Donna Daniels

Daniels is a board member of the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, a donor-advised fund provider supporting mostly left-of-center causes that was created by the Service Employees International Union-associated Amalgamated Bank in 2017. ^{3 4}

Background

Daniels received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Stanford University, a master’s degree in African American studies from Yale University, and a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College. ⁵ She began her career as an assistant professor of cultural anthropology and African-American studies at Duke University, later becoming a visiting scholar in African-American studies at Columbia University. ² In 2002, she turned from academia to the private sector, becoming a consultant specializing in retailing to African-American consumers. ^{2 5}

Career in Philanthropy

In 2012, Daniels became a deputy director and then later worked as interim executive director at the Social Venture Network, a now-defunct advocacy group that sought to persuade businesses to adopt left-of-center social and environmental policies. ⁶

From 2018 to 2021, Daniels was a director and later vice president at RSF Social Finance, formerly the Rudolf Steiner Foundation. She led RSF’s donor-advised fund program and was co-chair of the organization’s internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee. ²

She left RSF to become a vice president at the F.B. Heron Foundation, a left-of-center private grantmaking foundation located in New Haven, Connecticut that funds a variety of left-of-center organizations and ostensibly focuses on poverty-related causes. ²

In 2024, Daniels left the Heron Foundation to become the CEO of Possibility Labs, a left-of-center funding platform that operates donor-advised funds, provides capital to businesses, and fiscally sponsors other nonprofit organizations that “advance racial, gender, and climate justice.” ¹

At Possibility Labs, Daniels leads an effort funded by the Kataly Foundation to “take back control” of donor-advised funds and ensure that the resources of those funds are quickly deployed by foundations hosting donor-advised funds toward race-based “liberatory” and “reparatory” philanthropy. ^{1 7 8}

Daniels is also an advisor to the Just Economy Institute (JEI), an advocacy group that pushes for wealth and resource redistribution towards left-of-center political, social, and environmental causes through both government policies and private-sector initiatives. ⁹

Daniels is a board member of the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, a donor-advised fund provider supporting mostly left-of-center causes that was created by the Service Employees International Union-associated Amalgamated Bank in 2017. ^{3 4}