Chelsea Brown

Chelsea Brown is an award-winning philanthropist, social impact advocate, and entrepreneur. Trained as a nonprofit management professional, Chelsea has more than eight years of experience in philanthropy, fundraising, sponsorships, and grantmaking. Through her passion for bringing diversity and inclusion to philanthropy, she received the Diverse Communities Scholarship through the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference and the Charles R. Stephens Scholarship for the AADO/CASE Conference on Diverse Philanthropy and Leadership.

In 2019, she was selected to be a Forbes Under 30 Scholar, the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute Philanthropy Fellow, and a William Randolph Hearst Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Philanthropy and Social Innovation Program. In 2020, she was highlighted as a “Black Woman to Watch in Philanthropy” in BlackHer’s study on Black philanthropy titled “The Black Woman’s Guide to Philanthropy.” As an advocate for community engagement, she has served on over five boards, including the Winthrop University Foundation Board of Directors.

After her time at the University of Maryland, she worked as Exelon’s Senior Corporate Citizenship Specialist, reviewing grant applications and providing funding for more than 150 nonprofit organizations annually in the Delaware, Maryland, and D.C. region. the Nasdaq Foundation as the Corporate Purpose Specialist, providing support for Foundation-related grants administration and corporate social responsibility strategy.

Currently, Chelsea is the founder of The Black Mill; a consulting firm focused on coordinating cross-functional efforts to drive engagement, programs, funding, and partnerships with international nonprofit and for-profit partners. Through her work with The Black Mill, Chelsea has supported grantmaking and grant writing support for the Black and Missing Foundation, The Upwork Foundation, Baltimore Legacy Builders Collective, and more.

Recently, Chelsea received the 2022 BGE Energizing Small Business Grant, earning grant funding support to expand the Black Mill to offer sponsorship and partnership strategies for large-scale cultural events and organizations. Chelsea received her Master of Public Management from the University of Maryland in 2021 and her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Winthrop University in 2014.