Ujwala joined EBCLC’s Development, Communications, and Data team in July 2021 as the Institutional Giving Manager. Ujwala comes to EBCLC from Room to Read, where she affirmed daily that education is a human right for all children. As a Senior Analyst, she managed relationships with global institutional, bilateral/multilateral, and government donors and provided fundraising support to her colleagues in South Africa, Vietnam, and India to grow regional donor interest and increase the organization’s visibility. Inspired by EBCLC’s commitment to protecting and ensuring the resilience of Black and Brown communities and those at intersections of multiple oppressions, she looks forward to bringing her nonprofit fundraising experience and educational background to build strong funding relationships and advance EBCLC’s mission rooted in racial justice.

Why do you do what you do? 

My desire to work in the nonprofit space largely stems from my inquisitive nature about the world, how it currently functions, and how it can better function for all. Between growing up in the cultural mosaic Queens half of New York’s 14th congressional district, developing a critical lens on systems of power in an academic setting, and understanding frameworks of racial, ethnic, caste, and gender-based oppression through the work of organizers, I too feel emboldened to imagine a more equitable, just tomorrow. I am humbled to contribute to and learn from organizations like EBCLC, who dare to imagine this future.

What drew you to EBCLC? 

In making the conscious professional transition into a community-based organization, I am inspired by EBCLC’s unequivocal values rooted in equity, compassion, empathy, and justice. In particular, EBCLC’s Women of Color-Centered Platform encourages me, as a fundraiser, to connect the organization’s programming with this broader framework in rightfully centering and uplifting women of color as the organization’s leader and its single largest client group.

Favorite quote: 

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

I practice wellness by…

sifting through hundreds of records to find rare vinyl albums from Brazil.

The best piece of advice I have been given to is..

about regrets- “you made the best decision you could with the information you had at the time.”