Marjona brings a combined two decades of experience in organizing for racial and economic justice and philanthropy. Most recently, at the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, Marjona led efforts to transform Veatch into a critical source of support for the infrastructure and capacity building of Black-led organizing. As co-chair of the Funders for a Just Economy affinity group, she made space for funders to interrogate their role as grantmakers and the mandate to fund racial justice and gender justice as part of building a just economy. She spearheaded efforts to center Black, trans and women of color leading economic justice organizations in this work, and built best practices for intersectional grantmaking, helping funders break down silos that weren’t serving grantees.
Before entering the philanthropy field, Marjona was an organizer for social and economic justice for 14 years; she was the organizing coordinator with Brown Community Development Corporation (BCDC) in Brooklyn, NY, a coalition organizer and then organizing director of NY Jobs with Justice, and a labor organizer.