Ayushi Vig is a financial activist excited about reimagining and cocreating community financial institutions. She co-founded the Freedom School for Philanthropy, guiding high-net-wealth individuals to shift capital to grassroots movements. Previously, she was a founding staff member of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, which sparked a national movement on funder-grantee power dynamics, and a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Ayushi is also an organizer with Friends of Public Bank East Bay, building the United States’ first public bank in 100 years, and with New Economy Coalition, building a grassroots funding intermediary for the solidarity economy movement.
Ayushi was named a 2019 Dalai Lama Fellow for her social change work. She is currently a Leadership for Sustainability Fellow at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, engaging in practice-based inquiry around leadership in ecological justice. Ayushi also serves on the board of Collective Determination, fostering transnational dialogue on economic justice and just transition across North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Ayushi is also an independent consultant, offering strategic planning and facilitation services for philanthropic and movement organizations, focusing on economic justice organizations. Current and past clients include the Raikes Foundation, Class Action/Staffing the Mission, Emerson Collective (via Impact Experience), Collective Capital Philanthropy Advisors, Radiant Strategies, Ktisis Capital, and Thousand Currents.
Ayushi grew up in New Delhi, and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a BA in International Relations & Psychology from Stanford University, and a LIFT Next Economy MBA in regenerative finance. Ayushi is a yoga and meditation teacher, as well as a somatic practitioner. She enjoys reading, salsa dancing, and making “bad” art.
