Nigel (he/him) joins the Solidaire team as a donor organizer, supporting individuals and institutional partners in their work to advance racial, gender and climate justice. Nigel brings to this work a cross-class analysis of philanthropy, grantmaking, and community organizing developed through 10 years of community engagement in Philadelphia. Before coming to Solidaire he was the Director of Donor Organizing for Bread & Roses Community Fund, a funder of grassroots organizing for racial, social, and economic justice in the Philadelphia region. In this role he supported multiracial, cross-class, and intergenerational groups of community members through the Giving Project program, a process of community building, political education, grassroots fundraising, and participatory grantmaking. Nigel earned an undergraduate degree from Temple University and a Masters in Urban Studies with a focus on community development from Eastern University.

Nigel is a first-generation afro-caribbean with a deep love for Philadelphia, his native city. Held and motivated by a familial legacy of resistance and community he is drawn to organizing spaces that honor and celebrate black lives. You can often find him photographing marches, protests, and actions by movement organizations as a way of capturing and preserving our collective story of resistance.

What Liberation Means to Nigel

Tell us why you do what you do.

I have witnessed the power of community transform impossibilities to achievements. I stand on the shoulders of giants who refused to hand me a world unimproved by their lives. It is my intention to honor them by doing the same.

What’s most important to you about being part of Solidaire?

I have the pleasure of connecting and laboring with people who use their radical imaginations to move us towards a radically different world. As a part of Solidaire I know my hope for a just and equitable world is shared and valued by all parts of this community.

What does liberation mean to you?

Liberation means that everyone has the space to honor and enjoy the abundance that the world provides. It means that love, joy, and peace are valued as real resources and invested in. Liberation is also a call to those who experience it, even to a degree, to create an environment where it can be shared with others. In a liberated world we all are safe, seen, and supported.