NEO Philanthropy

The organization is the fiscal sponsor of left-of-center entities, including the Funders Committee on Civic Participation, a voter mobilization group. ² Disbursing grant money serves remains one of NEO’s primary functions; NEO Philanthropy gave close to 60 percent of its total expenditures as grants. ³

Inside Philanthropy described NEO as “an intermediary that doesn’t have its own resources for grantmaking.” ¹ The group receives funding from major left-of-center donors institutions including the Atlantic Philanthropies, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Gill Foundation, the Pew Trusts, and the Carnegie Corporation, among others. ⁴ The organization and similar left-of-center groups that engage in “nonpartisan” voter registration have received criticism for appearing to favor the registration of voters exceptionally likely to vote for Democratic candidates. ⁴

NEO Philanthropy Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm of NEO Philanthropy. ⁵  

Donald K. Ross

Early Career

Donald K. Ross is a left-wing environmental activist credited with proposing the model of the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) in the 1970s alongside activist Ralph Nader. The PIRGs, state-based policy advocacy groups, operate under the national U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US-PIRG); US-PIRG and numerous other left-wing policy advocacy groups, including the canvassing services group Fund for the Public Interest, are controlled by the umbrella group Public Interest Network. Ross worked as the founding director of New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) from 1973 to 1982, where he reportedly grew the organization to 180 staffers operating out of 31 offices. ⁶ Barack Obama, then a student at Columbia University, worked full-time for NYPIRG as a community organizer from February through May 1985. ⁷ Ross later worked as director of left-wing advocacy group Citizen Action.⁸

In 1971, Ross co-authored Action For a Change alongside Nader, a book credited as a kind of manual for the then-new network of Public Interest Research Groups they had founded. In More Action For a Change (1987), journalist Kelley Griffin noted that Ross, “a native of the Bronx with a law degree from New York University and three years’ experience in organizing PIRGs nationwide . . . was a natural candidate to heard NYPIRG” as well as its lobbying program in 1973. Ross also aided activists in establishing the Oregon Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) in the 1970s, one of the oldest and largest state PIRGs, as well as the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group. ^{9 10}

Founding of “Public Interest Projects”

NEO Philanthropy was formed in 1983 as Public Interest Projects. NEO’s founder, Donald Ross, reportedly chose the name “Public Interest Projects” because he “wanted the organization to be under the radar so that people wouldn’t necessarily know what it did.”  ¹¹

Later Work

From 1985 to 1999, Ross was chief administrative officer for the Rockefeller Family Fund. ¹² In July 2014, a report by the Republican Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works recorded that Ross was part of “a narrow set of individuals whose careers are part of the fabric of the far-left environmental movement . . . [who] exercise outsized influence regarding the distribution of funds” by groups like “Environmental Grantmakers Association, Democracy Alliance, and others.” ¹³

From 2004 to 2009, Ross was a member of the Greenpeace board of directors; in multiple years he was also board chairman. ¹⁴ Ross was also a member of the board of directors for the League of Conservation Voters from 2004-2010. ¹⁵

M&R Strategic Services

Ross is the co-founder of Malkin & Ross, an Albany, New York-based lobbying and government affairs firm created in 1984. Malkin & Ross lists clients including Food and Water Watch, Vera Institute of Justice, Sierra Club, and Make the Road New York; it’s first large client was reportedly the New York Trial Lawyers Association. ^{16 17 18} Arthur N. Malkin, Ross’s business partner and the firm’s co-founder, reportedly worked for Ross as legislative director for NYPIRG beginning in 1979. ¹⁶

M&R Strategic Services (MRSS) is Malkin & Ross’s Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and government relations affiliate. MRSS notes campaigns and left-wing groups it’s consulted for, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Sierra Club, GLAAD, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Population Connection, Oxfam America, Planned Parenthood, 350.org, and Earthrights International. ¹⁹ The group also opposed the Trump administration’s decision to undo the creation of several national parks in the final weeks of the Obama administration. ²⁰

Past MRSS clients also include AARP, Alliance for Justice, Bread for the World, Environmental Defense Fund, Human Rights Campaign, NARAL Pro-Choice America, League of Conservation Voters, National Environmental Trust, the Bauman Family Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Public Interest Projects (NEO Philanthropy). ²¹

In 2018, the Packard Foundation reported a $50,000 grant to MRSS “for public opinion polling and other research on views of science”; in 2018 it reported another $150,000 grant to the firm for the same purpose. ^22 23

Since 1996, people associated with MRSS have donated $41,735 to Democratic Party political candidates, including 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ²⁴

In the 2018 midterm election, MRSS received $1,335,417 in payments from left-wing PACs and labor unions, including Planned Parenthood Votes, the SEIU, League of Conservation Voters, Win Justice PAC, United We Can, American Nurses Association, and It Starts Today. ²⁵

“NEO Philanthropy” Rebrand

A 2015 interview with the website Inside Philanthropy noted that NEO Philanthropy was always intended to provide funding to “social justice” causes, but grew more cognizant of “alliance-building” with other left-wing groups in the mid-2000s. Around 2008, according to then-president Berta Colón, the group rebranded itself from Public Interest Projects to NEO Philanthropy and coalesced its mission around “strengthen[ing] intersections of social justice issues, aligning the diverse interests of donors and advocates while nurturing collective action across areas that are too often pursued in isolation.” ²⁶

The Fiscal Sponsorship Model

According to a June 2015 interview with NEO president Michele Lord, NEO was established to serve as the 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor for numerous left-wing groups that didn’t want to pursue nonprofit recognition by the IRS under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code. According to Lord, NEO was “the backroom for lots of organizations that didn’t have their own 501(c)(3) [status].” Lord also noted that, as of 2015, NEO hosted over 40 fiscally sponsored projects. ²⁷

“Alliance building is central to NEO’s model,” according to a 2015 Inside Philanthropy interview with Lord. The group calls itself a “bridge” between funders and activists on the Left, using its various funds to sponsor projects aimed at pushing center-left policies in voting, LGBT issues, etc.: ²⁶

NEO is an intermediary that doesn’t have its own assets for grantmaking. Money comes in the door from funders and goes out the door to social justice groups. As a go-between, NEO is able to talk to both grantmakers and grantees with unusual candor.

. . .

What NEO did, over eight years, was to organize disparate efforts through a national donor collaborative that ultimately gave $34 million in grants to 140 groups. This collaborative wasn’t just a clearinghouse for cutting checks; it was, says NEO, a movement-building effort that sought to empower the parents and community residents most affected by education reform. It drew in some name brand funders, but also a great many smaller, more obscure funders who were able to hook into a sophisticated grantmaking operation.

Beyond providing money, CPER sought to build the infrastructure of an “educational justice movement” in a variety of ways, including connecting up different players, helping them work together through convening and facilitating, and ensuring that best practices were shared.

Initiatives

NEO Philanthropy primarily exists to provide fiscal sponsorship to center-left projects. The group notes that it has hosted some 60 such projects. ²⁸

NEO is also involved in efforts to change criminal justice. The MacArthur Foundation gave NEO $18 million for juvenile justice projects aimed at preventing juveniles from entering the adult justice system. ²⁹

NEO supports projects in the feminist and pro-abortion spheres. The group was the charitable partner for the producers of the controversial campus sexual assault documentary The Hunting Ground. (Reason magazine described the film as “a work of activist propaganda,”³⁰ and, ironically, it was distributed by The Weinstein Company of alleged sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. ³¹) NEO Philanthropy is also the fiscal sponsor of Shout Your Abortion, an aggressive pro-abortion messaging campaign seeking to normalize the practice. ³²

“Funder Collaboratives”

NEO’s largest projects are what it calls “funder collaboratives,” each of which focuses on an area interest to left-of-center donors. As of December 2024, NEO had two collaborative funds: The Four Freedoms Fund and the State Infrastructure Fund. ³³

The Four Freedoms Fund is directed toward supporting the political interests and welfare of illegal immigrants. The Just and Fair Schools Fund seeks to ease school discipline. The State Infrastructure Fund is directed toward building voter participation among “historically underrepresented communities” and has raised and granted over $180 million to voter organizations since its founding in 2010.  The State Infrastructure Fund also engages in voter registration and opposes conservative electoral reform legislation. ³⁴ The Sunrise Initiative for Human Rights opposes U.S immigration law enforcement activities. ^{35 36}

In the electoral area, NEO Philanthropy also operated the Shelby Response Fund, dedicated to opposing voting laws in states affected by changes to the Voting Rights Act ordered by the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder. ³⁷ That fund was managed by Karen Narasaki, an attorney with ties to numerous liberal nonprofits who was appointed by then-President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. ³⁸ According to leaked documents reported on by the Washington Free Beacon, the Open Society Foundations funded by left-wing financier George Soros is a principal funder of the Shelby Response Fund, with liberal voter registration practices such as expanded same-day registration and early voting on the Fund’s agenda. ³⁹

Funders Committee for Civic Participation

Also see Funders Committee for Civic Participation (Nonprofit)

NEO fiscally sponsors the Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP), a membership organization of left-wing donors including the Democracy Alliance, the AFL-CIO, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the MacArthur Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and numerous other donors that focuses on voter registration and liberal-backed changes to election systems. ⁴⁰

The FCCP is formally nonpartisan, but critics have noted that the organization’s election-related efforts are funded by liberal foundations and support strategies which help Democrats get elected. ⁴

Federal Agencies Project

The Federal Agencies Project (FAP) was created by NEO Philanthropy to encourage “U.S. government agencies to be more responsive to LGBT needs.” ⁴¹

The campaign primarily targets federal agencies to push for expanded domestic partnership benefits for gay couples. FAP is managed by Civitas Public Affairs Group, a consultancy created by left-wing activists from the gay marriage groups Gill Foundation, Freedom to Marry, and now-defunct Gill Action Fund; FAP itself has received grants from the Gill Foundation, an LGBT interest funder, including $965,000 in 2015. ^{42 43 44}

New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice

New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice is a left-wing immigration advocacy project of NEO Philanthropy. ⁴⁵

The group purchased numerous Facebook advertisements in 2018 and 2019, some of which solicited donations that went to NEO Philanthropy. ⁴⁶ Other Facebook advertisements criticized Republican legislators in New Jersey: ⁴⁷

NJ GOP legislators started a petition today against expanding access to drivers licenses using Trump rhetoric to create fear & an us vs. them mentality. We won’t fall for it.

Let’s show every legislators there’s no reason to hesitate on voting yes on expanding access to drivers licenses for all, regardless of status. Call leadership & sign petition to show your support now.

Safety Donor Services Project

Safety Donor Services Project is a project fiscally sponsored by NEO Philanthropy that supports organizations focused on “frontline social justice work” by addressing any threats to these organizations. In 2022 Ford Foundation, one of the top liberal foundations in the U.S., donated $615,569 to NEO Philanthropy for the Safety Donor Services Project “to address threats to organizations that are engaging in frontline social justice work.”⁴⁸

Other Past Projects

Past NEO projects include the incubation of Inside Climate News, an environmentalist media outfit. NEO Philanthropy, then still named Public Interest Projects, reportedly served as the fiscal sponsor for Inside Climate and its associated public relations firm, Science First, from 2010 through 2014. ⁴⁹

NEO also managed the center-left projects National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems, Define American, and Colorado Communities for Public Education Reform. ^{28 50}

The National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems was a NEO Philanthropy project in operation between 2011 and 2014. The project was launched in 2010 by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in order to “accelerate policy reforms to juvenile justice systems throughout the country,” with a particular focus on state legislatures. According to NEO, funders of the campaign included the George Gund Foundation, Interact Foundation for Health, MacArthur Foundation, Edward Moore Foundation, New York Community Trust, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Sapelo Foundation. NEO hired the services of M&R Strategic Services to run the campaign, the firm run by NEO Philanthropy founder Donald K. Ross. ⁴¹

Define American is an illegal immigration advocacy group incubated by NEO Philanthropy. The group aims to discourage the use of the term “illegal alien” to describe non-citizens living the United States illegally in favor of the term “undocumented immigrant.” Define American encourages illegal immigrants to advertise their status as non-citizens living illegally in the country. ⁵¹

Advocacty Activities

2000 San Diego School Board Election

In 2015, the San Diego Reader revealed that NEO Philanthropy (under the name Public Interest Projects) was one major contributor to a $720,000 advertisement campaign in a 2000 San Diego, California school board election managed by a group called the Partnership for Student Achievement. When pressed by journalists, the group revealed its two top donors: “Essential Information, Inc., of Washington, D.C., gave $100,000. Public Interest Projects of New York City gave $57,000.” Essential Information is a left-wing nonprofit founded by Russell Mokhiber, a professional activist who worked for Ralph Nader’s various groups, including Corporate Crime Reporter, a legal weekly. ⁵²

Facebook Advertisements

NEO Philanthropy has purchased advertisements on the social networking site Facebook for at least two other groups:

NEO Philanthropy paid for multiple Facebook advertisements supporting abortion-on-demand and criticizing legislation passed in Alabama in May a “monstrosity.” While NEO paid for the advertisements, the ads themselves were released by Lady Parts Justice, a left-wing agitation group and a project of the “pop-up” group sponsor Sixteen Thirty Fund; Lady Parts Justice calls itself “a coven of hilarious badass feminists who use humor and pop culture to expose haters fighting to end abortion access.” ⁵³

New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, a left-wing immigration project of NEO Philanthropy, paid for multiple Facebook advertisements in 2018 and 2019 soliciting donations. Donations to the group went to NEO Philanthropy, the group’s fiscal sponsor. ⁴⁵

Second Trump Administration

In the 2024 presidential election, NEO Philanthropy’s Four Freedom Fund sought to raise $5 million to help illegal immigrants stay in the country in the event of a victory by former President Donald Trump. ⁵⁴

NEO Philanthropy was identified among grantmaking organizations supporting democracy-related work in the 2026 election cycle, including efforts related to civic participation and election protection. The organization has been part of broader philanthropic networks directing resources to grassroots and advocacy groups, although specific funding amounts and allocations were not detailed in public reporting at the time. ⁵⁵

Funding

A table of NEO Philanthropy’s total revenues between 2010 and 2018 is available below: ⁵⁶

A table of NEO Philanthropy’s total expenditures between 2010 and 2018 is available below: ⁵⁷

Donors to NEO Philanthropy

NEO Philanthropy serves as a philanthropic intermediary, similar to a donor-advised fund (which NEO reportedly operates). Reports indicate that NEO partners with upwards of 100 left-wing funding groups. ⁵⁸ NEO Philanthropy reportedly does not typically raise funds from the general public, though it began to do so as part of its association with the film The Hunting Ground. ⁵⁸

As of 2024, NEO Philanthropy released individual donation totals but did not release the names of donors in its tax filings. The organization did the same in its 2022, 2021, and other tax filings. ^{59 60 61 62}

However, NEO Philanthropy did release the names of some of its donors in earlier tax filings. In 2014, NEO Philanthropy reported $51.7 million in total revenue; grants to NEO Philanthropy from foundations in 2014 totaled over $37 million. ⁶³ Other left-wing nonprofits have provided funds to NEO: Tax records show grants from New Venture Fund, The Energy Foundation, Greenpeace, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey. ⁶⁴

Atlantic Philanthropies, a Bermuda-based foundation consortium formerly headed by Democracy Alliance chief Gara LaMarche, granted NEO-associated entities more than $14.3 million from 2010 until Atlantic expended all its funds in 2016. ⁶⁵

Between 2005 and 2010, the left-of-center Knight Foundation granted $4 million to NEO Philanthropy to establish the American Dream Fund, “which will provide flexible funding to immigrant-serving organizations in Knight communities,” according to the grant description. ⁶⁶

In 2012, the Gates Foundation granted NEO $40,000 to run the project Colorado Communities for Public Education Reform. ⁵⁰

A list of foundations that have given grants to NEO Philanthropy between 2013 and 2017 is available here: ⁶⁷

Donors to NEO Philanthropy Projects

A number of grants from the left-of-center Bauman Family Foundation to specific NEO Philanthropy projects have been identified: ⁶⁸

Consulting and Independent Contractor Fees

NEO Philanthropy has hired M+R Strategic Services (MRSS), the firm co-founded by NEO Philanthropy founder Donald Ross, for “project management” services multiple times. Since 2002, NEO has paid MRSS $24,399,042 in contractor fees. ⁶⁹ According to a 2012 NEO report, the group hired MRSS “to help design, staff and manage state campaigns” for its project National Campaign to Reform State Juvenile Justice Systems. ⁷⁰

A full list of NEO Philanthropy’s independent contractor payments between 2002 and 2017 is available below: ⁶⁹

Financial Documents

NEO Philanthropy’s IRS Form 990 filings for 2014 through 2021 are available here:

• 2014 Form 990
• 2015 Form 990
• 2016 Form 990
• 2017 Form 990
• 2018 Form 990
• 2019 Form 990
• 2020 Form 990
• 2021 Form 990
• 2022 Form 990

NEO Philanthropy Action Fund

NEO Philanthropy’s 501(c)(4) advocacy arm, NEO Philanthropy Action Fund (formerly Public Interest Projects Action Fund), received $21,993,000 from Atlantic Philanthropies between 2009 and 2010. ⁷¹ In 2011, Atlantic Philanthropies’s Atlantic Advocacy Fund gave the Action fund $2,197,500; in 2012, it gave the Action Fund another $1,802,500. ⁷²

The Action Fund has given at least $100,000 from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund since 2009. ⁷³

Grant Recipients

According to tax filings, in 2023, NEO Philanthropy distributed tens of millions of dollars in grants to dozens of largely left-of-center organizations, including $500,000 to State Voices, $469,200 to Florida Rising Together, $450,750 to Blueprint North Carolina, $440,000 to the Florida Immigrant Coalition, $435,000 to Access Philanthropy Charities, $425,000 to the Center for Civic Policy, $420,000 to United We Dream Network, $411,131 to African Communities Together, $400,000 to Ohio Organizing Collaborative, $375,000 to the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, $351,000 to the Tides Center, $341,131 to the Transgender Law Center, and $295,273 to the New Venture Fund. ⁵⁹

Lobbying

In 2012, the left-wing New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) reported that NEO Philanthropy (Public Interest Projects) had spent $90,707 lobbying in New York state in 2010. ⁷⁴

Leadership

President and CEO

Margaret Huang is the incoming president and CEO of NEO Philanthropy as well as NEO Philanthropy Action Fund, expected to serve in both roles starting in October 2026. ⁷⁵

Michele Lord is president of both NEO Philanthropy and NEO Philanthropy Action Fund, a position she assumed in 2015 after working as co-president alongside Berta Colón from 2002-2015. She will serve in her role until October 2026, when Huang is appointed president and CEO, at which time she will continue to work as a senor advisory through 2026. ⁷⁵

Lord simultaneously works as director of the Ottinger Foundation, a foundation that “supports work in the areas of economic justice, civic participation and environmental justice.” She was previously director of the Norman Foundation for six years, and “has overseen program evaluations” with the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Open Society Foundations (formerly Institute). ⁷⁶

Lord also worked as director for the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues from 1984 to 1988. She later worked in the New York City Mayor’s Office 1990 to 1993 under then-Mayor David Dinkins (D). ⁷⁶

From 2002 to 2015, Berta Colón was co-president of NEO Philanthropy alongside Michele Lord. After leaving NEO, Colón was briefly deputy director of El Museo del Barrio, a Latino cultural museum in New York City; she was fired from her position in May 2017 after less than a year’s time with the museum for “performance reasons” related to its $800,000 deficit. ⁷⁷

NEO Philanthropy founder Donald Ross was president of the group from its creation in 1983 until he left in 2003. ⁷⁸

Staff

The chief operating officer and executive vice president of NEO Philanthropy is Erin Ballard.  Ballard was previously a division administrator at the New York University School of Medicine and worked as director of incubator management at the Fund for the City of New York. ^{79 80}

The chief financial officer and vice president of infrastructure is Su Hyun Lim. Lim was previously the CFO at Planned Parenthood of Great Plains, the vice president of finance at the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the financial reporting manager and budget analyst at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. ^{79 81}

Erica Teasley Linnick is the Vice President for NEO’s State Infrastructure Fund. She previously worked as the acting director and senior program officer of the Democracy team at Open Society Foundations. Prior to this, she was the western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, served on the board for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and the ACLU of Northern California, and was previously the Board Chair of the Impact Fund. ^{82 79}

Rini Chakraborty is the vice president of NEO’s Four Freedoms Fund, previously working for the Fund as a senior program officer as well as the senior director of programs since joining in 2012. Prior to joining the Fund and NEO, she was a senior policy analyst with the ACLU of Southern California, the executive director of advocacy group Sweatshop Watch, and was the western regional director for Amnesty International USA. ^83 79

Gratienne Baskin was the former director of NEO’s Anti-Trafficking Fund. Baskin previously worked for the Urban Justice Center as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. ⁸⁴

The vice president of human resources is Shelby Geter. The vice president of operations and internal capacity building is Laura Henderson. The director of fiscal sponsorship is Sara Motola. The chief program officer is Margarita Rubalcava; ⁷⁹ she was the director of immigration for NEO Philanthropy from 2006 to 2014 as well as the director of the Four Freedoms Fund. Rubalcava was also previously president of the left-of-center funder Borealis Philanthropy, which supported the Black Lives Matter movement, LGBT advocacy, and racial equity. ⁷⁹

The assistant director of strategic initiatives is Huga Ayala. The vice president and general counsel is Rutledge Simmons. ⁷⁹

Board of Directors

Kerrien Suarez is the co-chair of the board, alongside Kristen Ruff. Suarez is also the president and CEO of Equity at consulting group The Center. She has roughly 20 years of previous consulting experience with a focus on diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI). ⁸⁵

Kristen Ruff is the co-chair of the board, alongside Kerrien Suarez. Ruff also works as the Senior Vice President of Philanthropy New York (PNY). Prior to PNY, she worked for women’s rights group MADRE. ⁸⁵

Cathy Albisa is the vice chairman of the board for NEO Philanthropy. She is also the co-founder of the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative. Albisa has previously sat on the boards of several nonprofits including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, ESCR-NET (International Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Network), and the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI). ⁸⁶

Christina Schatz is the Secretary Treasurer of NEO Philanthropy’s board of directors. She also serves as a financial advisor and sports and entertainment director for Morgan Stanley and was previously an administrative assistant for Merrill Lynch. ^{87 88}

John Gilroy was a former board chair for NEO Philanthropy, serving from 2013 through 2017. Gilroy also works as a principal officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts in environmental issues. He is a former campaign staffer for the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), a position he held from 1980 to 1984 during the tenure of NYPIRG director and NEO Philanthropy founder Donald Ross. ^{89 90}

Glenn Harris is the president of left-of-center advocacy Race Forward (also known as Applied Research Center). He also sits on the boards of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), the Willamette Valley Law Project, and the City Parks Alliance. Prior to this, Harris was the manager of the city of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI), the development director at technical training group Western States Center, and the interim director for the MRG Foundation. ⁹¹

Alex-Handrah Aimé, who joined the board as of July 2024, is the senior director and global head of network investments at Facebook parent company Meta. She previously worked as a partner as well the managing director and the head of the Johannesburg office for Africa-based private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners. In addition, she previously worked as a commissioner for the Los Angeles workforce development board as well as an executive fellow for equity-based nonprofit Fuse Corps. ^{85 92}

Blake Strode, who joined the board as of July 2024, is the executive director of civil rights law firm ArchCity Defenders. He previously joined ArchCity Defenders as a staff attorney as well as a public-interest law Skadden Fellow. ⁸⁵

Kesi B. Foster, who was elected to the board as of October 2024, is the co-executive director of Partners for Dignity and Rights. He also serves on the board of the North Star Fund and is co-chair of the Fund’s Community Funding Committee. Prior to this, Foster was the co-director of Make the Road New York‘s Youth Power Project, worked for the Urban Youth Collaborative and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, and held positions with the Fortune Society and the Right to Vote Campaign. ⁹³