The future of philanthropy is local, digital, and self-determined. Emerging Gifts decolonizes global philanthropy by building digital-first fundraising capacity that helps organizations tap into their own communities’ rising fortunes — reducing dependence on distant funders and putting power back where it belongs: with the people doing the work.
I’ve always been curious about the world. Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, my mom — who worked tirelessly with special needs foster children inspired by my late aunt born with developmental disabilities — bought wall maps of the United States and Africa for my bedroom. My favorite pastime was spinning our globe and seeing where my finger would land, imagining the stories and struggles of people thousands of miles away.
But curiosity and reality are different things. I didn’t truly understand inequity until my mom transferred me to a North Side elementary school for a better education. The contrast was jarring. Meanwhile, my father made sure I understood what real poverty looked like, taking me to collect life insurance payments at public housing complexes. Those homes weren’t too dissimilar to some I’ve since visited in Skopje, Ko Samui, and Dakar.
My fascination with global connections deepened during college, where I spent summers volunteering at the same inner city day camp I’d attended and logged employment discrimination claims at the New York State Division of Human Rights. But it was during my semester studying abroad in Tuscany in winter 2005 that everything crystallized.
The friendly fire incident between Italy and the US during the rescue of journalist Giuliana Sgrena happened while I was there. I attended the funeral of secret agent Nicola Calipari — the largest I’d seen until the Pope died a few weeks later. Suddenly, the headlines I’d been reading weren’t abstract anymore. They were about real people, real consequences, real grief that entire nations felt. This moment inspired me to study international relations and diplomacy.
That inspiration led to my summer 2006 internship as a stagiaire for a Member of European Parliament from Malta — who later became their Prime Minister. I researched illegal migration flows from Africa into the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands as part of Malta’s migration efforts. Twenty-something me was diving deep into the data behind human movement, economic desperation, and the policies that shaped both. Little did I know I’d later spend my extended honeymoon in those very Canary Islands and eventually make my home in Barcelona — the geographic irony of life coming full circle.
I thought I’d found my calling. During my last semester of graduate school, I drafted a Security Council resolution renewing the peacekeeping mandate for the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) while interning at the US Mission to the United Nations. I was working on some of the world’s most complex conflicts, contributing to policy that affected millions of lives.
Then the Great Recession hit. The financial crisis derailed my diplomatic dreams before they really began, leaving me a failed diplomat at square one.
Out of sheer boredom, I started interning on a U.S. senatorial campaign. What began as a way to stay busy turned into accidentally discovering my superpower: I genuinely love fundraising.
Here’s the thing about fundraising that most people don’t understand: things cost money, and the people doing the work—like my mom—deserve a fair wage. For nearly fifteen years, I’ve worked in political and nonprofit digital marketing, raising tens of millions for organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières and UNICEF. I found myself able to combine analytical and technical skills with my artistic side, strategizing record-breaking efforts featuring creative storytelling and targeted execution.
But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Nonprofit development is historically rife with questionable imagery and white saviorism because it’s an offensively white field, reflecting the elites who have historically funded philanthropy. It pained me to defend my work against exploitation accusations because I was often the only person of color, making it my duty to protect the humanity and stories of people who look like me.
At MSF-USA, I regularly conflicted with the Communications Department until I could reliably demonstrate my efforts were done in good faith and not exploitative. The truth is simple: sending a shortened press release to supporters can raise tens of thousands because studies continue to show the number one reason people donate is simply because they were asked. There’s no need to be manipulative.
My “aha moment” came during my time as a Digital Strategist for UNICEF, collaborating with offices throughout East Asia and the Pacific to improve their digital fundraising performance. I was working with some of UNICEF’s largest fundraisers and some of the world’s fastest-rising economies, but these offices weren’t afforded the same internal resources provided to North American and European offices who already came with significant advantages.
The explanation my superior gave was political: “These Global North-based offices have influence and it’s hard to divert resources elsewhere.”
Think about the hypocrisy of that for a moment. The mission was to raise funds for country offices and local programs while regularly extolling the importance of investing in communities. Yet the organization was:
More often than not, local programming was the first to get cut during budget shortfalls.
I kept meeting leaders at multinational organizations who were well aware of the fundraising opportunity in emerging markets. But instead of investing in local offices, their solution was “virtual hubs” — remote teams running multi-country marketing activities with little input from local offices. These hubs redirect money donors think is supporting local programs elsewhere, while local offices are encouraged to focus on foundation and corporate grants rife with restrictions and onerous reporting requirements.
I’ve seen what it takes to effect change globally and in an individual person’s life: money. But more importantly, I’ve seen how the current system perpetuates the very inequities it claims to address.
My goal is to collaborate with nonprofits operating in emerging markets to develop the digital fundraising programs necessary for reliable revenue and self-funding. I want to do my part to decolonize philanthropy by providing the strategy and resources organizations need to take advantage of their rising diasporic economic fortunes and digital interconnectedness, reducing their need for institutional and foreign funders.
This isn’t just about digital marketing — it’s about shifting power back to the communities doing the actual work.
Effective collaboration requires what one early 90s rap icon once commanded: “Stop, Collaborate and Listen.” I don’t just drop in with cookie-cutter solutions. I work to understand your unique context, your cultural nuances, your audience preferences, and what actually works on the ground versus what looks good on paper.
My approach combines:
I’ve been the intern with no budget, the one-person team figuring it out as I went, and the manager of million-dollar programs. I know what it’s like to be under-resourced and expected to perform miracles. That’s exactly why I’m passionate about building systems that work for real organizations with real constraints.
From UN conference rooms to political war rooms, from UNICEF offices across Asia to MSF field operations globally, I’ve built relationships with practitioners, experts, and innovators who share this vision of more equitable philanthropy.
My network spans:
When I can’t help directly, I’m more than happy to connect you with someone from this network who might be a better fit. After all, the goal isn’t building my empire — it’s building a more equitable future for the communities doing the hardest, most important work.
The future of humanity is in the Global South, and the organizations there are addressing challenges that centuries of colonialism and capitalism created. They shouldn’t have to beg foreign elites for permission to fund solutions to problems those very elites often caused.
Every organization I work with represents a step toward a world where local actors have the resources to be accountable to the people they serve, not distant donors who may never understand the real challenges on the ground.
From that curious kid spinning a globe in Chicago to a failed diplomat turned accidental fundraising expert now living in Barcelona — the very city connected to those Spanish enclaves I once researched — my journey has shown me that the most important changes happen when we give power and resources to the people closest to the problems.
Whether you’re launching your first digital campaign or optimizing an existing program, let’s talk about turning your constraints into your competitive advantage.
*P.S. I will rep deep dish pizza until my dying breaths, went to the same high school as former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, and root for the same mediocre baseball team as Pope Leo XIV. Some things will never change
Tell me about your organization and what you’re looking to achieve.
