Allison Budschalow

I have decades of experience bringing folks together around shared goals. I’m fueled by a vision of collective liberation, and I carry that into every collaboration. My sweet spot is helping to bolster resource generation and mobilization work, building the skills and power needed for communities to fund their own movements. At Dragonfly Partners, I love helping groups and individuals connect with their fire, rediscover what drives them, and unlock new or renewed paths toward their goals.


Beyond my work at Dragonfly, I co-created and co-facilitate Securing the Roots, a fellowship dedicated to resource mobilization and reclamation. I previously worked at the American Friends Service Committee, supporting social movements globally, and I was a lead organizer of the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta in 2007–a powerful moment in our social justice movement history. I’ve also served on several boards in Philadelphia.


I earned my BA from Earlham College and my MA in Sustainable Business and Communities from Goddard College. Born and raised in Philly and part of the Kalmyk Mongol diaspora, I enjoy exploring the intersections of food, gentrification, race, class, and storytelling. I love sharing my explorations with my children.


What matters most to me is helping changemakers start their impact from within. I believe in shifting narratives, deepening relationships with people and with nature, and moving toward collective liberation, together. I continue to speak Spanish whenever possible, dabble in Russian, run often, go birding when I can, and paddle sometimes with a Dragon Boat team in Philly’s Chinatown.