Staff

Amara (she/her), got her start in advocacy as an intern at Forward Montana while studying at Montana State University. Over the next six years, she would serve in a number of roles, ultimately leaving the organization as Program Director, having run GOTV campaigns, lobbying programs, and a statewide census canvassing operation. She then moved on to Forward’s parent organization, the Alliance for Youth Action, where she supported Program and Executive Directors in Vermont, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, & Oregon in navigating the challenges she faced in her own time at Forward. Amara comes to Funders with a passion for empowering young […]

Pronouns: He/Him/His As Director of Finance, Stephen helps to keep operations at Funders running smoothly and efficiently. Before Funders, Stephen was with NewSchools Venture Fund as Interim Finance Director. Having spent more than a decade helping non-profits stay successful, his career has taken him from architectural foundations in New York City and NGOs in Tanzania to transgender rights in Oakland. Stephen received his B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College and an M.S. in Accounting at Saint Mary’s College. He is the board treasurer of the Oakland writing nonprofit Chapter 510. A native Arizonan, Stephen now resides in Oakland, California, with […]

Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs Ashe is a southern non-binary Black butch artist, organizer, and cultural worker with roots in Louisville, KY. They received their Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Hite Art Institute – University of Louisville and have over 20 years of experience in advocacy, leadership development, youth organizing, and mentorship.  As a Black feminist whose own political artwork is grounded in liberation work, Ashe has curated and co-created several projects and practices of cultural solidarity with movement organizations such as Papel Machete / AgitArte, Southerners On New Ground (SONG), the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR) and the #Not1More […]

Pronouns: Sir/Her Cleopatra Jach Acquaye is a Black Gender Non-Conforming* Queer, born and raised in The Bronx, New York. A first-generation-born child of Ghanaian immigrants, her values deeply center radical storytelling; Cleopatra defines this through transparency, centering lived experiences, and capacity-building. She has over a decade of experience in community organizing, organizational development, and team management, which informed her leadership as the Co-Executive Director of The Audre Lorde Project and the Interim Co-Executive Director of Lambda Literary. Jach’s teachers have come from Generative Somatics, Black Organizers for Leadership and Dignity, and Communities for Police Reform. This allowed her to create […]