NCGives - About Us: People

Donna Chavis began her current position as Executive Director of NCGives on November 1, 2006. She comes to NCGives after more than 30 years of experience in community based non-profit work and in philanthropy at the local, state and national level.

Immediately prior to joining NC Gives, Donna served as the Chief Operating Officer for the Center for Community Action in Robeson County, NC. Founded in 1980 with the goal of addressing the root causes of poverty on the community and county level, the Center is a multiracial organization dedicated to the use of community organization, research, policy advocacy, multi-cultural education, and multi-sector collaboration as methods of community development and change.

Arlene Ugbaja is the program coordinator for NCGives whose mission is to celebrate, connect, inspire and grow giving among women, communities of color and youth.
Although new to philanthropy, Arlene has worked extensively with the three target groups during her tenure as an administrator in government, university and nonprofit settings. She has spent most of her professional career as an academic advisor at NC State University and administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has also worked at the NC Council on the Status of Women. Most recently Arlene served as Director of Programs at a CDC in Culver City, CA before joining NCGives.

Arlene volunteers for a number of causes and is presently putting her new knowledge of the sector to work by organizing a giving circle. Arlene is a graduate of South Carolina State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dan E. Moore helps people and organizations increase their capacity to achieve their goals, especially through strategic giving and fund raising. He is currently senior consultant to NCGives, an innovative new initiative to celebrate and inspire giving in North Carolina, particularly among young people, women, and communities of color. All of this work draws upon his almost 20 years at the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan. During that time he served in a variety of roles. As Vice President for Programs, he provided administrative and programmatic leadership to the following areas: philanthropy and volunteerism, Latin American and Caribbean programming, food systems and rural development, information and communications technology, leadership grant making, the Kellogg National Leadership Program, and the Kellogg International Leadership Program.

Melinda Pearce joined the NCGives team as Communications Specialist in September 2007, after having worked with NCGives as a consultant for several months. She is currently a second-year Public Ally, an AmeriCorps program with the mission of advancing new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation. Prior to coming to NCGives, she spent her first Ally year as a Faith Ministries Associate at the Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina.

Melinda is a 2006 graduate of Campbell University, where she studied Mass Communication-Public Relations and Spanish. In her free time, she is an advocate and volunteer for the cause of women's self-defense and rape prevention, and is active in Jubilee, a Triangle-based abolitionist group that works to combat human trafficking.

NCGives Advisory Board

Mr. Calvin Allen
Southern Rural Development Initiative

Dr. Denis Carter
University of North Carolina-Wilmington

Mr. Jay Chaudhuri
Office of the Attorney General for the State of North Carolina

Ms. Mickey Locklear
NC Commision of Indian Affairs

Mr. Ivan Kohar Parra
NC Latino Coalition

Ms. Mercedes Rodriguez
Community Economic Development Practitioner

Ms. Pat Smith
Community Foundation of Western North Carolina

Mr. Edgar Villanueva
Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust

Dr. Eugene Wright, Jr. (Chair)
Cape Fear Valley Health System