We prioritize support for work led by survivors, Black, Indigenous, and womxn of color, queer, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people of color, people of color with disabilities, and im/migrants, who are cultivating community, building impactful movements, and sustaining transformational work. Together, we envision a world of collective safety, healing, and liberation.

Our Team

Aleyamma Mathew, Executive Director

Aleyamma Mathew is a nationally known expert on the intersection of gender and economic justice. With over 20 years of experience in the philanthropic and advocacy sectors at the local, state, and national levels, she has led advocacy, grantmaking, capacity-building, and campaigns for economic policies to protect women’s rights, safety, and economic security, with a focus on women of color, immigrant and refugee women, and low-wage women workers. 

Before joining the Collective Future Fund, Aleyamma served as the Director of the Women’s Economic Justice Program at the Ms. Foundation. There she led investment strategies for ensuring women’s economic security, including through advocacy and organizing for improved wages, workplace policies, and childcare access for women, focusing on low-wage workers of color and immigrant workers. Aleyamma also previously served as Policy Director at the Partnership for Working Families, and as Program Director for the Women’s Institute for Leadership and Development for Human Rights where she trained grassroots organizations on assessing local policies using a human rights framework, and participated in the U.N. CERD Review Process in Geneva to highlight human rights violations against women of color in the United States.

Born in Kerala, South India, Aleyamma is based in Philadelphia where she serves on the Board of Directors for the Asian Arts Initiative. She is an alumni of the East West Center’s Asian Pacific American Leadership Program and received a Fulbright Award to study Malayalam in Kerala.

Ariel Jacobson, Director of Programs & Strategy

Ariel Jacobson (she/her) supported the formation and launch of Collective Future Fund as a consultant to the NoVo Foundation in 2018-2019, then stayed on as Special Advisor to CFF’s strategy, grantmaking, research, and communications. During that time, she concurrently served as Director of Strategic Initiatives at Resonance Network, co-leading its Mending the Arc story+art circle practice. 

Ariel previously worked with the NoVo Foundation spearheading the creation of the Radical Hope Fund, a global call for projects that culminated in $34 Million to support visionary feminist organizing and transformative movement-building. She was also a Movement Maker in the Move to End Violence initiative, selected when she was Development & Communications Director at Restaurant Opportunities Centers United in the formative years of its One Fair Wage campaign to expose the subminimum wage as a structural enabler of sexual harassment in the restaurant industry. Ariel has two decades of experience with a range of social justice and human rights strategies from organizing to transnational grantmaking, with groups including the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, MADRE, and the Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Autonomy and Development. She currently resides on Mohican lands in Albany, NY.

Marline Johnson, Movement Partnerships Practitioner

Marline Johnson (she/her) comes with more than 10 years experience in implementing and managing programs related to leadership development, violence prevention and educational access, equity and persistence. Prior to CFF, Marline served as Program Officer at the Chicago Foundation for Women, leading the Women’s Leadership Development Portfolio, and has had programmatic roles at A Long Walk Home, the Posse Foundation, and Voices and Faces. Marline is also an artist, using mediums of spoken word, poetry, photography, and mosaic to create spaces where she can foster critical dialogue around racial and gender inequality and the small acts of oppression that have become embedded within our culture.

Marline’s past work in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors has a common thread of working to center survivors’ voices within and alongside communities that have been disproportionately prevented from thriving due to social, environmental, economic and educational barriers. Marline earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Connecticut College and a Master’s in Art Therapy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Sabah El-Amin, Operations & Administrative Manager

Sabah El-Amin (she/her) is a highly experienced administrative professional with over 20 years of expertise in project management, coordination, and event planning. Throughout her career, Sabah has excelled in working with high-level executives and boards of directors, consistently ensuring smooth operations and enhancing productivity. As Founder/Owner of The Best Admin, Sabah and her team have successfully provided administrative support services to clients in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. Prior to founding her own company, she served as Board Liaison at the California Wellness Foundation, acting as a crucial link between the Board of Directors, Advisory Bodies, and the President/CEO. Sabah also demonstrated her leadership as Executive Director/Producer at Griot Theatre, overseeing the development and execution of the theatre’s long-range strategic business plan. Before these roles, she gained valuable experience in corporate settings as a Corporate Services Coordinator at Ares Management LLC and a Project Coordinator and Senior Client Liaison at SDI Media Group. With a BFA in Theatre from New York University, Sabah has a strong foundation in communication and creativity, and is based in Los Angeles.