Will Cordery
I am the founder and principal at Freedom Futures, a philanthropic advisory firm moving money to the frontlines of social transformation for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour communities. Via a partnership with Freedom Futures, I am also a senior advisor to Liberated Capital, a U.S. national funding vehicle founded by the Decolonizing Wealth Project. I have also served as the director of the Reparative Action Fund at Satterberg Foundation, a U.S. national fund committed to returning $50 million back to Black and Indigenous communities. I currently serve on the board of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation as one of its first non-family trustees, and I am on the board of Tides Advocacy, a pro-Black funding mechanism for social movement infrastructure.
I have 20 years of leadership experience in social movements, institutional philanthropy, nonprofit fundraising, and community organising for advancing racial justice, economic justice, LGBTQI freedom, global human rights and progressive public policy. I am Black, Southern [as in American South] and queer, and grew up in a Black working-class neighbourhood grappling with economic disinvestment, over-policing and criminalisation, and drug use. My social justice values and politics are rooted in a U.S. Black Southern freedom tradition, which supports the political education and leadership development of those most impacted by oppression, and bottom-up movement building.
Over the years, I have successfully designed and implemented multi-million-dollar grant making and fundraising strategies to resource social movements, guided by an intentional focus on people and place, and commitment to moving resources for liberation work.