Holding What Holds Us
I am Ammarah Maqsood, a community-driven resource mobilizer and honored to serve on the Board of Directors at The Women's Building. As a woman of color and daughter of immigrants, I understand deeply what it means to navigate systems not built for us, and the transformative power of spaces that center our voices, our leadership, and our liberation.
I’ve spent over a decade resourcing movements led by those most impacted by systemic oppression, both here in the Bay Area and globally. My career in philanthropy has taken me from supporting grassroots gender justice movements worldwide at Global Fund for Women, to advancing feminist approaches to engaging men and boys at Equimundo, to leading development strategy for youth-serving organizations like Huckleberry Youth Programs.
Throughout this journey, I’ve witnessed firsthand how safe, accessible, community-centered spaces enable organizing, healing, and collective power-building in ways nothing else can replicate.
My approach to philanthropy is rooted in trust, equity, and the belief that those closest to injustice are also closest to the solutions. I’ve been shaped by feminist principles that challenge traditional power dynamics in funding, moving resources with flexibility and respect, centering community voice over institutional control, and understanding that how we resource movements matters just as much as how much we resource them.
This philosophy isn’t just professional for me; it’s personal. Growing up, I witnessed the resilience of immigrant communities and communities of color, while navigating my own identity as a woman of color in predominantly white spaces. These experiences taught me early on that liberation requires both individual healing and collective action.
What inspired me to join The Women’s Building’s board was witnessing how this organization doesn’t just provide space—it nurtures community. It centers those most impacted and embeds feminist values in every program and practice. For over 45 years, The Women’s Building has provided essential infrastructure for movements, embodying what’s possible when we center community leadership and collective liberation.
The Women’s Building practices what so many organizations aspire to do: true accessibility, shared power, and a deep commitment to those most marginalized.
As someone deeply connected to the Bay Area’s social justice ecosystem, I see The Women’s Building as sacred infrastructure—a place where movements gather, heal, strategize, and build the power needed to create lasting change. It’s where grassroots organizations find affordable meeting space, where survivors access healing circles, where diverse communities celebrate and organize, and where coalitions form to challenge systems of oppression.
Serving on this board allows me to invest my skills, networks, and passion in protecting and growing a space that has been, and must continue to be, a home for movements, resources, and essential services for generations to come. If this vision speaks to you, I invite you to join us in sustaining The Women’s Building so it can remain strong, accessible, and alive for all who walk through its doors to organize, heal, connect, and lead.
