Darakshan Raja (she/her) is the Founding Executive Director of Muslims for Just Futures (MJF), where she leads strategy, fundraising, and governance. She has grown MJF from an early-stage startup to a growth-stage organization, building a diverse portfolio of regional, local, and national funders, and co-creating a $4 million philanthropic fund to strengthen long-term movement infrastructure. She has also developed reserve strategies, values-aligned investment approaches, and banking diversification to ensure financial resilience.
A leader in coaching and developing trainings, Darakshan has trained over 100 emerging organizers and supported executive leaders through MJF’s organizing institutes and the Movement Power & Infrastructure Institute.
Her work bridges resource mobilization and community impact, from launching the DC Guaranteed Income program to directing mutual aid efforts that redistributed over $250,000 to excluded workers. Previously, she was a researcher at the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center and has served in governance roles including DC’s Street Harassment Advisory Committee, the Emergent Fund nominations committee, and the board of trustees of IF: A Foundation for Radical Possibility.
Darakshan holds an M.A. from John Jay College (CUNY) in Forensic Psychology, a certificate from Georgetown University in nonprofit management, and is pursuing an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Let us know if you’d like to be introduced to this advisor.
