Melissa Johnson, Treasurer

Melissa Johnson, MSW is the Senior Director, Foundation Relations at the NAACP.  Melissa previously served as the Executive Director of Neighborhood Funders Group, and earlier as the national field director for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

With over a dozen years of experience in the nonprofit  sector, she has served as a philanthropic consultant helping to seed giving circles, develop models of community philanthropy, and advising foundations on issues of social justice and racial equity.

Melissa’s career in philanthropy began in her work with community foundations in her native state of North Carolina where she served as a program officer and other key roles in rural and urban grantmaking, funding collaboratives, and major community initiatives. Additionally, her prior work at the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits grounded her commitment to build nonprofit capacity and strengthen the sector as a whole.

She holds a B.A. in English and Sociology from Wake Forest University and a Masters of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a concentration on community practice and community development.  Melissa’s voluntary service has spanned several organizations including Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, Guatemala Human Rights Campaign-USA, North Carolina’s Youth for Tomorrow (ncyt), NCNG Emerging Leaders Network, United Way of Greensboro, YWCA of Greensboro, Resource Generation, and the University of North Carolina’s School of Social Work Alumni Council.