Who We Are

Our team brings decades of experience in movement-building, advocacy, and philanthropy—grounding every decision in deep expertise and a long-standing commitment to systemic change.

Our Team

Ashindi

Ashindi Maxton
Director of Mission Telecom Giving

Ashindi is a serial social entrepreneur and strategist working at the intersection of racial justice, democracy reform, and philanthropy. 

She has co-founded several influential philanthropic initiatives, including the Donors of Color Network, New Media Ventures, the Youth Engagement Fund, the Reflective Democracy Campaign, and the Emergent Fund. As co-leader of the Climate Funders Justice Campaign, she helped shift tens of millions annually toward climate work led by people of color.

In her current role, she leads a bold new funding infrastructure that channels profits from a progressive telecom company into systemic change, primarily through political giving. Her efforts have catalyzed over $100 million in funding for racial justice and a more inclusive democracy.

Ashindi was named “Donor Organizer of the Year” by Inside Philanthropy and featured three times on Washingtonian’s “Young and the Guest List.” She was also honored on the NAACP Power 40 list of influential African Americans under 40. A former Fulbright Scholar, she began her career as a public school teacher and principal in Oakland and Washington,

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Kendall Lewis

Kendall Lewis
Grants Manager

Our Board

John Schwartz

John has led nonprofit public service telecommunications initiatives since the 1970s, with a focus in recent decades on Educational Broadband Service (EBS). He has advised clients including the MacArthur and Rockefeller Foundations, public radio and TV stations, and EBS licensees.

A founding force behind community radio in Pittsburgh, John’s career has consistently centered on equity in telecommunications. He founded and led Voqal, a consortium of nonprofits that leases EBS spectrum to carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile to support 4G and 5G broadband access. At Voqal, he launched Mobile Citizen, offering low-cost, unlimited wireless broadband to nonprofits and schools, with most end users being low-income households. He also oversaw Voqal’s grantmaking, which distributed tens of millions toward social equity and net neutrality.

John co-founded and co-chairs New Media Ventures, which backs progressive media startups, and Independent Spectrum, which helps EBS licensees leverage spectrum for public benefit. He played key roles in FCC regulatory advocacy and served on the board of Clearwire Holdings.

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Jamaa Bickley-King

Jamaa is a veteran strategist in progressive political data and technology, with more than two decades of experience in the field. He currently serves as Chief Solutions Officer at TargetSmart. A graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in Electrical Engineering, Jamaa began his career on Mark Warner’s 2001 gubernatorial campaign and later worked in the Warner Administration, where he developed data tools to help state leaders make better-informed decisions.

Over the years, Jamaa has supported a range of organizations—including the NAACP, DNC, and even the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago—working across the political and nonprofit sectors. He served as the chief technology architect for the NAACP’s 2012 voter registration program, which helped submit 800,000 registration cards. In 2017, he launched a political tech training program for people of color, with over 70% of participants being women and all securing employment.

Jamaa is also the Co-Founder and Board Chair of New Virginia Majority. In his spare time, he enjoys baking pies and reading sci-fi, fantasy, and comics.

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Nsé Ufot

James Traynor

While studying at the University of Alabama, James combined a custom social science track with progressive student organizing, broadcasting, and information technology, graduating with honors in 2000. In 2001, he began volunteering at Free Speech TV, later joining the network full-time. He worked there until 2009 before joining the Board of Directors. James now lives in Taos, where he brings decades of IT experience to nonprofits and small businesses, helping solve challenges ranging from custom software development to boosting audience engagement.

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Core Values

Power-Conscious

We actively work to redistribute power and acknowledge traditional philanthropies’ and development funding’s historic role in perpetuating inequities.

Equity-Driven

We invest in communities historically excluded from political and economic power, in consideration of race, class, gender, disability, and LGBTQ status.

Transformative

We fund efforts that go beyond incremental change to shift power structures.

Trust-Based

We believe the leaders closest to the issues are best equipped to drive solutions.

Collaborative

We co-develop strategies with grantees and funders to strengthen movement ecosystems.

Risk-Tolerant

We recognize that real change requires bold, high-risk funding that philanthropy often avoids.

Unapologetic

We challenge traditional philanthropy and fund movements that demand systemic change.

Our Theory of Change

We provide flexible, multi-year funding to community-led organizations driving systemic change and social justice through strategic advocacy.

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Mission Telecom is organized and operated as tax-exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Mission Telecom’s grant-making decisions, and the criteria used to inform them, are completely independent of the activities generating program revenue for Mission Telecom.