We offer hands-on support and training for campaigners, organisers, communications and operations teams working across social movements.
We support over 1,000 organisers and campaigners across the UK working on everything from anti-racism to environment and housing activism. We work together to accelerate social movements through training, relationship building, incubation, and infrastructure support.
Executive Director / Organisational Development
Rachel co-runs NEON with Dan, and specifically leads on anti-oppression and culture, HR and people, operations and finance. She’s worked for over a decade in the world of organising, campaigning and politics. She’s the co-founder of Jewish anti-occupation movement Na’amod, and sits on the board of The Advocacy Academy. She’s also training to be a psychotherapist.
Executive Director / Strategy and Fundraising
Ayeisha provides strategic leadership for the Movement Building Hub. She's currently doing a PhD at Goldsmiths University of London looking at neoliberalism and social justice work. She co-founded KIN, a network for black activists working for collective liberation. She also presents the Weekly Economics Podcast, Economics with Subtitles for BBC R4 and The Why Factor for BBC World Service.
Director / Communications Hub
Matthew heads up NEON’s communications work and the Comms Hub. He works with press officers, spokespeople and campaigners to help them get the messages that matter to the people who need to hear them. He previously worked for Caroline Lucas MP, a member of the European Parliament and campaign group Share Action.
Head of Messaging (New Parent Leave Cover)
Funmibi supports the Communications Hub and the Spokesperson Network. She has a BSc in Sociology from The University of Bristol and previously interned at policy network company Apolitical. She is interested in using media to talk about environmental justice, racial injustice and colonialism with specific focus on Nigeria and other countries in the South.
Senior Press & Training Officer
Rosie organises all of the comms training programmes NEON offers, including media training and press officer training. She has been working in press offices for 14 years and was previously a press officer at a number of national museums in the UK, and is a member of the campaign group, Museum Detox.
Senior Press Officer
Heather works on the North West Spokesperson Network, which trains up progressive and diverse voices to speak in the regional media. Heather is an experienced journalist and has previously worked for the BBC in various roles, producing stories across the UK and abroad.
Head of Media
Kevin runs the New Economy Spokesperson Network, and has over 12 years of press and media experience for NGOs, social movements and grassroots groups. Formerly the communications manager at Global Justice Now he has a focus on trade, climate and oil campaigns, and has developed countless campaign activities into national stories and front pages.
Head of Messaging
Dora heads up the framing and narrative work at NEON. She's experienced in working with campaigners, spokespeople and coalitions to develop framing strategies and authentic, powerful messaging. She has a particular interest in finding the rights words to advocate for a new economic system. Formerly Network Lead at the PIRC and Lead Organiser at Positive Money, she is an associate at the Future Narratives Lab and co-author of Framing the Economy.
Senior Press Officer
Molly works on the National Spokesperson Network. Molly was previously a journalist before moving into social justice communications. Before NEON she worked at Women In Prison working to uplift the voices of women in the criminal justice system and effectively communicate abolition in the mainstream media. She is also involved in grassroots organising with Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants.
Press Officer (New Parent Leave Cover)
Severija works on the North West Spokesperson Network, which trains up progressive and diverse voices to speak in the regional media. Previously Severija worked at Refuge, both supporting survivors of abuse and in a communications role. Severija is a freelance writer focusing on social justice issues and Eastern Europe.
Programme & Operations Assistant
Sunitha provides programme support for Communications & Movement Builders Hubs as well as Operations including Tech, HR and the Office. Before NEON, she has worked in a food bank, a shipping company and software company. Her spare time is spent on campaigning for the rights of undocumented migrants.
People & Operations Manager
Ilona works with the operations team to ensure the organisation runs smoothly, focussing in particular on HR & finance. She is always looking for ways to improve systems for the benefit of the people involved. She has previously worked in arts management, media & retail.
Head of Organising
Gauri leads NEON’s work on elevating organising strategy and practice across our programmes to strengthen social movements. Hailing from Los Angeles, she has over a decade of experience with community-based organisations in the US fighting for social and economic justice. Most recently she was an organiser with Unison’s Strategic Organising Unit where she focused on the rights of migrant and outsourced workers in the NHS.
Head of Movement Coaching
Carrie leads on all things coaching, providing specialist support to organisations to build capacity, skills and resilience across movements. With a background in teaching, training and organisational development in the third and non-profit sectors, Carrie is particularly interested in unpacking structures and systems of power and privilege, and what anti-oppression really looks like in practice.
Senior Organiser
Morten works to strengthen organising in UK social justice movements. Morten has spent years organising and campaigning as part of migrant and climate justice movements. He co-founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants in 2015 and prior to NEON he worked as a Just Transition campaigner at Greenpeace.
We collaborate with a large number of contractors and partner organisations preferring to work together to deliver our programmes. We do hire new positions from time to time – which are listed on our jobs page.
Chair
Vic has over 20 years of experience of campaigning. She has led organisations in the youth and migrant rights sectors and is particularly interested in how communities can both build power and hold power to account. Vic is also a trustee at working class youth charity RECLAIM. She currently leads a team of campaigners and comms experts in an organisation that uses the law to create positive, progressive change.
Treasurer
Ben is a chartered accountant and is currently leading on finance and operations at a global mental health charity. He has spent the past eight years working in the social sector, including a year spent on the On Purpose social enterprise leadership programme, and has founded two social enterprises. He was previously a trustee and treasurer for the UK’s leading intergenerational arts charity.
Minnie is a writer and campaigner specialising in migrants’ rights, climate change and social justice. After working in both the European and UK Parliament for 5 years as a political advisor, she helped coordinate the campaign to uncover the Windrush scandal with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants. She is now leading on campaigns to scrap the “hostile environment” and to get new rights for undocumented migrants.
Victoria has over 10 years of experience working on human rights policy, advocacy and community engagement. Her experience centres around managing and implementing programs of work that advance the agency and voice of traditionally marginalised groups. Currently working at Black Thrive, she works with local communities and statutory services to tackle and address deeply entrenched racial inequalities in Lambeth.
Ilyas is a writer and activist, campaigning on civil liberties, racism, Islamophobia and state surveillance. He was the former NUS Black Students’ Officer where he led national campaigning on decolonising the academy & abolishing Prevent. He has been published by Routledge, Unbound and others on topics around the British Empire, Islamophobia and racism. He currently works on racism in higher education in Brighton.
Chris is an organiser, trade unionist and laughably amateur carpenter from Luton. Coming of age at the height of the English Defence League’s presence in the town gave him a passion for community antifascism, and he’s currently a coordinator for the HOPE not hate Charitable Trust, exploring resilience and optimism in areas vulnerable to extremist rhetoric. He’s also the founder and head of Britain Has Class, a grassroots movement of working class youth activists.
Heidi is the Executive Director of Debt Justice (formerly called Jubilee Debt Campaign) which works to end poverty and inequality caused by unjust debt, both here in the UK and the global south. Heidi has been a campaigner and activist for over two decades and has led public campaigns on a range of economic justice issues such as global health, food and agriculture, international trade deals and financial markets regulation.
Lily is currently a Senior Research Associate at Jesus College in the University of Cambridge, leading development of a 1.5°C-aligned corporate bond index. She is interested in evidence-based interventions to transform capital markets. Lily is also a trustee with specialist interest in finance and investing at John Ellerman Foundation, and a non-executive director at the money and banking advocacy and research group Positive Money.
We are currently funded by groups including Open Society Foundation, The Oak Foundation, The KR Foundation, Friends Provident, JRCT, Barrow Cadbury, Unbound Philanthropy, the Pickwell Foundation, Partners For a New Economy, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and individual donations. We’re always looking for more funding – so if you’re interested in funding get in touch or head over to our donate page to find out more.
