Wer wir sind
Wir bündeln Kräfte aus ganz Europa, um Politik neu zu gestalten.
Unser Vorstand und unsere Mitarbeiter arbeiten in ganz Europa zusammen, um eine Gemeinschaft von Changemakern zu unterstützen, die daran arbeiten, die Politik neu zu gestalten.
The team
Sarah Durieux
Co-Director
Sarah Durieux
Co-Director
Sarah is committed to supporting people to build a fair, equitable and sustainable world where everyone has a voice. She launched the mobilisation platform Change.org in France and helped millions of French people to change laws, business practices, and grow movements that changed the conversation in the country. She co-founded “La Rencontre des Justices” a movement building connection, empathy and shared purpose between activists and social entrepreneurs and “Quartier Général” a collective for activists running for elections. She trains and supports changemakers on organising, mobilisation and narratives, encouraging them to use their deeply held values to build collective power.
Kitty von Bertele
Deputy Director
Kitty von Bertele
Deputy Director
Kitty was previously Principal for Western Europe at Luminate, where she spent nearly five years sourcing and managing grants in the UK, Germany and France and supporting efforts to improve the environment for work on independent media, civic empowerment and data and digital rights. Before joining Luminate, Kitty worked for the Open Government Partnership and for the British government as a civil servant for eight years.
Mert Ozgur
Executive assistant
Mert Ozgur
Executive assistant
Mert has been involved in activism since a very young age. As a first generation British-Kurd, he quickly learnt, through his Kurdish community, the importance of organising when trying to make important changes in the system. His passion transferred to his professional life as he worked on topics such as climate change, democracy and digital organising.
The board
Seyi Akiwowo
Board Member
Seyi Akiwowo
Board Member
Seyi Akiwowo is the Founder and CEO of Glitch, an award-winning charity working to prevent online abuse, gender-based violence and hate speech. She is also the author of How to Stay Safe Online, a comprehensive guide to spotting red flags, responding to, and proactively defending yourself in online spaces, and how to use the internet as a force for good. Seyi’s journey to making the world a safer place began with her election as a Councillor in East London at 23, where she became the youngest Black woman to ever hold the position. Galvanised by her own experiences with online abuse, she established and grew Glitch into Europe’s leading not-for-profit tackling the issue of online safety for marginalised people. Alongside being appointed to TikTok and Twitter’s European Trust and Safety Council, Seyi sits Yoti’s Guardian Council, the Ethical Board of an age verification app. From TED Talks to Crystal Palace FC, lectures to OECD, Parliaments all over the world, she delivers talks on feminist leadership, values-driven culture, tech for social good. In Spring 2022 she was offered an MBE as recognition of her work but made the decision not to accept.
Paul Alarcón
Co-founder & Board Member
Paul Alarcón
Co-founder & Board Member
Paul is the Secretary General of the Daniel Sachs Foundation. He is an entrepreneur recognised as one of Sweden’s most influential leaders in social sustainability and brings senior leadership experience from business, nonprofits and the public sector. He is a co-founder of several nonprofits and impact-driven startups. Paul served as the first ever Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Stockholm between 2015-2019 and was elected as an Obama Leader in 2023.
Daniel Sachs
Co-founder & Board Member
Daniel Sachs
Co-founder & Board Member
Daniel is a Swedish business leader deeply committed to the idea of the open and democratic society and a founder of numerous organisations aimed at revitalising democracy. He is the founder and CEO of P Capital Partners, a leading corporate lender and strategic financial partner to entrepreneurial and family-owned companies in Northern Europe. Daniel is vice chair of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and chair of the OSF Investment Committee. He is a member of the Panel of senior advisers of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House and a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Gauri Van Gulik
Co-founder & Board Member
Gauri Van Gulik
Co-founder & Board Member
Gauri is a human rights professional who currently works at Luminate as a senior adviser to Luminate Strategic Initiatives on management, strategy, and impact and previously led Luminate’s grants and investments in Western Europe. She brings 20 years of hands-on experience in human rights, research, international law, strategic communication, women’s rights, European civil society, and refugee rights, which has led her to build Multitudes. She was previously Europe Director at Amnesty International, and worked globally on women’s rights at Human Rights Watch. Gauri started her career in Brussels where she worked in the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee and at Marie Stopes International, where she ran the European Parliament Working Group on Reproductive Health. She is Dutch and lives in Berlin.
The Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Ouassima Laabich, project lead at Superrr Lab, where she initiated and leads the project “Muslim Futures”, and research associate and fellow at Yale University. She is mainly concerned with empowerment and action strategies of young Muslims affected by racism and their self-organisations
Iva Čukić
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Iva Čukić
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Iva Čukić, co-founder and lead of the collective Ministry of Space, which aims to contribute to the democratic and just development of cities. She is a member of the advisory board of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Vienna, the board of the Guerrilla Foundation and the boards of the Trag Foundation and the Jelena Šantić Foundation (Serbia).
Mar Garcia Sanz
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Mar Garcia Sanz
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Mar Garcia Sanz, Spanish politician and political scientist. She served as the Secretary General of the European Green Party (EGP) between 2014 and 2022 and is currently the director of the European Center for Digital Action.
Priscillia Ludosky
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Priscillia Ludosky
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Priscillia Ludosky, co-founder of The Social and Environmental Struggles Coalition and a member of the collective that initiated the Citizens’ Climate Convention. In 2018, she launched a petition that opened a public debate on social inequalities and gave rise to the Yellow Vests movement in France.
Joseph Langner
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Joseph Langner
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Joseph Langner, Co-Managing Director at JoinPolitics, non-partisan, non-profit incubator for political talents. He serves as a Project Advisor to YoungUP!, a 9-month program for young BIPoC entering politics, and to the 2hearts Community, a European migrant-network for aspiring entrepreneurs
Nika Kovač
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Nika Kovač
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Nika Kovač, founding director of the 8th of March Research Institute, a movement-building organization that uses storytelling and advocacy to confront gender and economic inequalities across Slovenia. She was a member of the 2020 class of the Obama Foundation Leaders program in Europe and Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University.
Larry Olomofe
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Larry Olomofe
Member of the Grantmaking Council
Larry Olomofe, former diplomat and co-founder/executive director of PAD Link, a public interest non-governmental organization that addresses and promotes the interests of people of African descent (PAD) across the diaspora. He has advised dozens of organisations governments to better respond to and prevent hate crimes and to apply European and domestic anti-discrimination laws more robustly and effectively.
The local connectors
Marija Jakovljević
Local connector for Eastern Balkans
Marija Jakovljević
Local connector for Eastern Balkans
Marija is Serbian feminist with 15+ years of grassroots and organizational engagement connecting, human and environmental rights, peacebuilding, social and solidarity economy, and progressive philanthropy. During her studies of Sociology, she joined students’ and workers movements, dealing with the economic and social consequences of neoliberal transformation. She connects theory and practice, systemic analysis with lived experiences of diverse bodies and identities. Marija was Program Coordinator of the Reconstruction Women’s Fund and has been active in a range of local, regional and global initiatives in various roles. She is a panelist advisor for the Global Resilience Fund for girls and young women, member of the Torchlight Collective, and Social Change Innitiative alumna. Marija is interested in building reparative, regenerative, non-extractive, just and caring ecosystem of European pluriverse, with special focus on former socialist and Yugoslav countries.
Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak
Local connector for Central Europe
Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak
Local connector for Central Europe
Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak is a racial justice activist and an expert on antiracism in Poland with 15+ years experience. She has advocated and organized for Black, African, and Afro-descendent communities in Poland. In 2018 she founded the Centre for Intersectional Justice in Poland. In 2022 she co-founded the Alliance for Black Justice in Poland which supports Black communities and advocates for racial equity in the region. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social Communication and Media Studies at the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin (Poland) with main research focus on race, racism and Blackness in language and media discourse. She has served as a board member of the Polish People of African Descent Association. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nick Antipov
Local connector for Belarus & Ukraine
Nick Antipov
Local connector for Belarus & Ukraine
Nick Antipov is an impassioned human rights advocate, LGBTQ+ defender, and civic activist with a focus on promoting equality across Belarus and other regions since 2006. Expert in tackling issues related to gender, LGBTQ+ rights, and societal discrimination against sensitive groups, he has co-founded multiple antidiscrimination projects to empower vulnurable communities. Among these initiatives is ICanHelp.Host, a solidarity platform committed to providing free accommodation to Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Nick is a graduate of The Obama Foundation’s European Leaders Programme in 2020, and a frequent speaker on issues related to human rights and democracy.
Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin
Local connector for Scandinavia
Amiirah Salleh-Hoddin
Local connector for Scandinavia
Amiirah is the Co-Founder and Chairperson of the Anti-Racist Forum (ARF) in Finland and the former Vice-Chair of the Board of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR). She is a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, focusing on racial equality data development in Finland and the production of knowledge by racialised minorities in socio-political processes. In 2018, the Finnish Church Aid’s Teachers Without Borders Network awarded her the Global Educator of the Year. She was selected to be part of the inaugural cohort of the Obama Foundation’s European Leaders Program in 2020 and is a Senior Fellow in Humanity In Action’s 21/22 Landecker Democracy Fellowship Program. Her passion rests in equipping people with the knowledge and tools to be more inclusive and anti-racist in order to address social inequalities. She believes social justice comes from the lifelong processes of learning/unlearning, reflecting, and being accountable to our communities.
Sebene Eshete
Local connector for Southern Europe
Sebene Eshete
Local connector for Southern Europe
Sebene is a human rights advocate, a policy analyst and researcher. She is active in Greece where she has worked with various NGOs on migrant rights, civic participation and anti-racism. She is a Senior Landecker Democracy Fellow (Humanity in Action & Alfred Landecker Foundation 2021-2022). She has launched ourstories.gr, an oral history archive focused on migration history in Greece.
Richárd Damu
Local connector for Hungary
Richárd Damu
Local connector for Hungary
Richárd Damu is the leader of a community based organization, he initiated in 1998. He launched many community groups in Debrecen, from an online radio station to a community service group for homeless people. He has been coordinating capacity building programs in the region for civic organizations and informal groups lately. He has been in a position of a mentor as well, so he could share his knowledge and community focus with other initiatives.
Ergi Bregasi
Local connector for Western Balkans
Ergi Bregasi
Local connector for Western Balkans
Ergi is a climate and energy justice campaigner from Albania. He is actively involved in the environmental and climate movement since 2018, engaged at Western Balkan and European levels. His expertise pertains to youth participation, movement-building, energy and climate justice. In 2019 till 2022, he has been part of Youth and Environment Europe covering different domains of the network, such as network coordination and campaign lead on EU taxonomy issues. Ergi has designed and managed several initiatives intended to empower youth climate grassroots activism, improve energy policies, develop advocacy capacities of environemntal and climate organisations. He provides services and consultancies about strategic communication, youth-led advocacy, intersecitonality, etc. He is author and co-author of several studies and tools on energy issues, climate grassroots movements, etc.