Partners
Part of our mission is to connect amazing people and organizations. If you are interested in learning more about partners we have worked with and recommend, please see the profiles below. If we have worked together and are interested in being featured here, please contact us.
Amber Banks (she/her)
About Amber
Dr. Amber Banks is the Founder Trust Compass Studio and the Center for Trust and Transformation (CTT), where she applies over two decades of experience as a social justice leader to advance trust as the cornerstone of social change.
Throughout her career—from her beginnings as a Special Education teacher in Los Angeles to leadership and advising roles in social justice philanthropy and social movements Dr. Banks has consistently returned to trust as essential for meaningful transformation. During her doctoral research, her groundbreaking work explored the dynamics of building trust across differences and developed frameworks to understand the ways in which our understanding of trust needs to evolve to reflect marginalized perspectives.
Dr. Banks’ work on trust centers on coaching, facilitation, and strategic advising to help social sector leaders leverage trust to advance joy, justice, and liberation. She is also launching a startup focused on assessing and repairing trust in social change organizations and coalitions.
Dr. Banks holds a PhD in Education Leadership from the University of Washington, and a Bachelors in Journalism from Boston University, complemented by certifications as a Healing Centered Coach and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy. She also is an alumna of the Pahara Institute Fellowship and Mosaic Changemakers Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Outside work, she finds joy in nature, dancing, gardening, and time with her partner and two children, who remind her of the value of play. Dr. Banks loves to dream of what becomes possible when we collaborate from a foundation of trust and healing.
About the Center for Trust and Transformation (est. 2021)
The Center for Trust and Transformation is dedicated to advancing trust as a foundational building block for social and racial justice. We facilitate dialogue, support growth, and conduct research in service of a trust movement grounded in justice and liberation.
Our goal is to better understand trust in context and explore paths to (re)building our relationships with one another that are grounded in identities, histories, and solidarities. We work with partners to better understand trust in context and explore paths to rebuilding our relationships with one another and the institutions we have created. We also engage in projects that center marginalized voices as the foundation for dialogue, healing, and the implementation of restorative, trust-based policies. We cultivate leadership, perspectives, and behaviors in order to shift from trust as a one dimensional construct to one that is fluid, complex, and grounded in our unique perspectives.
Transformation requires a new era of trust with racial equity at the center to nurture justice, collaboration, healing, and joy.
Shanize Byrd (she/her)
About Shanize
Shanize Byrd is a facilitator, organizational wellness coach, and lifelong freedom seeker whose work is rooted in a deep love for Black culture, storytelling, and collective liberation. From an early age, she was inspired by the legacies of Maya Angelou and Thurgood Marshall, dreaming of using her voice to shift narratives and her work to transform systems.
She studied psychology and public relations at Florida A&M University before joining Teach For America, where she taught middle school English language arts and social studies in New Orleans. Grounded in Black culture and history, her time in the classroom deeply shaped her understanding of leadership, humility, and what it means to be accountable to community.
Shanize later became a community organizer with Together Baton Rouge, advancing campaigns for economic justice and corporate accountability, and went on to serve as an organizational specialist with the National Education Association. She also served as a senior consultant at Frontline Solutions, where she partnered with national nonprofits, foundations, and civic organizations to strengthen organizational culture and deepen their commitment to equity and impact.
These experiences informed her life’s work and led to the founding of blackbyrd initiative, where she designs healing-centered learning spaces that support Black women in dismantling oppressive systems and actualizing liberation in their personal and professional lives.
About Shanize’s Work (est. 2021)
Shanize's work sits at the intersection of facilitation, organizational strategy, and healing-centered practice.
She specializes in designing and leading immersive learning experiences that support participants in examining power, identity, and systems while building the skills needed to practice liberation in real time. Shanize is known for creating spaces that are both grounding and challenging—where people can engage in honest dialogue, deepen self-awareness, and move from reflection to meaningful action.
Her approach integrates participatory facilitation methods such as small group dialogue, storytelling, somatic practices, and reflective exercises. She brings a strong ability to read group dynamics, adapt in the moment, and guide complex conversations with care and clarity.
Shanize partners with nonprofits, foundations, and civic organizations to strengthen organizational culture, support leadership development, and design convenings that foster alignment and connection. She is particularly skilled at translating liberatory values into tangible practices that lead to sustained cultural and behavioral change.
Amy Chou (she/her)
About Amy
Amy Chou is a strategic philanthropy leader with more than 15 years of experience mobilizing capital and building power for social justice and youth empowerment communities. She has held senior program roles at organizations including Groundswell Fund, Brooklyn Community Foundation, and the New York Women's Foundation, stewarding grantmaking portfolios totaling over $20M, launching rapid response funds, and designing funder learning communities that deepen co-investment across the field. She is deeply committed to advancing racial equity in philanthropy and has spent her career centering the voices of communities most impacted by systemic injustice in funding decisions.
About Amy’s Work (est. 2025)
Amy provides bespoke philanthropic advising for mid-to-large social justice foundations and family offices ($10M+) committed to equity-centered wealth redistribution. Her practice bridges the gap between high-level endowment management and the grassroots frontlines, ensuring that capital moves with the urgency and intentionality that systemic change requires.
With over 15 years of experience—including leadership roles at Groundswell Fund and Brooklyn Community Foundation—Amy specializes in designing and executing high-impact grantmaking strategies. Her expertise includes:
Strategic Grantmaking: Managing multi-million dollar portfolios (up to $10M+) across reproductive justice, racial equity, and youth development.
Participatory & Rapid Response Models: Streamlining due diligence to move resources quickly during crises while centering the voices of those with lived experience.
Funder Organizing: Facilitating national collaboratives and pooling resources to amplify the impact of individual family offices.
Capacity Building: Designing holistic support—from digital security to leadership development for Women of Color—to ensure grantee sustainability.
Amy helps donors move beyond traditional charity toward catalytic, high-trust philanthropy that empowers grassroots movements to thrive. Whether you are launching a new donor-advised fund or refining a legacy portfolio, Amy provides the strategic oversight and field-deep insights necessary to align your assets with your values.
Sommer Iqbal (she/her)
About Sommer
Sommer Iqbal (she/her) is a policy analyst, community organizer, and racial justice practitioner dedicated to building a just, sustainable, and liberated economy for all. Her work focuses on addressing the root causes of injustice to drive systems change through community-engaged, data-driven methodologies. With over six years of experience across the public and nonprofit sectors, Sommer brings expertise in qualitative, mixed-methods, and participatory research, as well as policy analysis, advocacy, and project management. Known for her ability to bridge research, grassroots organizing, and policy strategy, Sommer translates complex data into actionable insights that support equitable outcomes. She holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in International Political Economy from The University of Texas at Dallas.
About Sommer’s Work (est. 2021)
Sommer Iqbal provides independent policy consulting services to organizations advancing racial, economic, and climate justice. She supports clients in conducting rigorous research and policy analysis that translates complex data into practical, actionable recommendations, tools, and strategies for movement workers and policymakers.
Her services span policy research and development, project and program management, communications, and inclusive community engagement, with a focus on participatory and justice-centered approaches.
Sommer’s portfolio highlights include:
Developing a legislative toolkit and funding analysis to advance local Black reparations policy with Liberation Ventures,
Conducting a landscape analysis of the just economy movement to inform a statewide policy roadmap for The Greenlining Institute, and
Managing the development of a comprehensive Racial Equity Plan for the City of Dallas.
Across projects, Sommer is known for building trust-based partnerships, facilitating inclusive stakeholder engagement, and delivering high-quality, impact-driven results. To explore collaboration opportunities or learn more about her services, please email iqbalsommer@gmail.com.
Alison Kysia (she/her)
About Alison
Alison Kysia’s career included decades of experience as a social justice educator & fundraiser. In addition to fundraising for her own projects, Alison was the Strategic Partnership Officer at the RISE Together Fund at Proteus Fund from 2020-2023, supporting activists fighting the criminalization of Muslims and other communities as justification for the Global War on Terror. Prior to joining Proteus Fund, Alison was an educator and curriculum writer who facilitated anti-bias workshops about Islam, Muslims, and Islamophobia. She was the Director of the Challenge Islamophobia Project at Teaching for Change from 2017-2019, where she wrote creative and participatory lesson plans and shared them in teacher trainings throughout the country. She wrote curricula and facilitated workshops for the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, Zinn Education Project, Rethinking Schools, Amnesty International, Unity Production Films, Qatar Foundation International, and the Institute for Middle East Studies at The George Washington University. Earlier in her career, Alison taught the history of social justice movements in a residential abuse therapy program for teenage girls; English as a Foreign Language for adult learners; U.S., world, and Islamic history at a community college; and interreligious adult dialogue courses. She holds a BA in Race, Class, and Gender Studies and an MA in History.
About Al Razaq Grant Writing & Fundraising (est. 2024)
Alison provides exceptional grant writing & fundraising support to nonprofits and individuals, increasing her clients’ capacity to meet their mission.
She has raised over $15 million in grants and funding to support nonprofit educational, activist and arts initiatives.
Services include:
Building fundraising fundamentals: Creating and/or compiling fundraising paperwork essentials, including proposal templates, fundraising trackers, budgets, and other critical documents.
Prospect research and wealth screening: Identifying potential donors and assessing their philanthropic capacity.
Grant proposal writing: Crafting compelling grant proposals for foundations, corporations, and government agencies.
Training and development: Providing training on fundraising best practices and grant writing skills.
Helly Lee (she/her)
About Helly
Helly Lee is a leadership coach, organizational consultant, and a strategist with over 20 years of experience working with mission-driven organizations toward more equitable policies and practices. She brings a deep commitment to creating spaces and opportunities for community-driven learning and impact.
Helly supports leaders, teams, and organizations to achieve big dreams and goals through practices that center equity and community impact. She is informed by a career that spans national and local social change efforts across public and private institutions. As the director of leadership and learning at Frontline Solutions, she works with non-profit and philanthropic organizations to plan, design, and lead initiatives and programs that support leaders in the field. Prior to consulting, she has done stints in state and federal government at the Minnesota Department of Human Services as their director of community engagement, and as an appointee in President Obama administration as an advisor to the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in 2016. Helly’s first dive deep into social and systems change was as a staff assistant on Capitol Hill, and then with national advocacy organizations, Hmong National Development (HND), and the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), where she led a cross-country policy team as their director of policy. Helly was also a senior policy analyst for the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), where she focused on advocating for food assistance, low-income tax credits, and workforce development policies, and honed in on how these policies specifically impact immigrant communities.
About Helly Lee Coaching & Consulting LLC (est. 2025)
Helly Lee Coaching & Consulting serves mission driven teams, leaders, and organizations.
Helly’s coaching focuses on emerging and experienced leaders who are working toward social justice and creating a better world. She is passionate about working with leaders who are active at the intersections of big vision, systems change, and direct community impact.
As an experienced consultant with deep knowledge and practice in policy analysis and advocacy, philanthropy, and non-profit leadership and programming, Helly is a critical partner for leaders and organizations working toward social change. Her bias is toward advancing racial equity and centering the communities most impacted by the challenges we seek to address in social change efforts.
Dr. Nikka Lemons
About Nikka
Nikka Lemons is the Founder and CEO of Azimu Group. Azimu is the Swahili word for “accepting a grave undertaking”. Nikka (personally) and Azimu Group (as an entity) embodies this spirit- functioning to build the capacity of entities and systems to improve their service model with the goal of ensuring equitable access to the American Dreams for all citizenry. Thus, her work exists at the intersection of urban planning, organizational design, and human rights.
Having spent her formative years in 53206-America's most incarcerated zip code per capita, she set out to understand her community's conditions as well as build models for resilience.
Nikka is a trained scholar, experienced practitioner, and a social gadfly by birthright.
About Azimu Group (est. 2026)
At Azimu Group, we collaboratively build resilient institutions and communities by generating future-oriented solutions to major global threats.
Anbar Mahar (she/her)
About Anbar
Anbar Mahar is an ACC-level coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), consultant, facilitator, and capacity builder with nearly 20 years of experience guiding social justice leaders and organizations particularly those rooted in or serving the American Muslim community through moments of complexity, crisis, and transformation.
About Our Purpose Consulting and Coaching (est. 2020)
At Our Purpose Consulting and Coaching, Anbar walks alongside community-driven folks to find what matters most and bring it to life, even with so much working against us. She is here to walk alongside you as you build a sustainable pace of life rooted in purpose, values, and well-being. Anbar’s work focuses on partnering with organizations and individuals find clarity, build capacity, and lead with purpose. This is done through 1:1 coaching, tailored trainings, facilitation, coaching, or embedded capacity-building. Whether it’s developing feedback practices, clarifying roles, supporting boards, or guiding staff through change, she designs each engagement with collaboration, reflection, and growth at the center.
Dr. Marwa Moaz (she/her)
About Marwa
Dr. Marwa Moaz is a sociologist and organizational strategist with a Ph.D. in Communication and nearly a decade of experience helping organizations build equitable, human-centered, and psychologically safe workplace cultures. She is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Bridging Inclusion, where she partners with nonprofits, foundations, healthcare teams, and mission-driven organizations to strengthen culture, strategy alignment, and employee experience.
Marwa specializes in qualitative research, employee engagement, equity-centered organizational development, and leadership facilitation. She is a RIVA-certified qualitative moderator and has led in-depth interviews, focus groups, strategic assessments, and culture surveys across diverse teams and sectors. Her work integrates research rigor with deep empathy, helping organizations move from abstract values to actionable change.
Known for her ability to foster trust and candid dialogue, Marwa designs and facilitates retreats, leadership workshops, and culture transformation initiatives that promote clarity, accountability, and collaboration. She brings a systems lens to complex challenges, ensuring that equity and inclusion are embedded in decision-making, communication practices, and performance structures.
At the heart of her work is a commitment to strengthening relationships—because sustainable impact begins with how people experience their workplace.
About Bridging Inclusion (est. 2023)
Bridging Inclusion is a consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations create equitable, human-centered, and psychologically safe cultures where people and missions can thrive. Founded by Dr. Marwa Moaz, the firm partners with nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, healthcare teams, and purpose-driven organizations to strengthen employee experience, strategic alignment, and organizational effectiveness.
Our work sits at the intersection of research, strategy, and facilitation. We conduct culture and climate assessments, strategic alignment surveys, qualitative interviews and focus groups, and equity-centered organizational evaluations. We translate data into clear, actionable insights that support leadership decision-making and long-term culture transformation.
Bridging Inclusion also designs and facilitates leadership retreats, team workshops, and learning experiences focused on communication, collaboration, accountability, and belonging. We believe equity is not an abstract value—it is operationalized through everyday practices, policies, and relationships.
Our approach combines methodological rigor with relational depth. We create spaces where staff can speak candidly, leaders can listen openly, and organizations can grow through honest reflection. By embedding psychological safety and systems thinking into our work, we help organizations align their internal culture with their external impact.
Because when teams thrive, communities do too.
Sameen Piracha (she/her)
About Sameen
Sameen Piracha is a passionate advocate for social justice, distinguished for her expertise in philanthropy and fundraising. She excels in building transformative alliances across diverse communities, fostering genuine connections, and inspiring change through collaborative leadership. Sameen's approach to philanthropy is characterized by empathy and a deep understanding of the emotional complexities tied to fundraising. Utilizing a racial healing lens, she guides clients in fostering authentic interactions with supporters. Her relentless dedication has forged meaningful relationships with various stakeholders, including nonprofit leaders, donors, and entrepreneurs. Proficient in fundraising coaching, training, and strategic planning, Sameen emphasizes purposeful relationships and impactful social transformation, redefining fundraising as a harmonious blend of genuine connections and meaningful change. She has successfully raised over $35 million in 15 years, working for organizations such as the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and the Proteus Fund, among others.
About Sameen’s Work (est. 2022)
We build relationships and inspire change through philanthropy and fundraising, grounded in a deep commitment to social justice. We cultivate alliances with a wide spectrum of stakeholders including nonprofit and community leaders, individual donors, family foundations, private and community funders, funder affinity groups, and entrepreneurs. By harnessing their unique talents and perspectives through collaborative leadership, we help organizations create meaningful impact.
Fundraising can feel daunting. For many, the word itself carries emotional and cultural weight and is often equated with money, which for numerous communities has been a source of harm or taboo. Our approach reframes fundraising entirely. We view it not as money but as relationship building. Working through a racial healing and racial equity lens, we guide leaders and organizations to examine their beliefs about money, confront scarcity mindsets, and cultivate abundance, confidence, and self-worth in funder conversations.
By addressing both the emotional and systemic dynamics around philanthropy, we transform fundraising from a source of stress into a practice of empowerment, connection, and collective impact. Every opportunity to raise support is a chance to advance equity, nurture trust, and create lasting change. We strive to build philanthropic ecosystems where leaders, communities, and funders feel seen, valued, and capable of thriving together.
Alyssa Wright (she/her)
About Alyssa
Alyssa Wright is the Founder and CEO of Wright Collective, a community of consultants committed to mobilizing resources for social change. Having spent time as a human rights activist in Eastern Europe and Africa, Alyssa brings over a decade of experience in international philanthropy and fundraising to Wright Collective. With a background in community organizing and the arts, Alyssa leads the collective with skill, creativity, and passion. As an accomplished facilitator, consultant, and coach, she builds new revenue streams, shifts cultural perspectives, and inspires people to believe that change is possible no matter what.
She has helped hundreds of both domestic and global social change organizations successfully launch major gifts programs, capital campaigns, and created sustainable funding models resulting in over $50,000,000 of resource flow. Everyone that has worked with Alyssa knows that she is a true partner. She answers late-night text messages, takes on difficult conversations with donors, and makes jokes that will keep clients smiling through rejected proposals and rained-out fundraising events. Her experience has also allowed her to become a sought-after speaker on philanthropy and fund development as well as a contributor to Forbes, Global Giving, and Network for Good. Alyssa is a powerful Millennial voice in the social change movement.
About Wright Collective (est. 2016)
The Wright Collective Team brings together a deep network of local and international social change organizations, and the experience of advising donors on both sides of the table. Partnering with clients all over the world, we help organizations and leaders shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset. With every one of our partnerships, we seek to instill an abundance process that utilizes data-driven donor research and crafts tailored plans that address each of the four core components of a Culture of Philanthropy. Throughout the process, we work with you to build the necessary skill sets and strategies your team needs to respond in an ever-changing philanthropic landscape.