All Raise appoints Paige Hendrix Buckner as permanent CEO
All Raise, a nonprofit organization that supports women founders and funders, has appointed Paige Hendrix Buckner as its permanent CEO.
All Raise, a nonprofit organization that supports women founders and funders, has appointed Paige Hendrix Buckner as its permanent CEO. Hendrix Buckner, who joined the organization as chief of staff in early 2022, had been serving as interim CEO since January following the resignation of former CEO Mandela S.H. Dixon. Prior to All Raise, Hendrix Buckner worked with Dixon at Founder Gym, an online training centre for underrepresented founders.
All Raise had raised $11 million in funding as of January and was operating regional chapters in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, DC, with plans to launch a chapter in Miami. Since taking the helm, Hendrix Buckner has launched the Miami chapter, expanded the VC Champions mentorship program, relaunched the VC Cohorts program, and launched the national Black and Latinx Media Mastery program.
The nonprofit has set goals to increase the amount of seed funding that goes to female founders from 11% to 23% by 2030 and double the percentage of female decision-makers at U.S. firms by 2028.
Hendrix Buckner told that All Raise “is not just an organization, it’s a movement,” and that those “were aspirational goals for everyone in the ecosystem.” She plans to focus on three areas to move the organization forward: infrastructure, community and programming, and storytelling.
Infrastructure involves building strong internal and external foundations. Community and programming include going on a seven-city tour to visit with community members in all of its chapters and San Francisco, as well as active programs for VC partners and principals and a VC summit in October. Storytelling involves bringing back the newsletter and certain events, both in-person and virtual.
All Raise is wrapping up its Checkwriter research and will have new data coming out in a few months, Hendrix Buckner said. With her appointment as permanent CEO, Hendrix Buckner said she and her team of 10 “can settle in and have some clarity about where we’re going to be going.”
“We are really passionate about long-term, intergenerational change,” Hendrix Buckner added. “For us, that means that we are passionate about moving money, changing culture, and shifting power. I also get to lean into what I believe my superpower is in building and scaling communities. We will be able to lock arms with our community and get the work done because there’s so much good stuff to do.”
Heidi Patel, a VC Cohorts volunteer, noted in All Raise’s blog post that Hendrix Buckner is “passionate about building community” and can “break down barriers, build bridges across deep divides, and infuse pure joy into the challenging work we do together.”
Hendrix Buckner said that All Raise has 24,000 people in its network, and the organization is committed to achieving its goals of supporting women founders and funders. She believes that All Raise can make a significant impact in the ecosystem by moving money, changing culture, and shifting power.
