Katie Branch (she/her)
Director of Customer Experience
Katie is the Director of Customer Experience at JustFund. A New Orleans native, Katie brings to JustFund an extensive background in fundraising, particularly in major gifts and event planning. Following long tenures with some of the nation’s most recognizable nonprofits in a variety of fields, ranging from women’s health to American history, Katie joined JustFund's team after serving at Resilia, a tech-for-good startup. She is committed to empowering movement makers across the country.
Liz Hoffman (she/her)
Product Manager
Liz is a Product Manager at JustFund. Liz lives in Bend, Oregon, and studied Sociology with a concentration in Social Justice in college. Her first job after school was an Americorps service year mentoring the underserved youth of Baltimore. She has spent the last 9 years in the tech space with the last 4+ of those in product management. Liz has worked with organizations spanning from government licensing to real estate marketing, and, most recently, non-profit customer relationship management. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking with her dog, planning and cooking overly complex meals with friends, playing soccer, and watching all of the movies.
Rachel Hyatt (she/her)
Customer Engagement Manager
Rachel is the Customer Engagement Manager at JustFund. She works closely with the CX and Product teams to provide high quality support services and identify new features and automations to improve user experience. Rachel has worked in a variety of nonprofit and public interest settings centered around education organizing and advocacy work, and focused on expanding youth voice and leadership across NYC schools.
Simone Jones (she/her)
Client Success Associate
Simone is the Customer Success Associate at JustFund. She has spent the last 12 years developing her skills in customer success and administrative roles in the Nonprofit, and Hospitality & Tourism sectors. Before joining JustFund, Simone supported nonprofit founders in fulfilling their mission as a Nonprofit Formation Specialist at Resilia, and offered organizational assistance as the Operations Coordinator at Girls Inc. of New York City. She received an A. A in Sociology and participated in a Research Methods Cohort Program through the Leaders of Africa Institute to help foster her interests in society, history, and culture. Simone enjoys writing, arts & crafts, and seeing live music in her spare time.
Juliana Kim (she/her)
Administrative Assistant
Juliana is the Administrative Assistant at JustFund. She previously worked as an executive assistant and has a skilled background working at quickly growing startups and businesses. She graduated from NYU with a Bachelor’s degree in Global Liberal Studies, where she studied a year abroad in Florence, Italy. During this time, she was a part of the DEI committee and helped organize events focusing on women’s rights and racial justice. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, live music, and embroidery.
Melody Lee (she/her)
Chief Operating Officer
Melody is the COO at JustFund. She's passionate about moving resources to and investing in grassroots organizing. Prior to joining JustFund, she was the co-founder and Managing Director at the Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice and held various roles at the Drug Policy Alliance. She has worked on numerous criminal justice reform and public health campaigns in New York and nationally, including as the director of organizing and advocacy for the #CLOSErikers campaign.
Joseph Mercurio (he/him)
Senior Product Manager
Joseph is the Senior Product Manager at JustFund. He has worked at companies such as The Interpublic Group, Omnicom Health Group and Siemens. He has led the development of a wide range of innovative B2B/B2C SaaS products during his illustrious career. Joseph has a passion for Art, Film and creating products that are equitable and accessible with compelling design. Developing excellent client and team relationships are also of the utmost importance to him.
Jessica Pan (she/her)
Senior Product Designer
Jessica is a Senior Product Designer at JustFund, where she brings over 5 years of experience in crafting user-centered SaaS products across diverse domains, from real estate to building automation. As the advocate for various end users at JustFund, she thrives on delivering intuitive experiences that empower our users to excel.
Beyond her professional pursuits, she's deeply passionate about driving social change through design at non-profit organizations, particularly focusing on homelessness and international student growth initiatives. In her downtime, you'll often find her baking, doing yoga, working out, or simply savoring precious moments with her loved ones.
Maisha Popoola (she/her)
Client Operations Manager
Maisha has over 8 years of experience in operations management in the SaaS, e-commerce and nonprofit space. Prior to joining JustFund, Maisha directed business operations for an embeddable commerce software solution. She has also had experience in the nonprofit sector as an Operations Manager at Leadership Newark, a public policy based organization out of Newark, NJ that focuses on connecting and educating emerging and established leaders from all walks of life through an illustrious fellowship program. Maisha is a dedicated intrapreneur, passionate about working collaboratively, refining processes and seeking out solutions to tough problems. She happily brings her cross-sector knowledge to the team with a deep passion to further JustFund’s mission.
In her spare time, Maisha enjoys attending her sons’ youth football league games, providing consultative administrative and operational support to BIPOC-led organizations and traveling to new places!
Preeti Shukla (she/her)
Head of Product and Engineering
Preeti is the Head of Product and Engineering at JustFund and brings 20 years of building and leading software products experience. She leads product development through JustFund’s SaaS platform, while scaling JustFund’s ability to redistribute money to movements in a quick and effective way. Building JustFund’s platform was the perfect avenue for Preetii when she was looking to take on a more impactful role at the cross section of non profit and SaaS tech.
Preeti has an extensive background in building B2B SaaS Financial Management products, having held software development leadership positions in Workday, and Oracle. She also co-founded a tech for good B2C platform in the home niche and led the online platform as the Chief Technology Officer. When not working Preeti can be found performing karaoke, reading books and spending time with her two little boys. Outside of work, Preeti can't get enough of meme humor and shares with the JustFund’s team every week in the spirit of Fun Fridays.
Board of Directors
Shona Chakravartty (she/her)
Senior Program Officer, The Hill-Snowdon Foundation
As Senior Program Officer, Shona is responsible for leading and managing HSF’s Economic Justice grantmaking program, as well as developing and implementing learning and leveraging activities related to HSF’s economic justice interests.
She was previously the co-chair of Neighborhood Funders Group, Funders for a Just Economy (formerly the Working Group on Labor & Community Partnerships), currently serves on the board of the Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing, and on the board of the Neighborhood Funders Group.
Before joining the Hill-Snowdon Foundation staff in 2006, Shona served as Program Officer for the Four Freedoms Fund, a philanthropic collaborative that made grants to enhance the capacity of local and state organizations to actively engage immigrants in the civic, social and economic life of their communities and participate in national policy and advocacy efforts. Prior to that, she was a program officer at the Jewish Fund for Justice for almost six years where she was responsible for grantmaking in the areas of Women in Poverty, Assisting New Immigrants, and Economic Justice.
Shona has also worked at a variety of non-profits in New York City including the National Council of Jewish Women, Sakhi for South Asian Women, and Women and Philanthropy.
She also serves on the board of Chhaya CDC in Queens, where she resides.
Past board service includes the New York Women’s Foundation, South Asian Youth Action, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants & Refugees (GCIR).
Shona was born in India and holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a Master’s degree from Oxford University.
Molly Schultz Hafid (she/her)
Executive Director, Butler Family Fund
The Butler Family Fund is a family foundation whose mission is to seek lasting solutions to homelessness and an equitable criminal legal system. She also manages a consulting practice and works closely with individual donors and family foundations, providing strategic guidance on expanding grantmaking programs, developing participatory grantmaking models, governance assessment and redesign, and organizational development.
A sector leader contributing strategic guidance and thought leadership in social justice philanthropy, Molly was a 2021-2022 Aspen Institute and Neighborhood Funders Group Philanthropy Forward Fellow.
In 2018, she was honored to receive the Neighborhood Funders Group Award for Excellence in Philanthropy.
She currently serves as the Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), which promotes accountability and the highest standards of integrity and openness within the sector.
Molly also proudly serves as the Chair of the Board of Just Fund, the only nonprofit grantmaking solution created by funders and organizers of color.
Molly serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and part-time faculty at The New School's Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, teaching strategic philanthropy and fundraising to graduate students.
She has a Master of Public Administration specializing in International Nonprofit Management from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, an executive education certificate in Nonprofit Financial Sustainability from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School, and a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Literature from Antioch College.
Steve Phillips (he/his)
President, Sandler Phillips Center
Steve Phillips is a national political leader, bestselling author, and columnist. He is the author of The New York Times bestseller Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority and the newly released national bestselling book How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good. He is a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, and an opinion contributor to The New York Times. He is also the host of “Democracy in Color with Steve Phillips,” a color-conscious podcast on politics. He is the founder of Democracy in Color, a political media organization dedicated to race, politics and the multicultural progressive New American Majority. Phillips is a graduate of Stanford University and University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and practiced civil rights and employment law for many years. Phillips has appeared on multiple national radio and television networks including NBC, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN.
Advisory Council
Phil Chow (he/him)
CEO, Humanitas Technologies
Phil Chow is an expert in applied AI for the humanitarian sector with special interest in low-resource NLP. Humanitas Technologies is a Palo Alto-based company seeking to build a more inclusive internet.
Previously he worked at FiscalNote and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Phil is an active investor, supporter, and advisor for organizations such as Coactive, Develop for Good, Fathom Radiant, Good Machine, and more.
Daniel R. Katz (he/him)
Lead Environmental Advisor, Overbrook Foundation
Daniel Katz advises on environmental philanthropy in areas ranging from biodiversity conservation and the climate crisis to movement building and behavior change. At Overbrook, he has launched numerous initiatives. One of them is Catalog Choice, an online service that offers an easy way for millions of users to stop the flow of unwanted catalogs in their mailboxes. At Overbrook, he has supported several hundred organizations with over 60 million in grant awards.
Daniel is also the Board Chair and former CEO of the Rainforest Alliance, an organization he co-founded in 1986 at age 24. The Rainforest Alliance, with a staff of 700 working in 80 countries around the globe, works with over 4 million farmers and 5,000 companies annually.
A former Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellow, Daniel has served as a consultant, adviser, and board member for numerous organizations, including People for the American Way, Grist.org, the Gibson Guitar Foundation, and the Nespresso Sustainability Advisory Board. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the editor of two volumes: Why Freedom Matters: The Spirit of the Declaration of Independence in Prose, Poetry and Song (Workman), and Tales from the Jungle: A Rainforest Reader (Crown).
Daniel received his MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York University, where he taught sustainability and business.
He is an ICF-accredited executive coach and received his training at the Hudson Institute of Coaching in Santa Barbara, CA.
Daniel studied Chinese linguistics in Wuhan, the People’s Republic of China.
He lives in New York City with his wife, Maggie, and their two children.
Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn (she/her)
CEO & Founder, làmdi
Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn’s lived experience growing up with a single mom in deep poverty without running water and electricity in a village in Vietnam, low-income housing in the U.S., and surviving non-Hodgkins lymphoma in her 20’s through the support and innovation of her community informs her work in systems change for government, startups, and non-profits. From modular housing to homelessness and fintech, immigrant integration to economic development strategies for refugees, she launches and implements practical innovations, strategies, and frameworks to meet the needs of those who are historically left out of opportunities and resources. She is especially passionate about reimagining giving and a financial system that is accessible and equitable for all.
She is currently the CEO & Founder of làmdi, a management consulting and executive coaching practice supporting the people behind impactful ideas to launch, transition, and scale. Before launching làmdi, she grew the National Innovation Service (NIS) a systems-change agency focusing on homelessness and centering community-based research and design. She is also a co-founder of Blokable, a smart modular housing company designed to address the affordability crisis. Her public service includes working in the governor's office of Washington state, the mayor’s office in Seattle, the lead for public engagement for Seattle’s city planning team, and running two political campaigns.
She’s currently on the board of the University of Washington Press, the funding committee for the Share Fund, and successfully supported Community Credit Lab as a board member through its successful launch, scale, and acquisition by Common Future. She is a graduate of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and the University of Washington.
Alice Rhee (she/her)
Chief Global Partnerships & Communications Officer, Skoll Foundation
Alice Rhee is a philanthropy executive, world-class storyteller, and two-time Emmy Award-winning television producer, Ms. Rhee was previously the Head of Strategic Partnerships & Place-Based Philanthropy at the American Journalism Project (AJP).
Prior to her role at AJP, Alice served as the Director of Media for a private family philanthropy where she built social impact storytelling initiatives and co-founded a nonprofit news organization focused on economic inequality in San Antonio, Texas.
Alice held various editorial and production roles at NBC News headquarters in New York City covering breaking news and domestic and international news. She was also Senior Producer of Digital Video at The Washington Post before transitioning to philanthropy and nonprofit storytelling.
Alice received national News & Documentary Emmy Awards for her coverage of the crash of Singapore Airlines and the Middle East conflict. She is also the recipient of several national and regional awards including a National Headliners Award and the New York Newswomen's Award for her reporting in the days following 9/11. The Smithsonian Institution recognized her contributions as a professional journalist during its Korean-American Centennial Commemoration.
Currently, Alice serves on the board of TheGuardian.org and acts as an independent trustee of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She is co-chair of the Information, Media, and Technology pillar at the Partnership for American Democracy and an advisory circle member of JustFund.
She also serves on the board of a new nonprofit content accelerator for BIPOC creators, artists, and entrepreneurs being launched by Dan Lin, founder of Rideback.
Alice is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Michael Saunders (he/him)
President, Information Organizers
Michael Saunders is an experienced executive with a distinguished career in business management, strategic planning, and financial management. His proficiency in managing organizational change and growth, combined with his strong technological acumen, have enabled him to deliver successful projects across various sectors. He has most recently served as a FUSE Executive Fellow for the City of San José, Saunders continues to foster community development and equitable access to career training opportunities.
Sachi Yoshii (she/her)
Director of Collective Impact, Amalgamated Charitable Foundation
Sachi Yoshii serves on the leadership team as the Director of Collective Impact at Amalgamated Charitable Foundation. She is responsible for the development and implementation of strategies to grow and manage the Foundation’s Combined Impact Funds, while building innovative ways to connect, engage, and build meaningful partnerships with institutional funders and foundation networks.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Sachi was the Vice President of Strategy & External Relations at East Bay Community Foundation, and worked in a range of executive, program, and data teams at The Atlantic Philanthropies. Sachi is on the Advisory Council at JustFund and a Founding Board Member of the New Breath Foundation. She has a dual-degree MBA from Columbia Business School and London Business School, and a BA from the University of California, Santa
Cruz.
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