Rupal Soni is a consultant, committed to empowering and resourcing strategically marginalized communities. Her 18 years of experience in philanthropy includes the Field Foundation of Illinois; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; Fire This Time Fund; Illinois Arts Council; and Arts and Business Council of Chicago. In 2016, she was recruited to the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, as one of two employees with three board members of a new checkbook foundation; over eight years, Rupal played a critical role in building out infrastructure and grantmaking strategy for them to become one of the largest in the nation. 

Rupal currently co-designs Midwest funder organizing for the Neighborhood Funders Group, programming for Philanthropy for Asian American Action Chicago, and works in close partnership with Chicago Latines in Philanthropy, Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy, and Asian Americans/ Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. 

Prior to philanthropy, Rupal’s work was rooted in community arts and civic engagement, most notably building a Rural Design School on the India-Pakistan border, as Program Director of the Neighborhood Writing Alliance and Associate Editor of the Journal of Ordinary Thought. Rupal received the Emerging Arts Leader of Color award from the Americans for the Arts and the Joyce Foundation, and holds degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago. 

Rupal is also a multidisciplinary artist and writer who loves trees, dad jokes, and splashing in puddles with her three kids.