from violence, full of joy, and thriving in the unique way they envision it for themselves. Justice, equity and wellbeing are abundant and celebrated.

 

Mzima (mmm-ZEE-muh) (she/her) is the Governance Strategist at Solidaire. Mzima holds a Bachelor of Arts from American University with a focus in social inequality, American culture, and nonprofit leadership. She holds a certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and is currently pursuing a Master of Professional Studies in Leadership for Sustainability from the University of Vermont. Over the past 25 years, Mzima has held various roles within the nonprofit and for-profit sectors as an administrative assistant, strategic planning and evaluation contractor, educator, workshop facilitator, business owner, board member, and volunteer.

What Liberation Means to Mzima

Tell us why you do what you do?

I do it because I have hope that we can all co-create a world filled with love, safety, peace, and justice.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

It feels important to “walk the walk” as examples of solidarity and integrity.

What does liberation mean to you?

Freedom of mind and body.

 

Ada (she/her) is from Whitesburg, Kentucky. Raised by Appalshop filmmakers, she learned about cultural organizing at an early age. Ada’s politic continues to be informed by Appalachian and rural landscapes, especially the myriad forms of resistance therein. She is a founding member of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth (STAY) Project, has served as a co-facilitator for the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange, and finds political home in radical, southern organizing formations. Ada is currently on the board of the Mountain Association, an eastern Kentucky CDFI. After 15 years of movement building, she dreams and builds for what’s to come, knowing liberation is possible in our lifetime.

What Liberation Means to Ada

Tell us why you do what you do.

My politics are informed by Appalachian and rural landscapes, and the myriad forms of resistance therein. After 15 years of movement building, I dream and build for what’s to come, believing liberation is possible in our lifetime.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Resourcing can be a liberatory tool. Solidaire’s team is dedicated to assisting our movements in winning, and I hope to be a part of that team effort.

What does liberation mean to you?

Operating from abundance, finding ways to tend to our land and resources, and sustaining one’s cultural practices and beliefs to build connection.

Marlena Sonn, CFP(r), is Solidaire’s Senior Strategist for Integrated Capital. A veteran finance professional with 14 years of experience in wealth management, Marlena leads Solidaire’s Integrated Capital strategies, collaborating with members, Board, staff, and movement partners to build community wealth via reparative, non-extractive investments. Marlena also provides strategic development and management of Solidaire’s financial and budgetary goals, as outlined in our Theory of Liberation.

As the President and Founder of Amazonia Wealth Management, a New York City-based financial planning firm where she specialized in working with progressive, Ultra High Net Worth millennials, women, and family offices, Marlena provided the leadership in decarbonizing over $1Billion in investments, flanking the movement demands from Standing Rock and the Divest/Invest campaign.

Marlena is a widely cited expert on personal financial planning, having been featured on PBS’s Nightly Business Report, Crain’s, and guest lectures at institutions including New York University, New School of Social Research, SOCAP, and the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (US-SIF). In 2015, she was a recipient of the etsy.org Regenerative Entrepreneur fellowship, supporting her work piloting the first drawdown/GHG-negative portfolios offered to individual investors.

Her personal mission is to plant 10 million trees in the Amazon rainforest in her lifetime.

What Liberation Means to Marlena

Tell us why you do what you do.

I have strong convictions around fairness and equality that has forced me off the sidelines in this uniquely unjust and unfair time in our society. I know what it means to be on the right side of history, and because of that knowledge, I cannot remain silent. Joining Solidaire represents the culmination of my efforts (so far) to be a better ally to the Black community.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Spending time with members and movement allies is the antidote to the PsyOps of constant bad news that poisons my mind against people. When I keep the focus on my Solidaire community, I remember the goodness, ingenuity, brilliance, strength and kindness of people, and that truth keeps me in my power.

What does liberation mean to you?

To be free of fear, and also to be free of projections placed on me by others. The ability to feel, express, to make choices and live a life true to one’s own authentic self. And I know that my liberation is bound to the fate of others; therefore, we must all be free, if I am to hope to be free.

Isaac Lev Szmonko is a loving and rigorous organizer and political educator dedicated to building power in left movements to end racial capitalism. He organized with Critical Resistance to abolish prisons, police and other forms of criminalization. At Resource Generation he worked to increase taxes on the rich and increase the flow of resources into movements. At Catalyst Project, Isaac Lev worked to strengthen racial justice politics and practice with white organizers and majority-white organizations, training hundreds of grassroots organizers across the US and beyond through the Anne Braden Program.  At Jewish Voice for Peace, he was a board member, coach, and strategic planner.  Most recently, Isaac moved $100 million into grassroots liberatory movements as a donor advisor.  Isaac lives with his queer fam and his shorty pitbull in Oakland, CA (Huichin/Ohlone land). His passions include cooking, hiking, rambunctious laughter, leadership development, queer and trans community, and figuring out how to make revolutionary politics popular.

What Liberation Means to Isaac

Tell us why you do what you do.

I believe the people who are making the most important contributions to the world that I long for deserve to be well-resourced beyond their wildest imaginations.  And I believe that the people who offer those resources — from $5 to $5 billion — are an important part of movements who should get the privilege and pleasure of being organized in transformative ways, and learning to organize others, to make their most powerful contributions toward building that world.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Solidaire is many things — it’s a political home, it’s an invitation into new ways of being, it’s a set of experiments in wealth redistribution and organizing.  It’s all important, but I think what matters most to me is how earnestly and strategically we are all trying to radically change the world.

What does liberation mean to you?

There’s this magical experience of being with other people and feeling joy, belonging, love, dignity, creativity, and the kind of abandon that is just fully being yourself without fear.  And for me a part of liberation is — everyone gets the belonging, love, and dignity all of the time, and the joy, abandon, and creativity a lot of the time.  That everyone lives with both the feeling and the real experience of agency and power and also gets to be a life-long learner and be held through grief, hardship, mistakes and the rest.

 

Jas (they/elle) has over 16 years as a frontline organizer in communities most impacted by state violence, political repression, policing and the criminalization of survival. They have worked as an organizer and healing justice practitioner in organizations & collectives working toward racial justice, Black & trans liberation, educational justice, and movement toward land and food sovereignty. Jas has served on coordination teams for free wellness clinics throughout Los Angeles county, healing justice summer series outside of Los Angeles county jails, as well as rapid response and mutual aid networks for emerging community needs and care.

They have been in practice as a grower/farmer & medicine maker for the last 9 years. Their journey into plant medicine and farming emerged as both a call toward deeper healing and a movement commitment to nourish the adaptability and agency of directly impacted communities. They deeply believe in the power & practice of building authentic, accountable and loving relationships to sustain and grow collective power toward liberated futures. Centering decolonial frameworks to open, recover and strengthen pathways towards justice with liberated imagination!

 

What Liberation Means to Jas

Tell us why you do what you do.

Liberation is life’s work and joy.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I was inspired to join Solidaire’s team because of their clear & practiced commitment to mobilizing resources to the frontlines of our movements, and the approach to this critical work is informed by thoughtful values and principles.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is a practice of conscious or deliberate choosing. Liberation is body autonomy and ecological justice. Liberation is freedom from violence and forced labor. Liberation is honoring all life as sacred. Liberation is natural and it is ancestral. It is our birthright.

Bronwyn (she/they) is a movement communications and engagement specialist who grounds her work in a commitment to building imaginative solutions. As Solidaire’s Digital Organizer, Bronwyn supports Solidaire’s donor organizers in amplifying the impact of our movement partners.

Before joining Solidaire, Bronwyn worked as the Director of Community Engagement for the North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), a network of permanently affordable housing co-ops. At NASCO, Bronwyn facilitated relationship-building, hosted educational trainings and workshops, coordinated grassroots fundraising campaigns, and consistently uplifted the stories of housing and economic justice organizers.

Bronwyn lives in her hometown of New Orleans where she has worked toward building transformative community-led infrastructure connected to housing justice, disaster response, and worker ownership. She enjoys making art, camping, and hanging out with her one-year-old!

 

What Liberation Means to Bronwyn

Tell us why you do what you do.

I believe that social change is grounded in shifting consciousness, which is guided by the narratives we are exposed to and the stories we tell ourselves and others. Organizing communications for Solidaire allows me to uplift the big and small ways members and movement partners are making a difference every day.

What’s most important to you being part of Solidaire?

Two of the most important things to me 1) Solidaire is committed to fundamentally changing systems of oppression by centering frontline movements 2) The Solidaire community truly practices deep relationship-building and constant mutual learning.

What does liberation mean to you?

To me, liberation means community-led institutions, systems, cultural norms, and policies that are rooted in care for each other, the planet and past and future generations.

Chris’ (he/him) work over the past two decades has focused on building the collective power of grassroots social justice organizations, and nurturing the political development and growth of the individual as an educator. Prior to joining Solidaire, Chris taught at the School for International Training (SIT) where he ran the IHP Human Rights program, a comparative study abroad program for college students studying human rights movements.

Chris has worked with an array of grassroots organizations in the US and internationally. He has worked on housing and workers’ rights campaigns with the Urban Justice Center and Freelancers Union in NYC. During the 2000s, Chris came up in the movement for global justice and spent much of the decade as an organizer and interpreter building solidarity between peoples’ movements in Thailand and the US. Chris holds a Master of Arts in Peace and Justice Education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Bates College. Prior to joining staff, Chris was a member of Solidaire where he appreciated building community and learning alongside Solidaire’s network of donor organizers. Born and raised in New Jersey, Chris has never strayed far from the ocean and currently lives with his family in Rockaway Beach in Queens, NY.

What Liberation Means to Chris

Tell us why you do what you do.

My work in Solidaire is rooted in a belief that the education that happens in movements enables us to become more fully human and alive. My life has been shaped by these practices of popular education–and my aim is to deepen and broaden the ways we learn, teach, and grow together in service of movements for collective liberation.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I came to Solidaire to be in community with others finding joy and meaning in transforming power–at both an individual and collective level. I am deeply inspired by the leaderful social movements of our time and am committed to deepening the ways donors listen, flank, and move in alignment with frontline organizers to build the world we’re yearning for.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is a process that calls us to be transformed as we transform the world around us. Liberation is radical love embodied.

Coya White Hat-Artichoker (she/her) was born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota; she is a proud enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. Coya has been doing activist work in various communities and movements since the age of 15. She is a founding member of the First Nations Two Spirit Collective; they were a Collective working to building a stronger political presence for Two Spirit people within the national dialogue of queer rights. She was an Advisory Committee member for the Host Home Program, working to provide safe homes for homeless queer youth.

Coya has worked with a number of philanthropic organizations like Astraea, Funders Exchange Outfund, Headwaters Fund, PFund, Bush Foundation. She is a former board member of the American Indian OIC, PFund, and currently serves as a board member for SisterSong and the American LGBTQ+ Museum.

Most recently, she was a Community Health and Health Equity Program Manager at the Center for Prevention at Blue Cross Blue Shield doing community funding across three health initiatives. She or her writing has appeared in: Go Magazine, “Women we Love 2022”, After Stonewall, (After Stonewall Productions) a film; The Advocate; “40 under 40” LGBT Leaders in the United States for 2010; “Sharing Our Stories of Survival” (Altamira Press 2007), the blogs the Bilerico Project; and The Huffington Post.

As Solidaire’s Accountant, Alana Parvey Zalas (she/her) works with the Finance Operations and Culture Team to manage day-to-day financial transactions and reporting. She has more than ten years of experience in nonprofit bookkeeping, accounting, and operations, including for Playmakers Laboratory, Route 66 Theatre Company, the National Flute Association, and the black album. mixtape. through Southern Methodist University. Alana also previously served as the managing director of About Face Theatre, a nonprofit LGBTQ theatre company. She graduated from Northwestern University.

What Liberation Means to Alana

Tell us why you do what you do.

I have always believed in the power and importance of social justice movements, and I started getting involved as a teenager at anti-war protests. I also find quiet joy in solving math problems, so I’m thrilled to find a path where my math skills can help the world at large.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I’m honored to be part of Solidaire’s embodiment of a diverse, loving community.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is the ability for all people to live as their authentic selves in peace, without fear or violence.

 

Dimple Abichandani is the Executive Director of the General Service Foundation (GSF), a private foundation that supports grassroots organizations building power and shifting narratives to advance racial, gender and economic justice. She is a passionate advocate for justice and a lifelong student of social change.

Over the past two decades Dimple has advanced justice as a funder, lawyer and educator.  She has served as the Executive Director of the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law, the founding program officer of the Rise Together Fund at the Proteus Fund, a staff attorney and then later Director of Program Development at Legal Services NYC.

Dimple serves on the boards /steering committees of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, Solidaire Network, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees and Northern California Grantmakers. She earned a JD at Northeastern University School of Law, and a BA in English with Honors at the University of Texas at Austin.

Tell us why you joined the board.

I joined the Solidaire board because I believe in the power of networks to do things individuals and isolated groups can’t, the power of grassroots movements to secure lasting transformative change, and the power of radical calls for social, environmental, and racial justice to inspire and guide us on the path to healing our world.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

Two things: First, being a part of a network with interconnected relationships that share deep values but span movements and geography.  Second, being a part of a community of practice that is creating and modeling radically different and more effective ways of doing philanthropy and funding.

What does liberation mean to you?

On one level liberation is very practical, it means not being subject to oppressive systems and people who wield power to subjugate and extract for themselves. But on a deeper level, for me liberation isn’t just the end result of struggle, it is the ongoing practice of faith and belief that we can heal and transform the world, that nothing is fixed and immovable, that we can live in a world built on love, connection, and generosity.

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Robin is a social change activist, strategist, and funder. He has spent his career supporting and running people-powered social justice, environmental, and political campaigns. He is currently president of his family’s foundation, the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation, and works as an advisor to numerous global funders and activist leaders through the Climate Breakthrough Project.

Before shifting his focus fully to philanthropy, Robin was Director of Innovation at Citizen Engagement Laboratory where he led strategy development services for incubated social and environmental justice startups and for larger legacy organizations looking to innovate. He was previously a Campaign Director at MoveOn.org where he focused on online to offline mobilization, viral campaign creation, and volunteer-powered election turnout. Before joining MoveOn, Robin led the launch of Change.org’s petition platform as the company’s first Organizing Director. He also previously ran the online organizing program at Rainforest Action Network and before that ran small-gift fundraising at Drug Policy Alliance.

Robin is passionate about supporting radical societal transformation. His work as a funder centers around supporting people creating widespread, lasting, and systemic change. He is especially interested in funding people typically without significant access to philanthropy, people using new approaches to scale their impact, people working through networks more than institutions, and people explicitly pushing for an end to capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.

Tell us why you joined the board: 

I had direct experience with the value, benefit, people and power of Solidaire as it supported early actions in the beginning of the Movement for Black Lives.  I felt that I could bring what I was learning in supporting M4BL and the immigrant justice movement to Solidaire and also support Solidaire in continuing to grow and deepen its strategies and efforts.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

The Solidaire vision for the redistribution of wealth, access and power.  The Solidaire belief that everyone should have access to enough resources to live in our fullest dignity.  The belief that this society fundamentally does not work for people and the planet and we need to transition to a just and equitable world for our own survival as human beings. A curious space that is always learning and growing. To be effective we need to always reflect and refine our work.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means to be living in my biggest visions of a world that supports each human being to embody and actualize our fullest humanity, to embody joy, love.  Liberation means a world in which all Black people in the Diaspora everywhere are thriving, joyful, valued  and celebrated.

Farhad Ebrahimi (he/him) is an organizer, trainer, and story-based strategist active primarily in the philanthropic sector. For the past 16 years, his principal role has been as the Founder and President of the Chorus Foundation, which works for a just transition to a regenerative economy in the United States. In addition to his work at Chorus, Farhad is a Co-founder and returning Board Member of Solidaire, and a member of the Center for Story-based Strategy trainer network.

Farhad identifies first and foremost as an abolitionist with respect to the concept of private philanthropy. As such, he’s most interested in the question of how extracted and consolidated wealth can be redistributed in ways that directly support a Just Transition to a world in which such wealth is no longer extracted and consolidated in the first place. It’s in this context that the Chorus Foundation itself has been structured as a transitional form, and will have spent down its entire endowment by the end of 2023.

Farhad’s family history has been defined by multiple cultures, nationalities, political revolutions, and refugee origin stories. To say that his parents talked politics when he was growing up would be an understatement, and his experience as a first-generation Iranian American has had a profound impact on him in ways that he’s still unpacking. This history – combined with a lifelong love of punk and subversive art in general – has seeded a political trajectory that’s informed both his personal and professional outlook ever since.

Farhad is also a musician, a lover of film and literature, and an occasional bicycle snob. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with Computer Science, and he lives in an intentional community with thirteen adults and five children on Tongva land in Los Angeles.

Laura is writer, teacher and activist. She is the author of the memoir Swallow The Ocean (Counterpoint Press 2008), and editor of Eyes Of The Heart: Seeking A Path For The Poor In The Age Of Globalization by Jean-Bertrand Aristide, (Common Courage Press, 2000). She was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and received her BA at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She lived in Haiti from 1994-2000 and remains deeply involved in the struggle for democracy and human dignity in that country. She serves on the board of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. (And is particularly proud that IJDH’s groundbreaking lawsuit against the United Nations recently forced the UN to admit responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti!) She also helps shepherd Friends of UNIFA which raises funds and support for UNIFA, the Haitian University founded by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide dedicated to opening higher education to groups who have traditionally been excluded.

While her primary philanthropic interests are in Haiti, she joined Solidaire in order to broaden her focus, heighten the impact of giving, and to benefit from the collective knowledge and experience of this group. She continues to be inspired by the creativity, strength and courage of a new generation of activists, particularly those driving the movement for black lives in the Twin Cities. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband Mike Rollin and their two children.

Melanie Havelin is the Executive Director of the John M. Lloyd Foundation, a Los Angeles-based private family foundation. She helped guide the board’s learning journey that led the foundation from a focus on international AIDS policy to its current concentration on ending mass incarceration in Los Angeles County.

She has served on the boards of Funders for Reproductive Equity (formerly the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health, and Rights) and Funders Concerned about AIDS. In addition, she served on the steering committee for the California Criminal Justice Funders Group. She is currently an active member of the Solidaire Network’s Decarceration Working Group and co-lead of Funders For Justice’s Healing Justice Group.

In addition to her work for Lloyd, Melanie has a consulting service providing fundraising, philanthropic, and organizing expertise and services to social justice organizations.

Before joining the John M. Lloyd Foundation in 2001, Melanie was a Development Associate managing donor advised funds for the Liberty Hill Foundation, which supports grass roots social justice organizing in Los Angeles. Prior to her involvement in philanthropy, she worked as grassroots organizer and fundraiser for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, the California Abortion Rights Action League, and the California League of Conservation Voters.

She graduated from Millersville University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English with certification to teach, after which she taught English in Korea.

Beth Jacobs (beth/they) is a queer and gender non-conforming White Ashkenazi Jew. They are an occasional farmer, a carnivorous plant lover, a reclaimer of Jewish ritual and song, and is devoted to joy. Originally from San Diego, now based in their mothers hometown of Brooklyn, NY. Beth is the second generation in their family to inherit wealth. They are committed to our collective liberation through disrupting the intergenerational wealth transfer, sustainable agriculture, queer and trans liberation, and personal and political healing. Beth believes they have a role to play in our collective liberation through honest and authentic relationships AND by funding and investing in movements for freedom and sovereignty. Beth is a Director at JG3: Jacobs Grounded Guided Giving a family collaboration building towards liberation in our lifetimes.

Sam Jacobs (he/him) is an organizer, fundraiser, and a funder of grassroots social movements from Palestine to Puerto Rico to his home in Brooklyn. As a young person seeing the Occupy movement and the Movement for Black Lives unfold, he became passionate and politicized about racial, economic, and gender justice. Since then, he has worked to redistribute his inherited wealth and power and has organized individuals and programs to learn about and fund social movements. He is a Co-Director of JG3: Jacobs Grounded Guided Giving, a trans-feminist, anti-imperialist family collaboration building towards liberation in our lifetimes. He serves as the National Organizer for Donor Relations at Right To The City Alliance and as a board member of Grassroots International and Worth Rises. Sam was raised in San Diego, loves to cook, and holds an Engineering degree from MIT.

For 15 years, Anna Lefer Kuhn was the Executive Director of the Arca Foundation, which seeks to advance a world based on respect for human dignity and the just distribution of economic, democratic, and cultural power. During Anna’ s tenure, Arca turned its attention toward racial and economic justice by supporting multi-racial grassroots organizing that challenges the structures upholding inequality. Prior to Arca, Anna was a Program Officer at the Open Society Foundation where she conceived of and led initiatives to support youth media, organizing and leadership development.

Anna is on the board of directors of the Just Vision, Solidaire Network, United for Respect Education Fund and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. Anna previously served on the boards of the White House Project, the Center for Working Families, the Urban Justice Center, the League of Young Voters Education Fund, and was the co-chair of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation. Anna was a 2019-2020 Aspen Institute Philanthropy Forward Fellow and was a member of the 2004-2005 class of Coro Leadership New York.

Tell us why you joined the board.

I joined the board to help expand Solidaire’s efforts to mobilize philanthropy to support transformative BIPOC-led social justice movements.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

To be in community with other donors committed to transforming the relationship between movements and philanthropy.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means having the resources, community power and security to live with dignity.

Alan Preston (he/him) is passionate about leveraging his race, class and gender privilege to advance transformative social change. Alan has a deep commitment to social justice philanthropy and is a member of multiple donor networks including Solidaire, Social Justice Fund NW and the Washington Progress Alliance. Alan is also a co-founder and trustee of the Arch Community Fund, a private foundation he and his siblings launched in 2017 with a mission of strengthening grassroots movements to resist oppression and build towards a more equitable future. He is in the process of using a reparative lens to redistribute a multi-million dollar inheritance he received last year. Professionally, Alan has 25 years’ experience working with nonprofit organizations and philanthropic foundations. He currently has his own practice providing coaching, consulting and training to nonprofit leaders, progressive donors and funders (www.alanprestonllc.com). Alan is also a Senior Trainer with Class Action and co-leads workshops and trainings on the intersection of class and race. Alan is a proud Dad in a blended family with five children between the ages of 10 and 31. He currently lives in Seattle, WA.

Born, raised and educated in the midwest, mother of four, grandmother of 5 (so far), I am passionate about art, music, science, progressive politics and philanthropy which advances equity and justice. I sometimes describe myself as a professional volunteer, with a career spanning the better part of the last 45 years. I’ve served on so many boards I’ve lost count. A sampling includes the Chicago Foundation for Women, Pitzer College, the Illinois Facilities Fund, the Old Town School of Folk Music, Mother Jones Magazine and the Women’s Foundation of California.

In 2006, with my husband and four children, I helped establish a family foundation, The Libra Foundation, whose mission is to support organizations which promote human rights, environmental justice, gender justice and criminal justice reform.

A long time resident of Chicago, I now happily call San Francisco my home.

Tell us why you joined the board: 

I joined the board to support the awesome work and vision of Solidaire’s organizational leaders and membership network in their values based practice of transformative philanthropy that centers racial equity and climate justice within both US domestic and translocal/global efforts.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I cherish being part of a community of bold, thoughtful, and heartful donors that increasingly represents the diversity in the activist philanthropist field and that constantly pushes me to be more accountable to myself, my communities, earth, and society at large.

What does liberation mean to you?

For all to have the power and abundance of choice with freedom, dignity, and self-determination that accounts for the health, sustainability, diversity and interdependence of all living things on this planet.

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Lisl is a mother, historian, writer, and educator. She joined the Panta Rhea Foundation board in 2006 and stepped up as Chair in 2017. Panta Rhea Foundation is a proggresive family foundation based out of California founded by her father. Her philanthropic experience includes personal giving, managing Panta Rhea’s discretionary family giving through the Sunflower Fund (2005-2008); founding the Qinti Fund with her sister (2017-present); and participating in donor and movement organizing networks, including Solidaire and Thousand Current’s Collaborative Leader’s Academy. She brings to her philanthropic work added experience with performance arts; academic and creative writing; education; colonial indigenous history of the Americas, particularly the Andean region; and social and environmental justice efforts. She has lived and worked in places such as Brazil, Denmark, India, Peru, Mexico, and, of course, the United States. She has been awarded the Foreign Language and Areas Studies (FLAS) fellowship to study Quechua in Cusco, Peru in 2013 and 2014; the Fulbright-Hays fellowship to conduct nine months of archival research in Peru in 2017; the Dissertation Year Fellowship from UCLA in 2020-21; and the Getty Research Institute’s Residency Scholar Fellowship in Los Angeles for 2021-22. She completed her BA in Anthropology and Theater Arts at the University of Pennsylvania, MA in Latin American History at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently a PhD Candidate in Latin American History at UCLA. Lisl also loves spending time in nature, camping, dancing, reading fiction, writing poetry, trying her hand at guitar and piano, and being with her son and life partner.

 

Tell us why you joined the board.

I joined the Solidaire Board because I believe there is radical and transformative work that this moment and the movement is asking us to do in collectivity. Solidaire is special community and uniquely poised to do that work in formation with other orgs in the ecosystem.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

What’s important to me about being part of Solidaire is that I really feel like I am a part of something. Solidaire is very much alive and one form of what donor organizing looks like in bloom. There are many pathways within the organization for people to engage with the work to redistribute resources, decision making, and power.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means getting to the root of oppressions and conjuring the boldest imagination for a future in which all peoples individually and collectively have the freedom of self-determination. Its looking back and forward at the same time. As a white cis man with wealth privilege, its an unlearning and practicing of the ways we want to be with ourselves and others. For my work in Solidaire I think liberation is redefining safety and security in a way that is not wrapped up in resource hoarding. Liberation is Black people, trans folks, women, GNC people and men working together for the sheer delicious joy of freedom and the power we can only form together and in our own formations. Its borders blurred and humanity seen. Its everyone sharing resources in healthy ways of care, the tender and intentional way one would with a loved family member. Liberation is practicing the future that we want our next generations to live.