Nikki Zarkh

Managing Director

Based out of the Chicago area, Nikki is a senior leader in ViaNova’s collaboratives & grantmaking initiatives practice. With over a decade as a philanthropy consultant and experience working with dozens of clients, she both supports clients through significant moments of transition and sees them through to implementation.

She partners with foundations, corporations, collaboratives, and families navigating pivotal moments of change—from crafting a new strategy, to launching an initiative, to realigning operations and organizational design. Her work spans a range of issues including health, environmental and social justice, democracy, and literacy.

Her work spans a range of initiatives, including managing the implementation of the Arts Ed Accelerator Fund, a donor collaborative working toward the systems change required for successful integration of arts education into K–12 schools across California. She also led the design, launch, and first six years of the Fund to Build Grassroots Power—a participatory regranting initiative developed alongside funders and field leaders in the environmental and climate justice space—until supporting the transition to its inaugural executive director.

Prior to ViaNova, she worked as the manager of development and community engagement at Scadding Court Community Centre, advancing programs related to economic empowerment, community-police relations, and food access. She also managed a social enterprise that retrofitted shipping containers to create affordable vending spaces for entrepreneurs. In addition, she worked at Affirmative Investments, which partners with mission-driven organizations to implement projects for 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, where she served as co-chair of the Yale Philanthropy Conference.