Ashley Lugo

Grant Writer and Fundraising Consultant

Ashley is a writer, editor, fundraiser, and artist specializing in non-profit development and marketing. She has a degree in Vocal Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and was a recipient of their 2016 Social Justice Seed Grant. In 2018 she was Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion Freeman Fellow in Administration, and In 2020, Ashley was a Fellow of the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago.

As a female-identifying, neurodivergent, queer, and Latinx person, Ashley is too familiar with the harm white supremacy culture can impose on people with multi-dimensional, non-white identities. Ashley’s personal mission is to support historically marginalized voices – either because of race, gender, or sexual affiliation – and challenge classical notions of society. By supporting those that are silenced, sharing their stories, and ultimately taking up the global space they are entitled to, she believes we can inspire others to be their unfiltered selves and collectively begin to dismantle the systems affecting all of us.

Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, to first-generation Mexican immigrants, later raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and eventually transplanted to Chicago, Illinois, she has met and been mentored by people from all corners of the world. Ashley has worked for community organizations such as Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Public Library, Dill Pickle Food Co-op, Latin American Language Center, Merit School of Music, Mutt Jackson, and the Tree House Humane Society.

Today, Ashley is a Grant Writer and Fundraising Consultant with Giant Squid Group, a social impact consulting agency that works with start-up and small non-profits to help them build their fundraising and leadership capacity through an intersectional feminist and antiracist lens. She continues to sing everyday, in the shower, to her cat Morena, and while cooking. Ashley serves on the board of Thompson Street Opera Company, savors wine, and enjoys long bike rides down Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive – the latter, sometimes at the same time.

Ashley says:

I can only work with organizations that are actively dismantling the status quo. Mission Accomplished Transition Services unapologetically names BIPOC as the cultural architects of the US and highlights how social constructs hold us back today. Their work is invigorating and I am so excited to learn where our collaboration takes us!