The Share Fund was established in 2021 by Seattle couple Bill and Holly Marklyn as part of their commitment to redistributing their wealth back into society in a socially just manner. 

In order to step out of traditional power structures of donor control, the Marklyns have chosen to cede all grantmaking decisions to a Funding Committee composed of BIPOC community members with expertise in racial and gender justice. The Fund’s grants are awarded in the fall of each year. Share Fund grants may be made to 501c3 and 501c4 nonprofits, political candidates, community groups and individuals, as determined by the Funding Committee.

Members of the Funding Committee are chosen for their experience working for racial and gender justice, their commitment to teamwork, and their willingness to learn and grow on this journey of reimagining philanthropy.

The Marklyns' Story

The Marklyns' initial values for The Share Fund coalesced around racial and gender equity. The Marklyns’ giving is informed by “trying to think about sharing power and lifting up communities of color and racial and gender equity.” From the outset, the Marklyns entrusted The Share Fund committee members to design and implement an equity-driven process, giving them complete power from the beginning. As Bill said, “We really did leave them to make decisions. If they asked us questions, we gave answers about our perspectives, but they were never directives.” Holly adds, "We've never questioned a grant, we've never said, ‘Are you sure?’ We've never said no.” In the third year, the Marklyns noticed the committee “passed some threshold…they could hear us and not take it as directives…There's enough trust now that some of those open-ended questions are now just open-ended questions for thought. We can now ask a question and then leave them to think about solutions.

The Share Fund members have taken various approaches to addressing racial and gender inequities through their own grantmaking. The Marklyns continue to appreciate the “learning [that] comes from hearing how the committee members are making their decisions and who they're giving to and why.” This past year, giving to individuals and giving to political candidates increased. Although Bill doesn’t like political giving and believes “in a perfect world, we’d be putting all those things out of business,” he acknowledges it's currently “how work gets done.” The Marklyns believe political giving is a strategy to impact racial and gender equity. "White male power, wealthy white power” are the majority currently “driving elections and controlling the political narrative…[so] by putting money into politics, we can elect the politicians who might eventually one day get money out of politics.” 

Bill also reflected on how the “fine line between direct aid versus systemic change is getting a little muddled” as he learned about individual grantmaking. “Neither one is hard and fast defined, but I used to feel that there was a bigger divide, and to me, it's much more gray now.” Namely, one committee member granted to small minority-owned businesses as part of a focus on community healing. Bill sees how strengthening those small businesses, many who struggled during the pandemic, gives “power and strength…to an entire community by community.” 

The Marklyns are conscious of how “philanthropy is trying to repair and hold up” public services like education and healthcare, when “the ultimate solution…lies in legislation. They often consider the question, “What is our power? What can we do as wealthy donors?” This question has led them to focus beyond grantmaking to the issue of wealth redistribution, legislation, and taxation. “We have a role to play as wealthy individuals in lobbying for higher taxes and speaking out for more equitable taxation…tax evasion and wealthy people not paying their reasonable share of taxes is part of the problem. And it is how the system is now. The power dynamics are all wrong and they need to change over time.”

Since publishing The Share Fund Report “Letting Go of Power, Centering Community”, the Marklyns have also stepped into a more public role, speaking about their grantmaking values and The Share Fund at conferences and in media. The Marklyns admit that public speaking is still not their “favorite thing,” but they are getting “more comfortable” with it because they recognize their impact on their peers. Holly shares “I love hearing the questions that people ask, both because they challenge us to think …and because it sometimes opens doors for other people to think about things.” The responses have been primarily positive, along with curiosity and surprise from philanthropy peers who haven't considered going as “far” as the Marklyns go with moving investments, not planning to leave money for their kids, or having no final veto in the grants process. “When people hear us talk about it, I think it gives people the notion that it's not for everyone, but it certainly works, and it can be done. And there are reasons to do it.” 

The Marklyns are also excited by the committee members becoming “spokespeople for participatory grantmaking [and] for community-focused and driven philanthropy.” Committee members have written articles, shared their experience on podcasts, and represented The Share Fund at events. Although the Marklyns get a lot of grantee appreciation because they are the wealthy donors who fund the giving, they want committee members to receive most, if not all, of the "recognition and acknowledgment” as the ones doing the hard work of creating and refining the grantmaking process.

The Share Fund is the Marklyns' majority funding vehicle, accounting for about 80% of their giving, so they are committed to the model, its values, and its evolution. The Share Fund’s future is on the Marklyns’ minds, including maintaining connections, expanding geographic reach, and exploring sustainable growth. “The first few years, it was just give to more and more and more organizations…But [now] how do we maintain those community relationships? How do we maintain relationships with those grantees? Or the past committee members? There's a lot of next stage of growth learning that's going to happen.” 

View The Marklyns' Story
Tommy Williams

Tommy Williams

Funding Committee

He/Him

Tommy Williams

Tommy is an Afro-Indigenous enrolled member of the Nez Perce Tribe and advocate of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion among Indigenous peoples.   He is a Retention specialist for the Native American Student Center at Washington State University (Pullman, WA) as well as an official advisor for the “Black Men Making a Difference” (BMMAD) student organization. 

Tommy started his career as an intern for the Nez Perce Fisheries Department (2013-2017), working in some of the largest facilities dedicated to restoring Salmon populations, as it is crucial towards Nez Perce heritage and culture. After graduating from high school, he received an athletic scholarship to play basketball for United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck, ND). In 2020, Tommy returned to Lapwai, ID and began working in education for the Nez Perce Tribe, Lapwai School District, and Lapwai Community Coalition. Tommy served as a mentor and advocate, taking on roles such as coaching basketball, tutoring K-12 students in his hometown and learning the barriers of inequality in his community. 

In 2022, Tommy graduated at Lewis-Clark State College, receiving his bachelor’s degree in Humanities with a focus on Non-Profit Organizations and minoring in Native American Studies. He continued to pursue his career in education which ultimately led to his current position as a Retention specialist at Washington State University. In his position, he provides intellectual, academic, cultural, and social support to any student that identifies as Native American. Tommy is proud of where he comes from and is dedicated to protecting his people’s sovereignty as well as improving the conditions for Black and Indigenous communities!  

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Bridgette Hempstead

Bridgette Hempstead

Funding Committee

She/Her

Bridgette Hempstead

Bridgette Hempstead is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Cierra Sisters, Inc., an African American Breast Cancer organization that uniquely provides education and advocacy about women’s breast and health issues. 

Bridgette’s personal, hands-on approach, has and is changing the lives of women all across the country. Her determination to educate and empower others comes out of her own experience with breast cancer. A 25-year, two-time breast cancer survivor, Bridgette received her diagnosis on her 35th birthday. At that time, she found no resources for African American women. Therefore, she became the solution, and thus, Cierra Sisters was born. 

Bridgette found that women’s fear of breast cancer was due largely to their lack of knowledge. As the late author and entertainer, Earl Nightingale once stated, “Whenever we’re afraid, it’s because we don’t know enough. If we understood enough, we would never be afraid.” Inspired by Mr. Nightingale’s words, Bridgette chose the African word “Cierra” which means “knowing” to identify the community resource and educational organization which she began in February 1996.  

As her reputation has grown in the health community, more patients have been referred to Bridgette and Cierra Sisters by doctors, family members, LGBT, and religious institutions familiar with Bridgette’s assistance in navigating individuals through the health care system. Over the years Bridgette’s work has been featured by multiple healthcare organizations including the American Society of Preventive Oncology, the JAMA, and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. 

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Bridgette Hempstead's Story

Bridgette Hempstead  is one of the architects of The Share Fund. Bridgette acknowledges the field of philanthropy still struggles with implicit biases. “In 2024, you would think that the message would be different and it's not it. The stories are the same. The stories need to change for the better. It should not be this hard…You need to see the communities for who they are. We need to value them.” She stressed that racial justice and equal and fair treatment “needs to be centered and forefront to achieve racially just societies. We must tackle racial prejudices like discrimination and systems that disproportionately harm some while favoring others, especially in the philanthropy world. Because in the philanthropy world, it is known that when it comes to black and brown organizations, those organizations are not in the forefront of their giving."

As a Black woman and nonprofit leader who founded an organization to serve the Black community, Bridgette knows firsthand the impacts of a funding process that does not center equity. “When I started this work 28 years ago, the very first grant that we wrote was to a huge funder that did work in breast cancer. We received a letter saying, 'There's no need for organization like yours. We are taking care of the Black community.'" Bridgette has experienced how biases create discrepancies in funding opportunities between white-led and Black-led organizations. “For many, many, many, many decades, not years, decades, our organization was turned down by grantees. And those same grants were given to white organizations [who] were instructed by the funder to come to Cierra Sisters to implement the work. So we know that our grant submission wasn't one that wasn't valid, but it was not valued...because we were a Black organization."

 The Share Fund has offered Bridgette a space to collaborate with others to design a grantmaking approach that is "baked in equity." The first two years, the committee spent more time on the creation and implementation. This past year, Bridgette appreciated that the committee had more time to focus on generative conversations about each member's grants. “Each individual has a certain amount of budget that they're able to allocate. And it's not going to be said to them, ‘Oh no, we suggest a different way for you to distribute funds..’ The Freedom and the  trust factor is there.” Bridgette attributes part of the refined process to the trust that the Marklyns worked to build from the beginning. “Working with The Share Fund and being able to be trusted by a white couple to do this work [who] were totally hands off, that doesn't always happen…I see them being trailblazers in this type of work, showing that philanthropists need to put aside their racial differences and [be] able to give a voice and strength to the communities that know how to do the work.” 

Bridgette felt the new members integrated well into the committee. Bridgette could tell it took the new members some time to believe "'Oh, we really do have the freedom to do something different.' It was an aha moment. And I loved seeing the expression of the, 'Aha, this is really different.'” Bridgette also acknowledges that all committee members are responsible for continuing to reflect on the process to ensure it is evolving and equitable. “We do not want to fall back into a colonial way of giving. I think with any organization that has started or founded, we have to be careful not to want to go back to that way, because that way is the familiar way.”

Bridgette sees the connections between challenges that BIPOC communities face, which has deepened her commitment to supporting the work that others are doing in their communities alongside her own. “I've learned a lot about the other cultures and some of the struggles that they've gone through are so similar…with the indigenous community, there are things that are happening in that community that is just heartbreaking…but being able to bring a force together to make a difference within that community...That's what I really appreciate is, 'how can I help you in your work?'...We're ready to tackle very hard and tough issues that have affected each one of the communities that we serve.”

This past year, the committee discussed growing from five to seven committee members and finding avenues to involve legacy members. Bridgette believes this will ensure The Share Fund will reach even more communities often overlooked in traditional philanthropy. “I'm very hopeful that we're going to discover some other incredible organizations that are out here doing work that we don't know about. I'm looking forward to seeing what an alumni looks like for the Share Fund and also building a community of past grantees and seeing the work that they're doing and how The Share Fund can embrace that.” Bridgette continues to be moved by The Share Fund’s impact. “When we did the mixer, it was beautiful to meet the new people. It's like, ‘Where were you guys at? We've never heard of you.’ Well, we don't hear of them because they don't have money for marketing, for publicity and all these other things…to give them a voice is wonderful. Yeah, we see them.”

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Rashad C. Norris

Rashad C. Norris

Funding Committee

He/Him

Rashad C. Norris

Rashad received his BA in Marketing Communication with a Minor in English from the University of Puget Sound, where he also played basketball. He earned his Master’s in Public Administration from Evergreen State College. 

As the founder of Relevant Engagement Consulting LLC, Rashad partners with State of Washington (DYHS) Department of Child, Youth and Families Services Community, Reentry and Parole Program’s Juvenile Rehabilitation by conducting culturally relevant healing sessions with incarcerated teens as a part of the youth’s re-entry process. In addition to this work, he has extensive experience in creating black and brown male engagement programs and services and providing proven engagment strategies for youth of color within the WA State K-12 education system and Higher Education system. 

Rashad has been asked to lead workshop sessions for professional development with teachers and administrators from local and state school districts regarding student engagement practices. Rashad also delivers motivational presentations that uplift young people in the community through keynote addresses, seminars, professional development workshops, and conference presentations to adults working in the education system and non-profit organizations. He has a proven track record and history of being called to inform, teach, and put into practice the work that he has created to help him engage effectively using DEI+I (Diversity Equity Inclusion + Injustice) content. He possesses a Social Justice, Anti Racist, and Equity minded approach that has gifted him the ability, creativity, and communication style to create spaces for authentic dialogue and tangible outcomes that reach diverse audiences.

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Rashad Norris' Story

Rashad Norris is a founding member of The Share Fund Committee. He sees his values of community, relationships, love for others, and keeping his word coming directly from "the fact that I'm a Black man in America. My roots come from a lot of isms." Rashad finds he has to "switch up and morph identity-wise to fit into a dominant society." One thing he's learned over the years is "it's very important to have a support system. It's very important to have people that you can have conversations with and feed off each other and provide energy because we give so much energy." Another particularly salient value for Rashad is his value of collaboration over competition: "I think that in the communities that I serve [and] the communities that I've been in, our psychology has been duped. What I mean by that is we have a psychology of having to compete with one another all the time…in different spaces where it might just be one or two of us. So we're always competing against one another. [But] we don't have to compete no more. We don't have to always posture up against one another. We can work together and we can do this together." 

The Share Fund has offered opportunities for Rashad to bolster his values. He feels grateful to be able to connect with other colleagues committed to social justice. He has felt inspired and motivated through the committee's design, where "you can really see other people's strengths...[they] help you and pour into you...[they] listen, and then they give you some constructive feedback that can help." Rashad appreciated how the new members this year "came in with so much energy and so much enthusiasm to want to be a part of the group. And I think the group really accepted their identity and who they are and what they bring." Rashad reflects on how in its third year, the Share Fund committee's "trust is growing stronger and knowing each other's nuances is growing stronger as well." They show me love with the way they interact with me, the way that they welcome me and then the way that they send me off at the end of the day."

This past year, as Rashad became increasingly busy with other commitments, he struggled to attend and be present for the committee's meetings. As someone who aims to model "the importance of being consistent" to the youth he works with, "I really felt like I just was not present enough to be able to give proper input." Rashad found himself feeling "steadfast” in his decision to leave The Share Fund to  “make sure that I'm being consistent in other areas.” But the other members supported Rashad so he could take “a step back and really just, you know, breathe and gather myself.” In particular, Rashad recalls a conversation with one committee member, who called him directly and “poured into me the importance of representation that I have with The Share Fund, where I'm representing communities that just didn't have the chance to have that voice. And I do a good job with helping that voice be heard in the The Share Fund. And it would be a disappointment for me to jump off.”

Rashad returned after a few months, recommitting to his responsibilities with The Share Fund. He did, however, abstain from the 2023 grantmaking conversations and decisions. “I respected the group and I told them that I wasn't present enough to be able to delegate some funding out this year." However, he has felt excited by the new organizations that The Share Fund gave grants to this year. “Because of the new group members, they're highlighting new services and new programs around the state of Washington that are amazing, that are run by BIPOC and women led organizations. You had healers in the community within a lot of these organizations and a lot of social justice organizations. You have people who are truly bringing culture back into our community.”

Rashad knows personally how The Share Fund's support can impact an individual and/or organization's hard work that may not receive the publicity or funding of mainstream organizations. His work tackling the 80% recidivism rate by supporting young people “getting out of jail and out of prison for years and now trying to live on their own” received support from The Share Fund. “Even I’m in that boat. I see myself when I’m gifting this money out. I see them doing that amazing work and know how much it takes.” The Share Fund’s process supports “groundbreaking organizations who are doing amazing work who don't have the opportunity to go and get these big funding grants that some organizations are gifted to just because of the reckoning or of their longevity or of their name...systemically, so many of our communities are not taken care of. So to have a place like The Share Fund that is just like, ‘Here's a check, do what you can with it,’ it's a big deal."

Rashad is staying for another year, but recognizes the need for a protocol to “open up space for others.” He supports conversations around term limits, even as it is a topic that is “very sensitive” to others. Rashad has had previous experience with starting programs, and is familiar with the challenge of handing something off as a founder. He jokes “It’s like a baby, it continues to grow. You just want to pamper it all the way up [and] let you go. Even then, it’s hard.”

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 Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn

 Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn

Funding Committee

She/Her

Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn

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 King County, and surviving non-Hodgkins lymphoma in her 20’s through the support and innovation of Seattle’s cancer care community informs her work in systems change for government, startups, and non-profits across the U.S. and in Europe. 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 WA 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 UW Press, 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 and the University of Washington.

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Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn’s Story

Mỹ Tâm H. Nguyễn’s values are “very community centered.” She considers herself a connector, bringing people of different sectors together to “[find] ways to figure out big systemic problems.” There is a direct correlation between her life experiences as a low-income immigrant and her work around systemic inequities. After her first eight years of living in “a fishing village in Vietnam with no running water or electricity,” Mỹ Tâm “emigrated to the US, grew up in low-income housing with a single mom and grandmother. People talk about being born into a birth monopoly and I definitely didn't have that. And the systemic inequities that I saw there really shape who I am.” She has worked across issues and sectors, including urban planning and affordable housing. In addition, “One of the things that I see a little bit differently than other community members is I'm very pro-black as an Asian American woman.” In the past few years, Mỹ Tâm’s work has begun “digging deep in the racial wealth gap. What is the role of philanthropy? What is the role of finance? What is the role of how capitalism works in this country, in this specific context?”

Mỹ Tâm had not heard of The Share Fund until two people she “knew and respected” asked her to join. “I joined the Share Fund because they are hyper-local and they're focused in Washington state…I wanted to understand how different types of [funding] models work in a granular way…There's a lot of critiques about philanthropy. And I think one of the things that's been interesting about The Share Fund is they're testing out a very trust-based model in a way where it's very radical…but there’s also enough constraints on it for it to work.”

Mỹ Tâm’s perspective as a new committee member onboarded in the third year of The Share Fund’s operations gave her a unique perspective from which she could “challenge the process.” One of the things she noticed was the committee’s circuitous communication to the Marklyns through The Share Fund administrator, which was designed so the committee didn't feel decision-making pressure from the Marklyns. Mỹ Tâm felt unsure about the “multiple layers of engagement…let’s speed it up, because I'm from startups and political campaigns and move things faster.” She also raised the possibility of “speeding up [the] giving cycle to address emergency needs” through a separate fund.

Throughout her questioning, Mỹ Tâm centered her commitment to a “community of care” and the “whole person approach,” especially for her fellow committee members. “The part that I really love about The Share Fund is it's a small group of people that is trying to make a difference in a very concentrated and focused way. And it actually is interesting to be in the seat of the giver. [It’s] that sense of abundance and responsibility.” When she gifted some of her hours as an executive coach to a committee member, she learned more about their responsibilities and challenges outside of The Share Fund. This pushed her to advocate for each committee member to receive a wellness fund similar to the grantees, to support their “wholeness of who they are as caregivers in their community.”

Mỹ Tâm approached her giving with community impact in mind, asking herself, "Where can you figure out the investments for the pivots that would make the biggest difference? Who are the people that we're seeing on the ground….[creating] catalytic systems change for the neighborhood? My approach [was] to spread it wide: who would $5,000 make the biggest shift to?” Mỹ Tâm rooted in a theory of change for her giving that focused on individuals “who are the healers in the community, who if they were funded, could support healing, because there's been so much trauma and loss and grief in our communities.”

There's a question that Mỹ Tâm asks herself when others approach her for her time and expertise: “Am I the best person for this or is there someone here who's more deserving or who's more perfect for this seat?” With that question in mind, she’s committed to two years with The Share Fund, and looks forward to vacating her seat for someone else. “Of course it feels great to sit here and be able to dole out money every year, but I also know my limits of my network. I want someone else to sit here and learn…and have the experience from the donor perspective…it's probably going to be beneficial for them to understand what it's like from the other side and how hard it is to make the decisions and be strategic about how to give and who deserves.”

Mỹ Tâm reflects on the varied reactions during committee conversations about term limits: I think we went through a pretty fair way of how do you do transitions? And when a committee person leaves, what is their responsibility to recruit?...I think we all had a say, but now we have that in our blueprint. So that's just for the sustainability and the health of the organization.” Mỹ Tâm looks forward to the upcoming year, incorporating new members into the committee’s intentional process. “The way we make decisions in The Share Fund is actually really kind and gracious where people are, we adapt to the group-think and that honors non-patriarchal and non-capitalist methodologies."

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Emily Washines

Emily Washines

Funding Committee

She/Her

Emily Washines

Emily Washines, MPA and scholar is an enrolled Yakama Nation tribal member with Cree and Skokomish lineage.  Her blog, Native Friends, focuses on history and culture. Building understanding and support for Native Americans is evident in her films, writing, speaking, and exhibits. Her research topics include the Yakama War, women’s rights, traditional knowledge, resource management, fishing rights, and food sovereignty. Her publications include “Natural Restoration and Cultural Knowledge of the Yakama Nation,” and “War Cry: Will Crossing Historical Boundaries in Indian Wars help Yakama Women?” She is also a board member of the Museum of Culture and Environment, Columbia Riverkeeper, and Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She lives on the Yakama reservation with her husband and three children.

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Emily Washines' Story

Emily Washines joined The Share Fund committee this past year. Emily's work is informed by her “family and community-oriented values.” These values were “shaped by growing up in a family of seven and a rural area in Washington and in the Yakima Valley...being on the Yakima Reservation with a lot of family members.” She's also driven by the values and shared history with the Yakama nation, like “how we regard the resources or the land or how we regard the history of Yakama tribal members.” 

In 2022, The Share Fund granted Emily funds to support her work with Yakama Women in Trades. Before then, Emily did not know about The Share Fund or their grantmaking model. When invited to be a part of the committee this year, she said yes because The Share Fund "[has] an element of trust that I have seen with very few others." Emily has had grant application experiences where “you need to have a stack of papers or you need to have 70 meetings before this can be a problem that's addressed. You need to prove why it's a problem, even though people can blatantly see it." As someone who "can have a lack of patience with regards to social justice issues and things that our community needs…that aspect of trusting grantees and also the validation and the recognition of people and groups in the community is what excited me the most.” 

Emily appreciated The Share Fund’s onboarding process and its "conversational yet informative tone.” Emily was one of two new members, which “helped to go through that process with somebody else." It felt generative to learn alongside another member about the committee's design and decision-making process and hear the other members' questions. She recommends The Share Fund continue implementing a cohort model for adding future members together.

As someone who has been in numerous meetings and daydreams “about how systems could be run more efficiently,” Emily's experience with The Share Fund process felt at times unbelievable in its alignment with her values: "There's a community-oriented process for the meetings that was shaped before we even got there as a result of the first cohort. And then a lot of care was taken into the consideration of time and decisions and facilitation and meetings." Before attending the monthly The Share Fund meetings, Emily often has to excitedly remind herself that the committee is operating beyond "I Googled how to have a meeting, and we're gonna apply that to here. It's not gonna be that cookie cutter.”

From Emily's perspective, The Share Fund Committee conversations about potential grantees felt "streamlined" and intentional. Emily acknowledges the challenging balance of “talking about injustice or social issues in the communities. It can be very hard to decipher the information that you need in order to make informed decisions [while] also being very empathetic to the emotions that are coming out as a result of them sharing the importance of why this group needs funds." She appreciated having The Share Fund's grants template as a starting point to focus on gathering “information that we could cross share amongst each other” before deeper, potentially emotional, conversations about each members' grantee choices.

The Share Fund’s process allows the strength of each members’ “different and unique” approach to shine through. Emily “learned more about each person based on what they were recommending.” Emily’s approach once again tapped into her daydreaming: “When I'm walking or often daydreaming or thinking of the 'We Are The World' song in the background of my mind, I think of what if statements. Like what if this had support, what could be possible?…I think through and have different conversations with folks. If we're having streamlined funding, who are the people that are out there streamlining the process and the steps along the way to do the work? And if those things align, then we should support them.”

Another focus for The Share Fund that Emily appreciated was the “consideration about how there might be some potential overlap with grantees.” These committee conversations about overlap also included past grantees engaged in “paralleled efforts that could further support” The Share Fund’s vision of gender and racial equity along with potential new grantees. This possibility felt most tangible to Emily during The Share Fund’s hosted gatherings, where new grantees intermingled with previous years’ grantees. She felt hopeful by the long-term community impact of The Share Fund's grantmaking approach: "You can have here's point[s] A and B. We don't know how we can necessarily get there. We don't even know if we'll move the full distance, but we're going to support anyway because we see that these people can even possibly go farther than that at some point.”

Emily is also inspired by The Share Fund's impact beyond financial support. Native Anthropological Services, a 2023 The Share Fund grantee, has been working to identify unmarked graves from a boarding school in what is now Fort Simcoe Historical State Park in White Swan, WA. Emily shares that the work has had multiple press coverage. "They've been doing [the work] for about a year and wouldn't have typically done a news story. But because they wanted to have more of a document and felt supported by the community already because of The Share Fund's support, that was an additional step that they could take. [The Share Fund] is recognizing and validating the work that people are doing and financially supporting them and seeing how by that support, how much growth is possible.”

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Angelita Chavez

Angelita Chavez

FUNDING COMMITTEE

She/Her

Angelita Chavez

Angelita Chavez is an immigration attorney from Washington State and is the founder of The Chavez Firm, PLLC located in Kennewick, Washington. She earned her Bachelor’s in 2006 and Juris Doctor (JD) in 2009 from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. She also has a Masters in Political Science from the University of Oregon. Ms. Angelita Chavez assists families and employers navigate all stages of the US immigration process. Angelita is also passionate about helping assisting DACA recipients, handling U-Visa and VAWA cases, and helping individuals obtain lawful permanent resident status.

Ms. Chavez is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Board Member of the Campaign for Equal Justice (CEJ) for the Legal Foundation of Washington, Board Member of the Elijah Family Homes (EFH) Board of Directors.  Angelita also volunteers her time with free legal immigration and citizenship clinics across Washington State though various non-profits and she is also a frequent presenter on immigration issues, know your rights presentations, and how to prepare for law school for local community organizations and schools.  

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Lu Hill

Lu Hill

Funding Committee

She/Her

Lu Hill

Lacrecia “Lu” Hill (she/her/her) has over ten years of executive-level experience and a drive to ensure people and systems work together to meet objectives. She has modeled her career around the philosophy that supporting personal and professional growth leads to the most effective working environment. She excels in facilitation, internal operations, objectives & key results, and project management. She believes deeply in place based work and doing the hard community work. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and an MBA.

Lu spent most of her career in the non-profit and philanthropic sector, only leaving to take over the family business. Lu started her career with Boys & Girls Clubs, working in Las Vegas NV, and Sweet Home/Lebanon OR, before coming home to the Spokane Clubs in 2011. She also worked as a Senior Program Associate with the Empire Health Foundation. In 2015, while in the cannabis industry, she built out cannabis production, extraction, packaging, sales, and distribution facilities. Implementing best practices in management, finance, and manufacturing. She has come full circle and returned to EHF in 2023 as the Community Engagement & Strategy Director.

She owns a consulting business (LMH Consulting) and teaches Yoga locally. Lu currently serves as the founding board president of Spectrum LGBTQIA2+ Center. She also serves on the following boards Inland Northwest Business Alliance (INBA), Spokane Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP), SNAP Financial Access, Maji Rising, and Northeast Youth & Family Services.

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Sewheat (sho-weet) Asfaha

Sewheat (sho-weet) Asfaha

Project Manager, The Share Fund

She/They

Sewheat Asfaha

Sewheat comes to this work with lots of curiosity, and passion for centering impacted folks as leaders and decision makers. 

She grew up in neighborhoods South of Seattle, and has a background in project management at nonprofits, youth development work, as well community led funding efforts. As someone who has participated in grassroots fundraising and grantmaking, she is deeply interested in using participatory grantmaking to resource community organizing. She is excited to support The Share Fund in radically disbursing grants across the state.

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(Founding Design Committee Member) Estakio Beltran: Estakio works with community-based organizations to design systemic solutions that improve social determinants of resilience, advocacy, and health for rural communities.
Estakio weaves his life experiences, educational and professional achievements, and love for the Yakima Valley throughout his work. In October 2020, Philanthropy Northwest honored Estakio with the prestigious Mary Helen Moore Ambassador of the Year Award in recognition of his remarkable leadership and contributions to the sector.

Estakio grew up in foster care, where he lived in multiple placements all over the Valley including the Yakama Reservation— for him this is a stamp of resilience and achievement. He earned his BA from Gonzaga University, and his Masters in Public Administration from Columbia University in New York before returning to the Yakima Valley in 2019 after spending over a decade advising senior members of Congress and high-ranking officials in Washington, D.C as a public policy professional.

Estakio’s success lies in his ability to create a bold vision for systems change through community-driven innovation. 

(Founding Design Committee Member) Karla Brollier: Karla is an artist and systems thinker that focuses on Climate Economics, Kincentric Ecosystems, Climate Change, Indigenous Rights, Human Rights, Women’s Rights, Emerging Issues, New Economies and System Change.

Karla Brollier is of the Yidateni Na’ Tribe of the Ahtna Athabaskan peoples, she was born and raised in Alaska where she obtained her undergraduate degree as well as an MBA.

Karla is a catalyst in the climate and human rights movement in both the public and private sectors; she has spent much of her career consulting and working in emergent issues such as policy, climate economics, environmental justice and has worked with the Climate Reality Project, the UN and directly with several US administrations and a multitude of international and nationally based climate change related programs and groups such as for the former VP Al Gore and the World Economic Forum. Karla has given plenary presentations at the international level including the WEF, presented at the United Nations, lectured at multiple universities, as well as facilitates and teaches workshops and classes around the globe.

(Founding Design Committee Member) Elisheba Johnson: Elisheba is a curator, poet, public artist, and consultant living in Seattle, WA. Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings, and creative gatherings. 

For six years Johnson worked at the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture on capacity-building initiatives and racial equity in public art. Johnson was a member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Network advisory council and has won four Americans for the Arts Public Art Year in Review Awards for her work. She currently co-manages Wa Na Wari, a Black art center in Seattle’s Central Area that uses the arts to build community and resist displacement. 

Vivian Phillips
The Share Fund Facilitator
Photo Credit: JerryandLois Photography

Vivian Philips' Story

Vivian Philips doesn't necessarily consider herself a facilitator. Even though she's been asked to play that role for various community organizations for the past 13 years, it's “not a skill that I would list on my resume". She believes the skills she developed in her broadcast profession have transferred seamlessly to her facilitation style: “I did a lot of interviewing. And that's where I really honed the skill for listening. I think that facilitation without listening, it doesn't work. So that's what I think boils to the top is I really hear what people are saying. But I also have a knack for hearing what people aren't saying.” 

Vivian values collaboration, integrity, and honesty “because you can’t really have integrity…if you’re not truthful.” She also has a “high value for equity and fairness,” which shows up in her facilitation. “As a facilitator, I can be as powerful or as complacent as I want to be. [I use] that power fairly so that people do not feel as though I'm leaning in one direction or the other.” She is also “a little bit fearless about saying what needs to be said” to ensure those involved are reflecting on their responsibility to the process. “I'm not in it for any personal reason, I'm really in it to move us all forward and toward our shared goals.”

At the outset, The Share Fund's values aligned with Vivian’s. “It was present when I entered the process, which made it easy for me to say yes to involvement. I was like oh yeah, I can get behind all of this.” Vivian has been involved with other facilitation and committee processes where there’s a dissonance between words and action, and sees The Share Fund has brining alignment between these two things. Vivian appreciates the Marklyns’ intention to invest in The Share Fund as a vehicle for “wealth divestment and redistribution…everybody is not Jeff Bezos, that kind of wealthy. They don't wanna flaunt their wealth. They're not trying to make the world serve them. They're trying to serve the world.”

As the first and only facilitator for The Share Fund, Vivian has continued to learn and adapt to the committee’s needs: “As I reflect back over the last three years, I know for certain that sometimes I can have tunnel vision…here's the agenda, and then we're gonna get through the agenda. That has boiled up to the top for me on a number of occasions where I'm listening, monitoring and going, maybe the agenda is not where we're gonna get to the meat of the issue. And being able to open the space for that to be the case. The other thing that has been evolving for me… is allowing air. So when someone asks the question, answer the question and let it be, just let it sit…just let the space be space. It's okay. We don't have to be talking the whole time. Sometimes it's okay to be on the screen together.” 

This past year, The Share Fund added two new committee members. Returning members hadn't met the new members prior to the start of the year's meetings. Vivian held space for the challenges of integrating the perspectives of both new and returning members. “I think there were some times early in this past year with two new members where the existing members felt like there was pushback…I think older members felt like it was a criticism. When it wasn't a criticism, it was just a function of newness…Conversely, new members didn't feel like they were really comfortable in the group.” Vivian was often “encouraging people to not always take everything personal, but to understand that people are coming from a place that's shaped by their experiences…reminding people what decisions had been made, how the process had been going, and creating space for adjustment.” With Vivian’s support, the committee worked through the initial "bumpy" time of integrating together so that they could effectively grant out $750,000, the most funds to date.

Although The Share Fund has set out to do things differently, Vivian facilitates with the humility and awareness that often times, processes “slip right back into traditional norms…because that’s how we’ve been acclimated. We’re colonizing our brains once again…let’s go back and shake all that off.” One of the strengths of The Share Fund is its ability to shapeshift. “What the process is today doesn’t have to be the process next year.” This year, the process became better refined because the committee wasn’t tasked with creating it from scratch. This allowed the committee to have more focused conversations about grantmaking, including supporting multi-year grants, finding nonconventional and innovative grantees, and funding policy change to address systemic inequities. “There was more deep consideration around what does [support] look like on a sustained basis? What is the cause that created the situation that The Share Fund is now supporting financially? So how do we eliminate the need long-term?” 

Vivian is energized by the conversations around grantmaking that The Share Fund model allows. She sees even more learning and expansion in the future, not just for The Share Fund, but for the field. "Years from now, people will look back on this...[The Share Fund] is redefining the ways in which philanthropy works."

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The Share Fund is grateful for the operational and facilitation support of  Phīla Engaged Giving and Vivian Phillips.