Member Profile: Uma Rao

Uma Rao and her Niece

In three years as a Social Justice Fund member, Uma Rao has already made huge contributions to our grantmaking process. She has served on the Cultural Grants Committee (which she has chaired), the Grants Oversight Committee, and will soon co-chair the Basic Grants Committee. Uma’s experience has helped her understand herself as a philanthropist -- even though she isn’t able to give large amounts of money.

Uma learned about Social Justice Fund when she was organizing with Chaya, a long-term Social Justice Fund grantee. Chaya serves South Asian women experiencing domestic violence and is led by South Asian women, who also provide leadership in the community in the struggle to end domestic violence.

She began her Social Justice Fund membership with a “scholarship” from Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and immediately joined the cultural grants committee, one of her favorite roles at Social Justice Fund. She particularly appreciated the grantees that were working on performance art and youth issues. Referring to performances by the Queer People of Color Liberation Project (a SJF cultural grantee) about reconciling multiple identities, She said, “they made people laugh. You could tell that change was being affected.”

Uma’s volunteer work with Social Justice Fund has given her a chance to experience philanthropy from a different perspective. Uma says, “I could own that power for myself, and think about my priorities for a change.” She has continued to contribute her time and money to Social Justice Fund. Scot Nakagawa, Grants and Program Director, describes Uma as, “…a great leader in our Cultural Grants program, and we’re excited to have her become co-chair of our Basic Grants Committee.”

Outside of Social Justice Fund, Uma works in fundraising at the Northwest Women’s Law Center. She’s learned there that “people are really passionate about the issues—they want to give.” The NW Women’s Law Center works to advance legal rights for women through high-impact litigation, lobbying for better laws, and individual assistance to women.

Uma is also on the board of the King County Coalition against Domestic Violence. She says, “Ending violence in the world, especially intimate and partner violence, is my main passion.” Although she sees services to survivors as important, she says, “For violence to end, we need community change and social change. That’s why I work with SJF, because it’s distributing resources for a very specific purpose -- community organizing.”

Outside of her organizing, she mentioned her older sister, who has two daughters that are “amazingly perfect in every way.” With the free time that she has, she loves writing short stories, drinking cups of chai, and watching trashy television. She says, “I’m looking for a balance between finding all the hard things and working on them, and enjoying life.” She has seen many organizers burn out, and wants to make sure she doesn’t do the same.

Uma believes that “reaching out to networks of support is so important—to share ideas, get to know people, and see different models.” To Uma, Social Justice Fund is one of these networks. She hopes more people get involved, especially young people. She sees SJF as “a really great investment, because if you care about changing society, it lets you distribute your resources to a lot of different sources of change.”