Alice Phinizy (she/her/hers)
Director of Finance, Project HOPE

Alice Phinizy is the Director of Finance for Project HOPE. In this role she oversees the finances for Health Affairs, a world-renowned health policy journal. Before Project HOPE, she served as the Director of Finance and Operations at the Disability Rights Fund, an international grantmaker focusing on disability rights and advocacy. Alice is the Board Treasurer for International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, Treasurer for the Official Liverpool Supporters Club of Boston, and serves on the finance committee for Zumix.

Ben Wrobel (he/him/his)
Editor and Co-Founder, Proximate

Ben is a co-founder of Proximate, a magazine that covers community-driven problem-solving. Before that, he wrote Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do More Good By Giving Up Control. Over the course of his career, he has worked as chief speechwriter for the national NAACP, and worked in communications roles for organizations from Center for American Progress to Stacey Abrams' New Georgia Project.

Cesar Aleman (he/him/his)
Director, CT Urban Opportunity Collaborative (TCFGNH, FCCF, HFPG)

In his role, Cesar facilitates and coordinates the team of community foundation chief executives and senior level staff from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation to develop collective strategies to dismantle structural racism and advance social and economic mobility; aligning the strategic and programmatic efforts of the three foundations to create an actionable plan that builds on each organization’s individual strengths.

Meg Massey (she/her/hers)
Co-Founder, Proximate

Meg Massey is the co-founder of Proximate, a digital magazine about participatory decision-making, and the co-author of Letting Go: How Philanthropists and Impact Investors Can Do More Good By Giving Up Control. She also recently joined Social Finance as Associate Director of the newly-launched Social Finance Institute.

Rakiba Kibria (she/her/hers)
Founder/CEO, Beyond the Raise Co.

Rakiba Kibria (she/her) has over 14 years of experience mobilizing resources along the capital stack for the social sector. She is the Founder of Beyond the Raise Co., a strategic fundraising advising firm for mission-driven organizations. Most recently, she served as V.P. of Revenue at Common Future. She is also a 2022-2023 Just Economy Institute Fellow and part of the Make Justice Normal Collective. Rakiba has deep experience working with Philanthropy and Impact Investing. She believes the philanthropic and impact investing sectors have the power and responsibility to serve as risk capital in remedying centuries of extraction, exploitation, and harm suffered by marginalized communities and our planet. Through trusted relationships in the social sector, we can radically reimagine solutions to the problems plaguing our communities by taking risks, making bold bets, catalyzing change, and accelerating and incentivizing impact over profit. Rakiba is a first-gen Bangladeshi American with strong Queens and NYC pride. Her lived experiences and love for her people ground all things she does. She holds a B.A. in International Development and Economics from American University and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University, where she was also an associate instructor for the program.

Stephanie A. Kimou (she/her/hers)
Strategist, Lecturer, and Writer, PopWorks Africa and The Black Doula Project

Stephanie Kimou is an equity strategist, writer, and lecturer working to make the NGO and philanthropic sectors more equitable and accessible for Black women, femmes, and gender-expansive folks. She has a decade-long career in African development and now supports philanthropic institutions in defining decolonization and implementing next-generation equity initiatives. She sits on the Global Fund for Women board and is an angel investor and supporter of Black women-led startups like Somewhere Good, HoneyChile Productions, ProHoe, and Auttrianna Projects. She’s currently working on #higherthoughts, a writing project documenting her journey with cannabis. An aspiring Buddhist, cannabis enthusiast, and yogi, Stephanie resides in Washington, DC, with her family.