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A Dream in Our Name

Liberation Ventures accelerates the Black-led movement for racial repair.

Liberation Ventures is building a multiracial democracy that works for all of us — by making racial repair a reality in the United States. We are realizing a dream in our name, where reparations for Black people unlocks true belonging for us all.

Our Core Beliefs

LV is guided by the following five beliefs. We use these principles to check ourselves, our relationships, and our work. Read more detail about our beliefs here.

  1. We are accountable to Black healing and thriving.

    For this country to become whole, a transformation of our systems and culture is required. We have to start at the root: the pain and devastation of chattel slavery, and the legacy of exploitation and devaluation that Black folks continue to face today. There is no America without Black resilience; there is no repair without Black healing. And when Black people thrive, America thrives.

  2. This journey requires a broad coalition.

    We’re a bridging organization that supports learning and belonging for all people on this path, because we know racial repair benefits all of us. We believe non-Black people – both white and non-Black people of color – must be active Agents of Repair, and able to see themselves in the work of repairing the harms of slavery and its legacy.

  3. We operate in the liminal space between our current reality and the future we envision.

    We transform the present to accelerate movement towards liberation. We recognize that by engaging in the world, we are forced to participate in white supremacist systems – and, we have agency regarding how we participate and must hold ourselves accountable to critique and subversion. We build organizational structures and processes that reliably distribute power and promote equity. In addition, we are unapologetic about using the tools of power that are required to propel our movement forward.

  4. We hold the complexity of many perspectives because our movement is not a monolith.

    Our operative word is and. We know the harm of chattel slavery and its legacy; we use lived experience and research/statistics; we make strategic plans and hold space for adaptation and emergence. In doing so, we build something new. We create space for all our multitudes to be seen, held, and accepted – and this keeps us from falling into binaries that divide and distract us.

  5. We have the courage to make the impossible possible.

    We are unapologetic about the audacity of our mission. We are doing what we know is right – as learners – and we are trying to do something we don’t yet fully know how to do.

Our Team

We’re a team of strategists, storytellers, and organizers, who believe that Black power, joy, and resources are a precondition to collective prosperity.

Marsha Davis

Vice President of Movement Building
(she/her/hers)

Marsha is a strategist and philanthropic leader committed to building just and joy-filled worlds where we all can thrive. She specializes in crafting strategies and systems to move funds in alignment with grassroots movements on the frontlines of social change. A lifelong learner and sci-fi geek, Marsha deeply enjoys giving life to ideas that others believed were impossible and envisioning wholeness where others see brokenness. When she’s not conspiring for liberation, she loves spending quality time with her chosen family, watching Star Trek and Bob’s Burgers on repeat, and getting lost in a book.

Aria Florant

Co-Founder & CEO
(she/her/hers)

Aria is a conduit, constantly bridging worlds; Black and white, movement and mainstream, ethnic studies and finance. She holds multitudes of them all, and the essence of her work is creating for others that which she wants for herself: a world where all people’s whole selves belong. Aria believes that building trust and transformational partnership across differences is the key that can unlock that world, and that building a culture of repair is the path to true belonging for Black people, and all people, in America. Aria loves trekking at high altitude with just a backpack and no cell service, enjoying a Brooklyn (Lenape Land) speakeasy with the fullest-bodied glass of red wine they have, and long, lively dinners with her people.

Becina Ganther

Senior Grantmaking Analyst
(she/her/hers)

Becina Ganther (she/her/hers) is a researcher, planner, and historian committed to reimagining institutions, building community, and driving systems-level solutions that honor Black voices and create a more equitable society. She is interested in using stories and data to search for patterns and threads of connection between ideas, people, and events. She is curious about how developing a more comprehensive and complex understanding of our collective past — rooted in analyses of power dynamics and structural injustices — can inform our present and transform our future. She has made a home in many places, including Columbus, OH (Shawnee, Potawatomi, Delaware, Miami, Peoria, Seneca, Wyandot, Ojibwe, and Cherokee land); San Francisco, CA (Ohlone land); and Manhattan, NY (Lenape land). Becina loves visiting historic sites, telling puns, curating cozy spaces, and reminiscing with her loved ones.

Karin Gerald

Vice President of Operations
(she/her/hers)

Karin is a planner and strategist dedicated to constructing and sustaining just systems that foster a world where all thrive. She believes that through collective voice and unified action, our communities can dismantle the detrimental systems currently prevailing in the world, pave the way for healing, and initiate the journey toward repair. Karin enjoys quality time with her loved ones, global adventures, sampling diverse cuisines, and embracing her sociable nature during warmer seasons while preferring quieter moments during the colder months.

Jennie Goldfarb

Director of Operations & Strategic Engagement
(she/her/hers)

Jennie is a daughter and a friend — born on Lenape land (New York City), she is a student of power, paradox, and pleasure. Jennie is exploring what it means to be in right relationship with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. She believes that radical redistribution of resources, heart-centered communication, and joy are preconditions for dismantling white supremacy and building a culture of repair. Jennie loves ripe fruit, the sun, being loud and quiet, and cooking for loved ones.

Vikas Maturi

Manager, Grantmaking Strategy and Research
(he/him/his)

Vikas is a strategist, researcher, and organizer dedicated to building a more just world — one in which all people have what they need to live, heal, and be joyful. He’s curious about how we can learn from the movements of the past — their successes, their conflicts, and their tactics — to strengthen the movements of the present. He enjoys bringing together data and a critical view of our institutions in ways that help us to make sense of injustice and chart new paths forward that are rooted in compassion and care. He loves exploring the hidden trails along the California coast, swimming in the ocean, and wandering through bookstores in search of a great story. He lives in San Mateo, CA, on Muwekma Ohlone land.

Amity Paye

Vice President of Narrative Change
(she/her/hers)

Amity is a strategist, communicator and connector dedicated to creating progress for communities of color using powerful storytelling. She is a lover of sci-fi and believes that all social justice work is a way of creating fiction – envisioning and then creating the new kinds of worlds we want to live in. She enjoys food, from farming to cooking and gathering community for meals and lives on a homestead in upstate New York with her husband.

We are so grateful to cofounders Garrett Neiman and Allen Kwabena Frimpong who helped get Liberation Ventures off the ground.

Advisors & Supporters

We bring the right people to the table to get this done.

2024 Advisory Committee
Jeff Bradach
Co-Founder & Partner
The Bridgespan Group
Amina Fahmy Casewit
Managing Partner
New Profit
Megan Ming Francis
Professor
University of Washington
Michael McAfee
President & CEO
PolicyLink
Christiaan Vorkink
VP & Director
TrueVentures.org
John Silvanus Wilson Jr.
Executive Director
Millennium Leadership Initiative
Additional Advisors & Supporters
Angela Glover Blackwell
Founder in Residence
PolicyLink
Dr. Cornell Brooks
Professor
Harvard Kennedy School
Dorian Burton
Managing Partner
Southern Reconstruction Fund
T & Chad Dyer
Future Allies
Sarah Eisner
Co-Founder
Quarterman & Keller Foundation
Holly Fetter
Board Member
Resource Generation
Jeff Garcia
Partner
Capital Group
Paul Growald
Creator & Chairman
The Engagement Arts Fund / Stopping Stones
Greg Gunn
Founder
Lingo Ventures
Dr. Ron Heifetz
Professor
Harvard Kennedy School
Mark R. Kramer
Co-Founder, FSG
Former Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Virginie Ladisch
Senior Expert
International Center for Transitional Justice
Josh Mailman
Philanthropist & Managing Director
Serious Change Investments
Tulaine Montgomery
CEO
New Profit
Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Professor
Harvard Kennedy School
Andre Perry
Fellow
Brookings Institute
K. Sabeel Rahman
Former CEO
Demos
Jeff & Tricia Raikes
Founders
North Forty Group
Valerie Rockefeller
Philanthropist
John Rogers
Chairman & Co-CEO
Ariel Investments
Gene Sykes
Managing Partner
Goldman Sachs
Teo Valdés
Advisor
The Lemon Street Fund
Evan Wolfson
Founder
Freedom to Marry

Funding Partners

Thank you to our institutional funding partners, who are committed to advancing reparations and transforming philanthropy for the better.

Amalgamated Foundation
California Wellness Foundation
Compton Foundation
Donors of Color Network
Ford Foundation
Fund for Nonviolence
Humanity United
The JPB Foundation
Kataly Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
Marguerite Casey Foundation
The Nathan Cummings Foundation
New Media Ventures
New Profit
Omidyar Network
Open Society Foundations
PolicyLink
Raikes Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Stupski Foundation
Surdna Foundation
Threshold Foundation
Threshold Philanthropy
True Ventures
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Weissberg Foundation
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund
The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Women Donors Network