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Co-chairs

Chung-Wha Hong is Executive Director of Grassroots International. As a global justice advocacy and grantmaking organization, Grassroots International connects progressive donors
in the US, to high-impact social movements in the Global South. For over 25 years, Chung-Wha has worked on a range of social justice issues locally and internationally, through organising, policy advocacy, coalition building and philanthropy. 

 

Named by the New York Magazine as one of the most Influential People in Politics, Chung-Wha helped to build the political clout of New York State’s immigrant communities through a comprehensive civic engagement program, and helped to win numerous legal, social and economic rights and benefits for those communities.

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Donal Mac Fhearraigh is a program officer at the Open Society Initiative for Europe, where he leads the portfolio on countering state and regulatory capture and is also involved in developing grant making strategies on community organising. Before joining Open Society in 2014, Mac Fhearraigh worked as the national coordinator and press officer for an Irish coalition of leftist parliamentary parties called the United Left Alliance.

 

He has worked on a wide range of grassroots campaigns for economic justice, women’s rights, and antiwar movements, including anti-austerity protest movements and the Occupy! movement in Ireland. He also helped mobilize groups for the European and World Social Forums. He sits on the global board of the EDGE Funders Alliance.

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Read the Letter from the Co-chairs

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Conference team

The EDGE Conference 2017 was co-chaired by Chung-Wha Hong, from Grassroots International, and Donal Mac Fhearraigh, from Open Society Initiative for Europe.

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To organise the event, a team of funders and movement partners from all over the world formed the Conference Planning Committee [CPC]. 

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Bringing the local perspective, the Local Advisory Committee was formed by a number of representatives of social movements. 

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Volunteers were another important piece of the conference's organization.

CPC

  • Amanda Gigler, Mama Cash (Netherlands)

  • Graça Samo, World March of Women (Mozambique)

  • Guppi Bola, Activist and Organiser (UK)

  • Kali Akuno, Cooperation Jackson, Climate Justice Alliance/Grassroots Global Justice (US)

  • Laine Romero Alston, Ford Foundation (US)

  • Lyda Fernanda,Transnational Institute (Netherlands/Colombia)

  • Manish Jain, Shikshantar (India)

  • María Palomares, Calala Women's Fund (Spain)

  • Nicolas Krausz, Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation (Switzerland/France)

  • Shalini Nataraj, Ing Foundation (Taiwan)

  • Tatiana Cordero, Urgent Action Fund (Colombia)

  • Vivian Paulissen, European Cultural Foundation (Netherlands)

Local Committee

  • Alfons Pérez, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització

  • Amaranta Herrero, BCN en Comú

  • Carla Alsina, Feminist Activist

  • Diego Isabel de la Moneda, Global Hub for the Common Good

  • Henk Hobbelink, GRAIN

  • Jorge Sanchez, La Nau Bostik

  • Kevin Buckland, ARTivist Network

  • María Palomares Arenas, Calala Women's Fund

  • Mariel Vilella, Zero Waste Europe/GAIA

  • Xavi Ferrer, BCN en Comú

Volunteers

  • Antoine Langeard, GRAIN

  • Bea Sanchez, CFD Barcelona

  • Claire Fauset, Can Masdeu

  • Emma Aviles, Observatori del Deute en la Globalització

  • Mary Lou Malig, La Via Campesina

  • Rasheeda Farage, Family for Every Child

  • Yeshica Weerasekera, IDEX

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