Nikki Zarkh
Associate Managing Director
Based out of Arabella’s Chicago office, Nikki serves as a senior advisor to institutional, corporate, and family foundation clients focused on enhancing the impact of their philanthropic efforts. During her time at Arabella, Nikki has supported more than 40 funders in their work to advance their philanthropic journey, from crafting a mission and vision to building and implementing strategies that span a wide range of issues, including health, food systems, environmental and social justice, literacy, and more. For example, Nikki currently leads the team supporting the Fund to Build Grassroots Power, a multi-funder, participatory grantmaking fund working to build the capacity and power of grassroots environmental and climate justice organizations.
Prior to joining Arabella, Nikki worked as the manager of development and community engagement at Scadding Court Community Centre in Toronto. In this role, she advanced the funding and strategic direction of programs related to economic empowerment, community-police relations, health and wellness, food access, and more. She also spearheaded the development of a social enterprise that uses retrofitted shipping containers to create affordable vending spaces for micro-entrepreneurs. In addition, she worked at Affirmative Investments, a real estate finance and development consultancy that partners with mission-driven organizations to implement projects that stimulate economic development.
Nikki holds a BA in growth and structure of cities from Bryn Mawr College and an MBA from the Yale School of Management. While at Yale, she served as co-chair for the Yale Philanthropy Conference.