Our Team

Jakki (she/her) joined Solidaire in 2017 to support operations and recently transitioned to become our Movement Partnerships & Grantmaking 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.

 

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.

Malachi (he/they/them) is currently the Organizing Director at Solidaire. In this role, Malachi works with donor organizers to mobilize critical resources to the frontlines of movements for racial, gender, and climate justice. 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.

 

Leigh (she/her) is rooted in over a decade of experience connecting individuals and communities to land and art. After training in agriculture at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), she joined the CASFS staff, where she supported the historic Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture. Her grantmaking is deeply guided by years spent in leading and learning alongside teenagers at Urban Roots, managing Alemany Farm, and directing the education department at CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture). Leigh holds a Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies., which shapes her approach to social transformation and philanthropy. She has facilitated immersions with the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute; guest lectured at San Francisco State University, California Institute of Integral Studies and Stanford University; and is a contributing writer in Black Food, Bryant Terry’s forthcoming book. She currently sits on the boards of Center for Whole Communities and Eyes Infinite Foundation. Influenced by Afrofuturism, queer ecology, and emergent strategy, Leigh believes that our capacity for imagination changes the world. She continues to vision and birth projects at the crossroads of land, creativity, and wholeheartedness, and consistently recommits to building a liberated future in which we may all thrive.

What Liberation Means to Leigh

Tell us why you do what you do.

I am invested in this work because I genuinely believe in a future time where all living beings vibrantly thrive with dignity. And I see the work of building movement partnerships and grantmaking as a critical tool to infuse social movements with the resources and collaboration needed to expedite our move from the present moment to that expansive future.

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

In order to imagine and build liberatory futures, I believe we must be rooted in wholehearted relationships, ecological reverence, integrity and care. I was inspired to join the Solidaire community because I feel those values are centered in Solidaire’s strategic visioning as well as the daily practices of this team.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is a commitment to life; it is a practice of interconnected and embodied living. Liberation is acting on the belief of possibility.

Gabriela (she/her) comes from a matriarchal family filled with weavers of community, farmworkers and artists. Honoring the gifts passed down for generations, she is committed to co-creating spaces and communities rooted in love, respect, trust, creativity and learning. With over fifteen years of administrative experience, she has held various positions within education, human resources and philanthropy. Before joining Solidaire, she worked at Thousand Currents as the Academy Program Manager supporting week-long transformative experiences for donors and institutions.

Gabriela holds a master’s degree in Leadership for Sustainability from the University of Vermont and is a Board Member of Gathering Power, an organization that supports learning opportunities and community-building experiences rooted in Indigenous and ecological principles. You can find Gabriela hiking and dancing with her halau on the weekends.

What Liberation Means to Gabriela

Tell us why you do what you do?

An organization’s infrastructure along with their values is the heartbeat of an organization. I truly enjoy creating and updating processes and systems to increase ease in how our team communicates, connects, collaborates and celebrates each other.

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

As an Indigenous & Black woman, it’s important for me to support the health and well-being of my communities. I deeply appreciate the ways that Solidaire mobilizes resources for communities that creates possibilities for generations to come.

What does liberation mean to you?

A six-year-old running wild in the forest climbing boulders and trees. Feeling safe and grounded that your home will always be your home, until you choose to leave it. The wind tickling my hair. Future generations living the life they choose filled with endless possibilities.

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.

Ravi (he/him) is a first-generation immigrant from India. Throughout his life, he has worked to support and uplift the voices of people most marginalized by those in power. His past work has included organizing policy and advocacy campaigns; hosting a news and opinion website focused on amplifying the voices of activists from the Global South; and producing documentaries on the so-called “war on drugs”, stopping child labor, and disrupting corporate globalization. He has provided training and support for immigrant-led organizations; raised funds to support frontline organizing; and served as a philanthropic advisor. Ravi has worked with or served on the boards of Centro Nacional de Comunicacion Social (D.F., Mexico), Grassroots International, Haymarket People’s Fund, Movimiento Ciudadano por la Democracia (D.F., Mexico), Oxfam America, Peace Development Fund, Resist, Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples, and Women’s Rights International.

What Liberation Means to Ravi

Tell us why you do what you do.

I was born and raised in India. I became politicized during the “Emergency” period in the mid-70s, a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency. Thousands were arrested and imprisoned without due process. After moving to the U.S. in the late 70s, I was struck by the lack of knowledge most people had about the global south. This led to me working to educate and organize around U.S. foreign policy.

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

Organizing on foreign policy, I began to see the connections between U.S. policies towards the global south, and the country’s domestic policies in Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities. Much of my work, over the last four decades, has been in progressive philanthropy. Helping to move funds to Indigenous, Black, and Brown led organizations. I was drawn to Solidaire because of its deep relationships with and commitment to resources in these communities.

What does liberation mean to you?

Regardless of where we live, our ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, gender, religion, or sexual orientation our liberation is intertwined. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “no one is free until we are all free.”

As Administrative Coordinator, Amie (she/her) supports the activities of the Donor Organizing and Political Education team and brings a diverse skillset and ten years of experience in nonprofit administration, marketing, and communications strategy to the role. Her other roles currently include mom, advocate, TN Region 1 Behavioral Health Planning and Policy Council member, Recovery Resources board member, and member of Free Hearts’ communications & development work team. She lives with her family in the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Northeast Tennessee, where she was also born and raised.

 

What Liberation Means to Amie

 

Tell us why you do what you do.

Growing up queer and nontheist in Southern Appalachia, coming of age as the opioid epidemic took hold in the region and started taking our people, and being permanently disenfranchised at the age of 19 were some formative experiences that helped guide my commitment to justice and the work of social change.

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

Exactly that – being part of, as opposed to just working for, Solidaire. From day one, I felt like I joined a community that had convened to do something important. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn from fellow staff, partners, and members and to support the work happening here.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation is like.. the path to social-actualization. Humanity’s process of constructing a reality where the needs of all people are met, everyone is safe, valued, and able to live as their authentic selves, and we have the means and opportunity to realize our individual and collective 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 Digital Strategist, 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 Ribirth. Barni was the production director for Third World Majority, a women 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 Masters of Arts in Broadcasting and Electronic Communication.

What Liberation Means to Barni

Tell us why you do what you do?

My parents come from very different backgrounds, but have both fought for justice and toward social justice all their lives. 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. Since my work in venture capital, I have been searching for ways to not only challenge injustice, but to create new systems that are sustainable. I came to Solidaire to work with a team that is committed to building healthy relationships while redistributing wealth.

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 Executive Assistant & Governance Coordinator 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.

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.

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Marlena Sonn, CFP(r), is Solidaire’s Director of Finance & Investments. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tell us why you joined the board.

I joined the board to deepen my commitment to funding Black led movements in earnest through the liberation of wealth in its many forms.

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

It’s important for me to be a part of a collective, made up of both individual and institutional donors, striving to fund movements like we want them to win, as Ash-Lee Henderson from Highlander implores us to do.

What does liberation mean to you?

All people having unrestricted access to the tools and opportunities necessary to thrive in abundance.

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Shannon Cofrin Gaggero is the Director of Grant Services as well as a trustee at the Homestead Foundation, a small, family foundation based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is passionate about moving money to Southern, social and racial justice movements led by impacted communities and holds an endless belief in the power of grassroots organizing. As a mother, Shannon stays curious about the intersections between parenting and social/racial justice advocacy. Every day, she strives to nurture social consciousness within her children and to help them challenge normative narratives. Shannon has written extensively about her own anti-racist efforts, growing edges and mistakes as a parent and a person. Shannon takes deep pride in following her little ones’ leads in actions and the near constant lessons they impart on her about what world is truly possible. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was born and raised, with her family.

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.

Willa Conway is the co-founder of The Weavers Project, working at the intersection of art making, resource mobilization, and social movements. Willa has developed campaigns and donor education programs with Solidaire Network, Resource Generation and Shakti Rising. As a resident of the Gulf South, Willa spends her time thinking and working on issues connected to climate justice, radical feminist thought, abolition, and sustainability. Writing, creating textiles, dancing, and harvesting from her garden are just some of the ways that she tries to make world-building and liberation daily practices.