approach
working with VIVA means...
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Supporting progressive and feminist philanthropy
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International and local feminist funds
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Collaborative funds and giving circles
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Philanthropic strategies for systems change, advocacy, and lobbying
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Field catalysts and philanthropic affinity groups
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Trust-based philanthropy, feminist principles of philanthropy, and Black equity principles in grantmaking and organizational culture
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Equitable disaster response and rapid response grantmaking
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Writing for impact and advocacy
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Impact studies, reports, and briefs
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Guest contributor pieces
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NGO shadow reports to CEDAW Committee, Universal Periodic Review
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Landscape mapping and analysis
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Keynotes and talking points
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Annual reports
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Research and data analysis
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Donor organizing and development
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Donor development strategies
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Donor engagement
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Funder briefings
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Grant proposals
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Individual major gifts
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ODA - government and multilateral grant management
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Donor advising and donor education
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Developing your vision & giving plan
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Recommending organizations
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Applying an equity lens, gender lens
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Understanding the spectrum from social change to direct service
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Supporting racial justice, gender justice, environmental justice, youth justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQI+ justice, economic justice
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Community organizing and power-building, including funding 501c4s
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Democracy, integrated voter engagement, and voting rights
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Gender lens investing
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Convening funder briefings and leading philanthropic workshops
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Building communities and stakeholder engagement
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Facilitating peer learning communities
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Designing workshops and trainings
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Coordinating delegations and proposing conference sessions
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Participatory grantmaking & evaluation
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Focus groups, in-depth interviews
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Supporting movements & networks for racial and gender justice & democracy
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Donor organizing and fundraising
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Advocacy plus inside/outside power strategies
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Theories of change and results-based management
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Advising re. fiscal sponsorship
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Network development and building coalitions
About
Sarah Vaill, Founder & President
Sarah Vaill is the founder and president of VIVA Strategy | Vital. Intersectional. Vibrant. Advising + Strategy. VIVA is a consulting practice for feminist and collaborative philanthropy, philanthropic advising, donor organizing, strategic communications, and supporting intersectional and equity-driven movements and networks. Sarah mobilizes ‘acta et verba’—words and deeds—for racial and gender justice and representative democracy. In addition to projects with Mama Cash, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Liberation Fund and Donor Advised Funds program, and the Black Excellence Project, VIVA Strategy is piloting Philanthropae, a network for and by intersectional feminist advisors in philanthropy.
Sarah leads with a survivor-activist lens, and started as a canvasser at age 17 for the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (now Peace Over Violence). She has subsequently held the roles of Program Officer (Americas, Caribbean, Oceania, Europe), Development Officer, Director of International Advocacy and Program Planning, Director of Philanthropy (donor advised funds), and Vice President of Programs, within the Global Fund for Women, Karama, Liberty Hill Foundation, and Panorama Global.
As a consultant, she has produced strategic communications and stakeholder engagement for the Women’s Funding Network, Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism, Ms. Foundation, UN Fund for Gender Equality, Rape Treatment Center, SCOPE, Pro-Social, Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq, and AWID.
In the Middle East and North Africa before and after the Arab Spring, Sarah supported feminist activists across the region as they built an intersectional network and used international human rights mechanisms to help them win more than 30 laws and constitutional articles. These advances increased women’s representation in parliaments from 11% to 19% in the region, narrowed impunity for gender-based violence, and expanded the limited rights for women to pass their citizenship to their children.
Sarah has significant expertise with international women’s funds, global feminist movements, writing dockets and grant recommendations, advising donor advised fund holders and giving circles on social justice organizations, and engaging with international human rights mechanisms, as well as experience in fiscal sponsorship, documentary film production, democracy-building with a race x gender lens, women/peace/security and transitional justice, women’s sports and outdoor education, and writing creative, strategic, powerful communications for impact.
She also experienced firsthand the inflection points of the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. She is fluent in English and Spanish, lives in a first-generation immigrant household, and draws on personal and professional lived experiences in Bolivia, China, Egypt, England, Mexico, and Spain, as well as in rural, urban, southern, and border regions of the U.S.
As a storyteller, Sarah directed and produced the documentary film, "Women With Altitude," distributed by Journeyman Pictures, about Bolivian and US activists and survivors of domestic violence joining together and digging deep to climb three high-altitude peaks in the Andes. She directed a PSA on rainwater harvesting for the Environmental Media Project, and directed a social impact telenovela "El Paletero" for Hayward School District. Her screenplay "Adelitas" was a semi-finalist for the Nicholls Fellowship, in the top 1%.
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Sarah holds a Master’s degree from Oxford University in International Human Rights Law and a B.A. from Duke University in Gender and Hispanic Cultures. She serves on the Executive Committee of The X Fund, a women’s giving circle committed to gender justice in Los Angeles, and she co-founded Grantmakers without Borders (later merged with EDGE Funders Alliance). For the American Alpine Club, she served on the Research Grants Committee for 17 years, and managed the grant cycles as Chair for five. Sarah also co-founded and since 2005 has served on the Board of Directors for SEE (Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs), a fiscal sponsorship agency, helping steer its growth from a budget of $2.5 million to $80 million with 200+ projects.
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Ask her about hiking the Camino de Santiago, leading Outward Bound backpacking trips in Montana and Mexico, and running varsity track at Duke. What are your stories that don't end up on the resume but define key aspects of who you are?
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Let's connect on LinkedIn!
Proud to have worked with
PROJECT PARTNERS
A relational network is at the heart of VIVA Strategy. Meet some of the key partners on recent VIVA projects, publications, and advising.
Publications
Click a title to see examples of reports, training resources, articles, and guest blog posts authored for clients and prior employers.
Guest post at CEP website for Panorama Global analyzing donor opportunities to fill gaps in MacKenzie Scott's giving
Guidance document for Karama featuring case studies and trainer exercises utilizing UN Security Council resolutions to advance women's political participation
Guest post on NCRP website for Liberty Hill Foundation sharing six ways to maximize impact of donor advised funds
Joint publication for Ms. Foundation and Women's Funding Network on the integrated approach by local women's funds post-Hurricane Katrina
Impact report for the Global Fund for Women for a 3-year Economic Opportunity Initiative
Philanthropae
Learn more about an online community by and for intersectional feminist advisors in philanthropy.