Amira Barger: The Courageous Conveyor
In 2010, we knew that we needed a more robust development team and strategy to meet the growing needs of the community, especially coming out of a recession, having just revealed our rebranding, and to realize our big, bold aspirations for the organization. I remember Shawn being so excited about her new donor relations hire, Amira. Amira and I hit it off as soon as she joined the team. She was and still is transparent, witty, creative, and bright. She brought a fresh and youthful energy to our development team that permeated our organization. She was never afraid to ask why we were doing something, offer solutions, or roll up her sleeves to help a neighbor or fellow poverty-fighter. Amira was passionate about our mission, and her expertise in communications and community building helped to elevate our donor experience, brand, and messaging- internally and externally. Please see below a summary of our conversation.
Where are you from, and how does that impact the work that you do
I was born in San Diego, CA. But when I was 4, right before kindergarten, my parents moved us to the tiny, tiny island of Guam because my parents were ministers in the Christian Church. I lived in Guam for the formative years of childhood. I moved back to the mainland United States in the middle of my junior year of high school. Guam is a tiny little place where everybody knows everybody. I think the total population of Guam when I was there was about 100,000 people. So yeah, and it’s 30 miles long and 8 miles wide. So it’s like a small town, right? If somebody grew up in a small town, they would very much understand the sort of upbringing I had, where you know or are related to everyone. You definitely know everyone’s business, and that comes with good and bad. It’s nice to always have a guy for a thing like a mechanic, a baker, or whatever you need, but it has drawbacks. I think that growing up as a young black girl, and a child of ministers, in a place where I could actually count the number of other black people on my fingers and toes that I knew and was surrounded by, definitely shaped my life and the work that I do today. It helped me to see systems, power, and community, and what it meant to have your needs met or not to have them met.
When did you work at CitySquare, and what was your role?
I was there from 2010 to 2012, and my role was Manager of Donor Relations. My role was really about helping to elevate the voice of the organization to the people who could help fund the work we were doing, to humanize the work for our donors, and implore them to move from empathy to action.
Why did you work at CitySquare?
Right before I came over to City Square, I was at Habitat for Humanity, and I had been with the North Texas Food Bank. So I always knew of CitySquare because they were a pantry of the North Texas Food Bank, and similar to Habitat, they were working on housing as well. CitySquare had a very poignant and unapologetic focus on social justice, and I didn’t see a lot of other nonprofits being so stark and so 10 toes down at that time. I was like, these people are about that life, and I think these are my people. And I believe these things too. And I feel like at that period of time, right after the recession and those early 2010s, I personally felt that nonprofits were so sanitized in the language. We are so focused on the feel-good, nicey, nice, goody two-shoes aspect of what people had known nonprofits for. And people still thought of nonprofits as charity, not as justice work. And I think because my parents were ministers, it instilled a deep belief that justice has to be both systemic and personal.
What made CitySquare special to you?
Right before I came to CitySquare, I had been going through a process of deconstructing both my faith and my political beliefs. It really affirmed my awakening. I had already been starting to have it, but that awakening of deconstructing what I was taught about democracy, equity, and who deserves help. It underscored that for me in ways that I had finally found a group of people where I knew I wasn’t crazy. I was surrounded at CitySquare by people from case managers to community members and donors to Larry, who all challenged me to think more deeply, to act more boldly, and to stay rooted in proximity and community. That time helped shape my political, moral, and professional identity in really lasting ways that I’ve tried to explain to people, and I have ended up just saying you had to have been there. Sometimes there are just people and moments and a convergence in life that is so special that you cannot remake it. And I’ve never once again found a place like CitySquare and don’t know that I ever will. And that’s okay because I received so much from it.
What is the legacy of your contributions to CitySquare?
We were in a growth period when I was there, and I love that I got to bring so many people into the work of CitySquare. We had a development team of four, and then we grew to, I think, at max, to like a team of 12, and we just all happened to be women. This group of women got to shape how CitySquare told its story. We were fundraising and communications, shaping the story told externally to funders, policymakers, and the broader public. I’ve always been a storyteller, so I have my degrees in Communications, and I’ve always wanted to do that work. I’m so proud of the campaigns that we launched, the annual reports we did, and the events we erected. I always tell people that I knew about Cory Booker back when he was the Mayor of Newark, and we brought him to the prayer breakfast, and you all think you’re hip to something. I was like, we’ve been knowing. I hope that I left behind a legacy of using communications and storytelling, not just for marketing, not just for fundraising, but as a tool for justice and truth-telling.
What are you doing now?
So many things. My day job, the jobby job, as I call it, is Executive Vice President at Edelman, the world’s largest communications firm. I teach marketing and change management at Cal State East Bay. I write for MSNBC and Fast Company, and I am a newly minted author (Please check out her book, The Price of Nice, available on October 28, 2025), and I’m a mom too. And so I am still doing the work of justice. It looks a little different today, but similar to what I feel like my legacy contribution to CitySquare was, using truth-telling and storytelling as a tool for justice and for collective awareness and understanding is still what I get to do today.
