Alexandra Arias

Alex Arias was born and raised in Chicago’s Hermosa and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. As a daughter of immigrant parents from Mexico, she learned the importance of resilience, community, and belonging. These early experiences shaped her determination to challenge the barriers that marginalized communities often face and to expand access to meaningful opportunities where they are most needed.

For more than a decade, she worked in the nonprofit sector providing direct services to individuals and communities in need, leveraging her own lived experience to inform her work and gaining insight into how policies, procedures, and systemic barriers shape the opportunities available to historically marginalized communities. 

Since moving into the philanthropic sector in 2020, she has built on this foundation by applying her understanding of systems and community needs to grantmaking strategies that simplify processes and reduce administrative burdens for grantee partners. Alex has managed and processed over $45 million in grants, including urgent response funds that required swift, accurate action to meet the community needs. She independently developed a detailed grants management manual and banking procedures to ensure transparency and efficiency in grantmaking operations. 

Passionate about leveraging data to measure impact, identify trends, and improve storytelling for board and leadership, she is committed to streamlining administrative processes so that systems truly serve the unique needs of grantee partners. By transforming data into actionable insights and sharing trends in grantmaking with board members and leadership, she ensures that the outcomes of the Foundation’s grantmaking are both visible and measurable. Alex holds an MSW with a specialization  in Leadership and Development and an MA in Social Justice from Loyola University Chicago, as well as a BA in Psychology from Cornell College.