As Funders Together enters its next chapter, we’re evolving how our team works together and supports our members. Several staff have stepped into new and expanded roles that strengthen our strategy, organizing, narrative work, and member engagement.

In case you missed it, Funders Together for Housing Justice appointed our third-ever CEO, Rinal Ray, who joined us on August 1. Rinal comes to Funders Together from Minnesota state government, where she oversaw housing stability grantmaking, and previously served as Executive Director of People Serving People, a family shelter-turned-advocacy organization in Minneapolis. As we continue to welcome Rinal into our network and introduce her to members and partners, we also want to share how we have reconfigured staff responsibilities to meet our members’ needs and face our devolving political reality head-on.

We have a new senior leadership team! Rachelle Matthews and Michael Durham have stepped into newly-created roles to partner with Rinal in leading the strategic direction, alliances, and operations of our organization. And with the finance guidance of Holly Sullivan, we are excited to chart the organization's path forward.

Previously serving as Director of Membership & Programs, Rachelle is now Sr. Director for Strategy & Movement. She assumes responsibility for Funders Together’s institutional integrity and alignment with our values and accountability to grassroots movements. This means Rachelle focuses on how organizational values inform partnerships, internal processes, and Board development. Rachelle can answer your questions about advocacy priorities, policy analysis, and partnership opportunities. 

Michael moves from Director of Networks into a more external-facing role. As Sr. Director for Funder Organizing & Coalitions, Michael will continue to lead our peer-learning networks and communities of practice, and will now host programming across all issue areas with a focus on coalition-building to advance housing justice. In close partnership with Rachelle, Michael will take the lead on fundraising, membership recruitment and engagement, and political education. Send Michael your questions about how to get involved with Funders Together.  

One of the original staffers of Funders Together, Holly Sullivan continues as Finance Manager but assumes a greater leadership role in shaping our strategic priorities. 

Carey Cabrera is now Manager of Membership & Grants, taking on more responsibility for grants management, evaluation, and tracking themes across housing and philanthropy to inform our programming strategy. 

Joshua Perrin becomes Sr. Manager of Narrative Strategy & Communications. In addition to leading our web presence and email communications, Joshua will play an expanded role on housing justice campaigns and partner with members on their narrative initiatives.  

__

We have refreshed our team’s bios for your perusal below (alphabetized by last name). Please reach out to anyone on our team for support, including get-to-know you calls for our members. We are here for you. 

Staff Bios 

Carey Cabrera (she/her) | Baltimore, MD (Eastern Time) | [email protected]

Carey serves as Funders Together for Housing Justice’s Manager of Membership and Grants. In this role she develops relationships with member foundations and helps the organization tailor its member engagement, communications and programming strategies to move members toward housing justice funding and policy advocacy. A firm believer in housing for all and the power of relationships, Carey cares deeply about creating coalitions and community networks that work toward collective liberation. 

Carey’s work has always centered the intersections of immigration and housing justice. After various roles working with immigrant families experiencing homelessness in Boston, Carey organized tenant unions in privately owned, publicly subsidized housing developments to fight for better housing conditions and permanent affordability, often in gentrifying Black and Latine neighborhoods. She also coordinated city, state, and federal legislative advocacy campaigns to empower HUD tenants and dedicate more funds for extremely low-income renters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Carey served as Outreach Coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs in Baltimore City, coordinating the City’s 2020 Census immigrant community outreach strategy, building networks of service providers, connecting residents with resources, and strengthening the City’s eviction prevention and workforce development programs dedicated to immigrant communities. 

Carey is a proud graduate of Wellesley College, where she studied Sociology, focusing on urban studies, immigration, and economic and racial inequity.

D. Michael Durham (he/they) | Nashville, TN (Central Time) | [email protected]

Michael joined Funders Together in 2022 as Director of Networks, hosting member affinity groups and place-based funder collaboratives. Prior to this role, Michael held multiple positions at the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which represents healthcare organizations that serve people experiencing homelessness. Spanning nearly a decade, his responsibilities included development, technical assistance, facilitation, and racial-justice education, among others. Before NHCHC, he was a writing teacher.

In addition to his work at Funders Together, Michael’s activism includes four years as the Board President of the Village at Glencliff, a transitional housing facility in Nashville. He is the founder of multiple organizing configurations, including a local mutual-aid group, and spends his rare free time writing on spirituality and abolitionist movements. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science – International Studies from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School where he studied interfaith dialogue and community organizing. A proud single parent, Michael resides in the neighborhood in which he grew up with his two children, Genevieve and Adelaide.

Rachelle A. Matthews (she/her) | Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX (Central Time) | [email protected]

Rachelle A. Matthews is a radical multipotentialite, strategist, disruptor, and truth-teller rooted in humanity, authenticity, and an uncompromising commitment to dignity. She is devoted to dismantling oppression and building a world where those at the sharpest intersections of marginalization not only survive, but flourish. A pragmatic strategist and creative, she is grounded as much in imagination as impact, bending words, relationships, and ideas toward justice. Known as a visionary problem-solver and trust-inspiring fixer, she uses storytelling and connection to disrupt harmful narratives, find the connective tissue between people and ideas, and seed new possibilities. Her approach is rooted in love and disruption, always centering justice, joy, dignity, and belonging.

As Senior Director of Strategy & Movement at Funders Together for Housing Justice, Rachelle helps steward the organization’s strategic direction, institutional integrity, and accountability to movement. Her work sits at the intersection of strategy, advocacy, philanthropy, and movement, asking not only what institutions say they value, but how those values live in their choices, relationships, practices, and use of power.

Her journey has spanned government, boardrooms, philanthropy, and movements, from serving during the Obama Administration as Special Assistant to the Chief Scientist at NOAA to leading a national campaign in response to the Supreme Court case Johnson v. Grants Pass at Community Solutions. A lifelong learner and collector of degrees and certifications, Rachelle embraces knowledge as one of the few things this world cannot take away.

Rachelle is a mother, writer, advocate, policy enthusiast, and builder of beloved community. She is most alive in the sacred spaces of family, books, cooking, writing, and hiking, where joy and rest become practices of liberation. Guided by her ancestors, she carries forward one enduring belief: love is not simply a feeling. It is how we treat one another, and it is the most radical disruption of all.

Joshua Perrin (he/him) | Chicago, IL (Central Time) | [email protected]

Joshua is a communications and narrative strategist with more than a decade of experience now working at the intersection of narrative, racial justice, housing justice, and philanthropy. As Senior Manager, Narrative Strategy & Communications at Funders Together, he leads the organization’s communications work, helping translate its strategy and political analysis into compelling stories and messaging that engage funders, strengthen the organization’s voice, and advance housing justice. 

Before joining Funders Together, Joshua served as Senior Communications Manager at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, where he led digital strategy, editorial production, and media engagement in support of racial equity and systems change. He also serves as a writer for Unerased | Black Women Speak, where he develops editorial projects examining Black women’s leadership, political influence, and contributions to social movements. His long-form writing has appeared in Word In Black and explores Black history and culture, racial and economic justice, and the people and movements that have shaped life in America.

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism & Communications from Hampton University. A seventh-generation South Carolinian, he loves writing, cooking, traveling, and lazy days near large bodies of water. 

Rinal Ray (she/her) | Minneapolis, MN (Central Time) | [email protected]

Rinal Ray is a housing justice leader, attorney, and public servant whose career has been dedicated to advancing housing stability, strengthening communities, and transforming the systems that shape opportunity. With more than two decades of leadership spanning government, nonprofit organizations, public policy, and advocacy, she brings a deep commitment to racial equity, community partnership, and building lasting solutions to housing injustice.

As Chief Executive Officer of Funders Together for Housing Justice, Rinal leads the organization's work to mobilize philanthropy to advance housing justice nationwide. She is committed to helping funders strengthen their impact by investing in community-led solutions, building authentic partnerships across movements, and advancing policies that ensure everyone has access to safe, stable, and affordable housing.

Before joining Funders Together, Rinal served as an Assistant Commissioner at Minnesota Housing, where she established and led the agency's Housing Stability Division. In that role, she oversaw statewide housing stability grant programs and supportive housing initiatives designed to prevent and end homelessness while helping communities navigate evolving challenges through collaboration, innovation, and equity-centered policy development and implementation.

Previously, Rinal served as Chief Executive Officer of People Serving People, where she led one of the nation's largest organizations serving families experiencing homelessness. During her tenure, she advanced both direct services and systems-change strategies, recognizing that lasting progress requires not only meeting immediate needs but also addressing the structural conditions that create housing instability.

Earlier in her career, Rinal advanced nonprofit advocacy and public policy as Deputy Public Policy Director at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, served as a staff attorney with the Minnesota Justice Foundation, and taught nonprofit advocacy, lobbying, and organizing in the Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership program at Metropolitan State University. Throughout her career, she has served on numerous nonprofit boards and advisory committees dedicated to housing, children and families, and community well-being.

Rinal earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Political Science from Macalester College and a Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and enjoys bike rides, family game nights, sharing good food with friends, and staying connected to her local community.

Holly Sullivan (she/her) | Boston, MA (Eastern Time) | [email protected]

Holly Sullivan is responsible for the financial operations that support the mission and strategic goals of Funders Together, including financial reporting, policies and procedures, budgeting, forecasting, accounts payable, payroll, purchasing and benefits management.

Holly has a Master of Business Administration from Boston University and an undergraduate degree in Finance.

She has extensive experience in profit and loss management, budgeting and forecasting, cash flow management, audit, banking, and investment analysis. Holly is also a facilitator for Boston University. 

Prior to joining Funders Together, Holly worked in banking.  Holly was a Trustee of the Marblehead Community Charter Public School Educational Foundation for five years and has been an active volunteer in her local YMCA and with Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.