Vanessa Priya Daniel has worked in social justice movements for twenty-five years as a labor and community organizer and funder. She founded and served for seventeen years as executive director of Groundswell Fund, a leading funder of grassroots and electoral organizing led by women of color, queer and transgender people. Under her leadership, Groundswell moved over $100M to the field; centering intersectional grassroots organizing led by women of color and using a breakthrough philanthropic model that featured supermajorities of women of color movement leaders and former grassroots organizers on its staff and boards of directors. She is a recipient of the Smith College Medal, was featured by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as one of fifteen “Influencers” who are changing the non-profit world, and by Inside Philanthropy as one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful Players in Philanthropy.” Daniel has written for The New York Times and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, among other publications. She and her co-parent Tricia are mothers to two daughters, ages 6 and 13.
2025 Inside Ideas
Speaker – Organized Resistance From the Ground Up
