THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE WORK
The Team
Melanate. is led by practitioners working at the intersection of wealth, movement infrastructure, and community accountability.
We are fundraisers, strategists, coaches, and systems builders with experience inside institutions and alongside movements. Our team brings technical expertise and lived experience together — designing leadership pipelines, applied learning spaces, and strategic partnerships that strengthen the durability of resource work.
This is not abstract theory.
It is architecture shaped by practice.
Sadé Dozan, CFRE, CAP, MPA
Founder
Sadé (she/her/ella) is the Founder of Melanate. and a philanthropic advisor working at the intersection of wealth, power, and movement infrastructure.
With over two decades of experience in fundraising strategy and institutional philanthropy, Sadé advises foundations, intermediaries, and advocacy organizations on how capital moves—and how it can move differently. Sadé is a Highland Leader, Harvard Kennedy School Public Narrative alum, and a regular columnist with NPQ, recognized as a rising voice at the intersection of philanthropy and movement infrastructure.
Through Melanate., Sadé has designed a living architecture that strengthens leadership pipelines, advances cross-movement learning, and builds durable resource ecosystems. She is the architect behind Certified FREed, the Coa dinner series, and the Praxis Lab—initiatives that collectively inform Melanate.’s evolving Framework and measurement and learning engine.
Her work centers a clear thesis: when wealth strategy is rooted in those closest to impact — particularly Black women in resource leadership — movements gain the durability required to withstand pressure and build long-term power.
Sadé builds for staying power.
Josephine Kalipeni, PMP, MPH, ODC
Managing Director
Josie (she/her) serves as Managing Director of Melanate., stewarding the operational, strategic, and organizational backbone of the work.
With previous experience as an executive director and public policy professional, Josie brings a systems-level perspective to Melanate.’s infrastructure. She has led organizations through growth, transition, and institutional complexity—balancing governance, compliance, and community accountability. This background grounds her ability to support leaders not only in vision, but in operationalizing values within real-world constraints.
With deep experience in nonprofit infrastructure, executive coaching, and organizational support, Josie ensures that Melanate.’s initiatives and partnerships are not only visionary but executable. She works closely with leadership teams to adopt values-aligned practices, strengthen internal systems, and integrate insights emerging from Melanate.’s measurement and learning ecosystem into real-time organizational shifts.
Her role bridges strategy and sustainability—overseeing cohort implementation, convenings, partnerships, and internal systems that support growth without dilution. Through executive coaching and organizational advising, she helps leaders translate commitments to equity, accountability, and durable resource strategy into daily practice.
Where architecture sets direction, Josie ensures the structure holds.
Nichole Collins, CFRE
Leadership & Development Coach
Nichole (she/her) is Melanate.’s Leadership Development Coach and the Founder and CEO of FundTaskIt LLC, a consulting firm that helps nonprofits build sustainable fund development capacity.
With experience spanning higher education, community institutions, and philanthropic advisory roles, Nichole has held leadership positions with the Cuyahoga Community College Foundation, Cleveland Zoological Society, United Church of Christ, and Intergenerational Schools. She currently serves as a Philanthropic Strategy Advisor with the Cleveland Foundation.
At Melanate., Nichole provides coaching and applied strategy support to Certified FREed cohort members and Praxis Lab participants. She helps leaders sharpen fundraising strategy, navigate institutional dynamics, and build revenue practices aligned with their values and long-term goals.
Nichole brings both technical mastery and grounded mentorship — strengthening the leadership pillar of Melanate.’s architecture so that capacity, confidence, and clarity grow together.
Her work ensures that leadership development is not episodic, but structural—anchored in practices leaders can sustain long after the workshop ends.
Nia Osborne, LMSW
Social impact specialist
Nia (all pronouns), is Melanate.’s Social Impact Specialist, bringing over a decade of experience advancing systems change across youth development, community strategy, and relational practice.
A Native New Yorker raised in Harlem, Nia grounds Melanate.’s work in emotional intelligence, behavioral insight, and participant-centered design. As a licensed master social worker — though not practicing therapy — they support leaders navigating the complexities of resource roles, ensuring that care and strategy are not siloed but integrated.
Nia anchors the Coa dinner series and supports participants within the Certified FREed leadership pipeline, helping create spaces where Black women in resource roles can surface shared tensions, refine strategy, and build preparedness. They also contribute to Praxis Lab design and implementation, ensuring workshops and institutional engagements are both psychologically grounded and operationally rigorous.
Across initiatives, Nia plays a key role in Melanate.’s measurement and learning ecosystem — translating lived experience into structured insight that informs the evolving Framework.
Their work transforms isolation into alignment and burnout into collective durability.
In community with
Melanate. is supported by a circle of advisors, facilitators, and collaborators who contribute expertise across fundraising, movement strategy, learning design, and care-centered practice.