Who We Are
IDEX Staff
Rajasvini Bhansali
Executive Director
Rajasvini has served as IDEX's Executive Director since February 2010. Born and raised in India, Vini is passionate about building the capacity of people and organizations to facilitate participatory and grassroots-led social change. Before IDEX, Vini worked as the Chief Operating Officer for Juma Ventures, a nationally renowned youth development social enterprise based in San Francisco. Vini served as a management capacity builder with youth vocational training schools called polytechnics in rural Kenya. In the past, she has managed a $30 million public fund to address digital divide issues with community-based organizations, libraries and schools in rural Texas and also worked as a researcher, planner, policy wonk, management consultant and community organizer. Born and raised in India, Vini earned a Master′s in Public Affairs (MPA) with a focus on technology and telecommunications policy from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and Bachelor′s degrees in Astrophysics and Interdisciplinary Studies from UC Berkeley. Vini currently serves on the board of CUSO International, a civil society development organization that works through volunteers. She is also a published poet and essayist.
Deborah Goldberg
Communications & Public Outreach Manager
Deborah, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, previously worked at IDEX as its Development Associate. Prior to joining IDEX in 2008, her passion for media led to working in research and production on international television news magazines and historical documentaries for public television. She has trained at BBC headquarters in London and has traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. In her current role as Communications & Public Outreach Manager, Deborah is more committed than ever than to bringing visibility to the inspiring work of IDEX's partners and model of social justice grantmaking to a wider audience. She holds a B.A. in Journalism and Sociology from New York University.
Gregory Hunt
Resource Development Manager
Greg has worked with a handful of Bay Area non-profits, including organizations
that serve urban, at-risk youth, advocate for senior citizens, and foster local
artists. He has a B.A. from San Francisco State University where he is currently
working toward a Master′s degree in Cultural Anthropology. His fieldwork
involves participatory research with LGBT elders in San Francisco. Greg is
an organizer of SF State′s annual Human Rights Summit and continues to
keep issues of global poverty, women′s rights, and social justice central to his
academic work.
Yeshica Weerasekera
Director, Program Partnerships
Yeshica has worked for over 2 decades in support of grassroots-led social change with a diverse number of philanthropic and non-profit organizations in Europe, Africa and the U.S. Born and partly raised in Sri Lanka, Yeshica migrated with her family to the U.K., where she received a B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of East Anglia. After earning a Masters degree in Africa Area Studies from UCLA, Yeshica worked for 6 years in the West African region as the local Sahel Representative for Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, as well as with Oxfam America, and RADI-APEC, a community-based non-profit organization in Senegal. She has worked at several social change organizations based in California, including USA for Africa, the Tides Center, Changemakers, and most recently as a deputy director at the International Forum on Globalization, a North-South research and educational institution. Yeshica first came to IDEX several years ago to coordinate the Africa program, and helped to formulate the early stages of IDEX′s own partnership approach. She is delighted to be renewing her ties to the organization, and becoming part of IDEX's dynamic efforts promoting sustainable solutions around the world.
Pilar Gonzales
Director of Philanthropic Partnerships
Pilar Gonzales is an accomplished advisor and consultant to nonprofit organizations and to donors with over 20 years in fundraising. Her personal philanthropic story has been featured on NPR’s Marketplace, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Bolder Giving, and in PEOPLE Magazine, who listed her as one of the “Heroes among Us” for her commitment to helping marginalized workers in California. For the past 8 years, she’s been part of a founding team at Rudolf Steiner Foundation Social Finance, which produces a documentary Conversation on Money, Race & Class. And from Native Americans in Philanthropy she was awarded the Flying Eagle Woman Award for her practice of community-based philanthropy. In 2010-2011, she proudly served as the Interim Vice President of Philanthropy at the Global Fund for Women. From 2011- present, she serves on the Board of Directors for BolderGiving.com.
Katherine Zavala
Program Manager, Grassroots Alliances
A native of Peru, Katherine has been with the IDEX team since 2005 specializing in partnership development, participatory grantmaking and social justice philanthropy. Katherine travels regularly to Guatemala, Mexico and South Africa as part of IDEX site visits and selection of new grantees. Katherine is passionate about bridging global learnings from IDEX Partners with local US-based organizations and supports spaces for exchanges of experiences and information. Katherine′s most illuminating experience was volunteering with an indigenous women-led organization in Guatemala for 5 months, supporting their economic development and training programs. Katherine earned a Master′s in International Relations from San Francisco State University in 2005. Katherine currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network in San Francisco Bay Area and runs a local book club focused on women and global issues.
Kate Raymond
Finance & Administration Manager
Kate, joining IDEX as its Manger of Finance & Administration, began as an intern at IDEX in April 2011 working with the board. A self-professed “lifetime volunteer,” Kate has done everything from tutoring children of migrant workers, assisting people with tax preparation, and has served on the board of the East Bay section of the American Society for Quality. She has a B.A. in International Policy Studies from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. She has lived and worked in Spain, Ecuador and Chile and brings to IDEX twenty years of experience in the technology and banking sectors.
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IDEX identifies, evaluates, and grows the best ideas from local leaders and organizations to alleviate poverty and injustice around the world. Grants to our international partners come entirely from our network of passionate and engaged supporters. Please donate to IDEX today.