Jeff Bailey
Consultant
Jeff brings five years of CDFI experience to FUND. As a lender to both small businesses and to affordable housing projects, he originated, underwrote, and serviced community development projects in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.
Maggie Brennan
Managing Consultant
Maggie brings more than 6 years of experience in international and domestic community development, strategic planning, and capital raising. Prior to joining FUND in 2018, Maggie led research and impact measurement initiatives for National Community Investment Fund (NCIF), a CDFI private equity fund that specializes in supporting mission-oriented banks. Prior to her time at NCIF, Maggie worked as the Social Enterprise Manager for Rabble, a NYC-based impact investment platform, where she was responsible for business development and impact measurement.
Kristy Johnsen
Associate Data Analyst
Kristy is an Associate Data Analyst at FUND Consulting. She brings a passion for community service with over 18 years of experience volunteering and working in her local school district. Combined with this experience is an academic background in science and healthcare and formal training in R programming, Tableau, SQL, and Excel.
Sonja Karnovsky (she/her/hers)
Consultant
Sonja brings more than six years of experience in grant writing & capital development, project design & implementation, and qualitative & quantitative impact analysis to the FUND team. Immediately prior to joining FUND Consulting, Sonja served as the Founding Executive Director (interim basis) for CDFI Friendly South Bend, as well as a key driver of the collaborative community organizing and business planning process from 2018 – 2020. Her earlier experience includes economic equity work for the City of South Bend, as well as serving as Campaign Manager for state and county-level political campaigns through Southeast Michigan.
Alexandria Knipp
Consultant
As a Consultant Alexandria brings experience in international and domestic development projects, analytical research, and grant writing. Prior to joining the FUND team, Alexandria worked as a Research Assistant with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Tłı̨chǫ Dene First Nation in the Canadian Arctic on post-extractive economic development. Through her earlier work as an Economic Officer for the U.S. Department of State, she analyzed economic impacts in Post country, pioneered research on economic security concerns, and authored reports for Congress.
Emily Sipfle (she/her/hers)
Managing Consultant
Emily Sipfle is a Managing Consultant at FUND Consulting and Board Member of FUND Community Institute (FUND CI), a nonprofit research arm within the FUND family of organizations. As Managing Consultant, Emily manages projects including writing CDFI Fund funding and grant applications, initial CDFI certification and ongoing reporting, and compliance. Emily also works with clients on strategic projects, such as strategic plans, market studies, capitalization plans, impact systems analyses, and customer surveys. As a FUND CI Board Member, Emily supports research on salient trends on CDFIs and larger community development industry.
Dan Sloan (he/him/his)
Senior Consultant
Dan joined FUND Consulting as an Associate Consultant in 2015. Prior to FUND, Dan was a research assistant at the University of Chicago, working on studies involving philanthropic giving and education policy. He has interned at the National Parks Service, developing guidelines for renewable energy installations at California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, researching best practices for citizen involvement in transportation planning.
Caitlin Solander (she/her/hers)
Managing Consultant
Caitlin brings over four years of grant writing experience, project design and implementation, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis to FUND Consulting’s team. Prior to joining FUND Consulting, Caitlin worked at Northwestern University’s Department of Medical Social Sciences where she coordinated large-scale social policy grant writing initiatives and monitored external projects between the university and local community partners.
Deepa Venkatachalam
Associate Data Analyst
Deepa is an Associate Data Analyst at FUND Consulting. She has a master’s degree in Environmental Studies with a focus on data analysis and statistics. She is academically trained in statistics with R programming, GIS related software applications, and urban planning. Deepa previously interned at Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to collate land-use and climate maps with Census Board of India data to analyze various crop production and consumption patterns in the state of Gujarat. More recently, Deepa worked on data analytics projects with Alliance for Great Lakes and Chicago Botanical Gardens.
Moira Warnement
Senior Consultant
Moira joined FUND Consulting in 2012. Since that time she has worked with over 50 organizations on various strategic, operational, and funding projects, securing nearly $30 million in funding for clients. Prior to joining the FUND team, Moira was the Research Project Manager at IFF, a Chicago-based CDFI, where she managed large-scale, data-focused research projects.
Jennifer Weitzel (she/her/hers)
Managing Consultant
Jennifer joined FUND Consulting in 2013. She brings over 20 years of non-profit, community development, and CDFI experience focusing on strategies to assist low- and moderate-income individuals and families gain educational and financial access. As Managing Consultant at FUND, she is responsible for business development and direct client work. During her tenure at FUND, she has assisted over 50 loan funds, banks, and credit unions nationwide with securing over $56 million in support and has also directly completed or overseen the completion of strategic plans, capitalization plans, market studies, and CDFI Certification applications for over 60 organizations.