FRIDA is happy to announce our new Co-Eds, Paige & Nada! Paige, previously the Chief of Programs, and Nada, previously the Resource Mobilization Co-manager, bring a wealth of experience, institutional knowledge and insight to their new roles.
After a year and a half of recalibration and grounding, FRIDA is excited to once again return to young feminist co-leadership. For the first time in FRIDA history, the two new co-executive directors will come from within the organization. They, along with FRIDA’s management team, have played an integral role in institutional and strategic leadership over the last 3 years.
FRIDA has always been an incubator for young feminist organisations across the global majority. We are excited to continue this legacy of young feminist leadership at the hands of FRIDA staff who have worked directly to ensure that our mission of resourcing young feminists remains at the forefront of what we do even amidst a shifting sector and global context.
We’re excited for the magic they’re sure to bring to their new positions!
Get to know them a little better by reading their interview below.
You’ve been at FRIDA for five years, how does that journey impact your approach to this new role?
My work at FRIDA for the past years has been mostly centered around implementing our participatory grantmaking strategy and co-managing the team that leads FRIDA’s programmatic operations. I’ve also had the opportunity to directly support FRIDA grantee partners and Advisors across the regions where we fund, but especially in the Caribbean region where I am based and from. That has been a source of joy as it’s a constant reminder of the power of young feminist leadership in action. Leading Programs in the last years has given me a solid understanding of FRIDA’s internal systems and the value FRIDA brings to the philanthropic ecosystem. And being a member of the leadership team since I joined FRIDA has given me the opportunity to witness and learn from the shifts, changes and joys that we have been through as an organisation.
FRIDA is at a critical juncture in its existence. I’m committed to approaching this position with curiosity and an openness to learning, through a time which calls for steady and caring leadership and informed decision making.
I bring my best strategic, programmatic and feminist self to this role with the aim to center, resource and nourish both the people we serve and the people who keep FRIDA going. I hope to use my time as Co-ED to strengthen FRIDA internally, allowing us to continue to resource and learn from young feminist movements while advocating for the representation of young feminist leadership in action in the philanthropic space.
What have been your best FRIDA memories?
That’s a hard question to answer- FRIDA so far has been an abundant whirlwind but the top two are managing FRIDA’s 8th Call for Applications in 2022 where we welcomed 100 new groups from around the world and co-creating and attending FRIDA’s Caribbean Convening in 2024. This was our first in-person convening since the pandemic and the first ever in the Caribbean region. FRIDA has funded groups in the Caribbean since inception, but five years ago we created a Caribbean Advisory and have expanded our reach in the region. It was a privilege to strategise, dream, celebrate and co-create with young feminists in the region and hear first-hand the impact FRIDA’s grantmaking has had on the young feminist movement in the Caribbean. It was a strong reminder about why I show up for this work every day.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
Having the opportunity to support FRIDA to meet its core mission in the current moment, while also employing creativity and building strategic partnerships to ensure staff and the wider FRIDA community are supported to win. I am looking forward to co- leading FRIDA into its next iteration, which I hope is one that is well resourced, with space for dreaming, shifting and co-creating.
What are your wildest FRIDA dreams?
It is hard to not be practical, even in the wildest of dreams, but I suppose a wild dream would be that the work FRIDA does becomes commonplace within philanthropy. That intermediaries and collaborative funds generally have space to resource, challenge and equip an ever-changing social justice movement. That we can hone in on creativity, experimentation, collective power and learning. And that we can use challenging moments to partner, forge alliances and center the movements we are here to resource.
You’ve been at FRIDA for two and a half years, how does that journey impact your approach to this new role?
My journey as a fundraiser with FRIDA has deeply shaped how I see FRIDA’s role and place in a challenging – and often hostile – political and philanthropic landscape. For me, fundraising is more than just about raising resources; it’s about building trust, nurturing relationships, and challenging traditional and harmful philanthropic practices. It means ensuring that our values are at the center of how we mobilize support. It means listening closely to our community by making sure that FRIDA’s work remains relevant to the young feminist organizers we exist to serve, who continue to boldly reimagine and reshape the world, in spite of its blatant hegemony.
These past years have given me a wide look into the ecosystem surrounding FRIDA. I’ve seen how important it is to balance vision with sustainability, and to invest in not just projects and donor-driven agendas, but in the people and movements behind them. As I step into this new role, I carry with me the reality that structural racism and heteronormative patriarchy are still very much rooted in the way philanthropy works, and that we have a collective responsibility to challenge these frameworks in the way we move money and support movements. I also carry with me a commitment to listening, to (un)learning, and to ensuring that FRIDA’s existence is rooted in the needs and dreams of the communities we stand alongside.
What has been your best FRIDA memory?
One of my best FRIDA memories is connecting in-person with the team and meeting some of our grantee partners and advisors during the AWID 2024 Forum. So much of our work is virtual and on-screen, and the opportunity to be surrounded by friends and colleagues I admire and look up to was a joyful experience. It was also a reminder that behind work processes and grants are people. Being in the same room with young feminists whose organizing FRIDA resources was a rare and treasured opportunity, and a reinforcement of the need to continue nurturing and sustaining connections and investing in the diversity of feminist organising.
What are you most looking forward to in your new role?
This new chapter is both humbling and exciting. I feel immense gratitude for the trust placed in me, and deep responsibility for the work moving forward. FRIDA has grown and evolved so much, and with that comes a responsibility to critically assess where we have succeeded, where we have fallen short, and how we can do better. To me, this role is about balancing care and critical reflection; caring for our team and community, while asking the hard questions that will help FRIDA deepen its relevance, and strengthen its contributions to movements worldwide (and the sector more broadly).
What is your wildest FRIDA dream?
My wildest FRIDA dream is that one day, our work becomes obsolete. That philanthropy is used as a reparatory tool so that young feminists in Majority Countries, who are most grounded in their communities – and by default, the risk takers – no longer need to fight to have their voices heard, and that their leadership is not questioned, but celebrated as the norm. Until then, FRIDA’s role is to keep resourcing urgently and flexibly, moving money to the hands of bold and brave young feminist organisers working across a myriad of social justice issues, and pushing philanthropy to join us in reimagining diverse strategies for resourcing.
