Wensley Peguero

Development Director | He/him

Wensley leads all aspects of individual giving, overseeing and growing FFI’s diverse funding portfolio, including private foundations, individual giving, corporate matching, major gifts, special events, and more.

Wensley is building a supportive community of individual donors and foundations that equips Freedom for Immigrants’ programs and campaigns with resources to achieve abolition. Wensley helps ensure that people who support FFI have an intimate understanding of FFI’s mission by drawing on the stories and lived experiences of people directly impacted by immigration detention.

As a first-generation son of immigrants, Wensley learned firsthand how communities benefit when immigrants are welcomed and supported by witnessing the experience of his family. Growing up in the Bronx, Wensley’s family served as a host foster home, often opening their home to immigrant families. Through this experience, Wensley saw how people were directly impacted by immigration policies that either tore families apart or afforded them the opportunity to thrive. This is why Wensley believes in Freedom for Immigrants’ fight for abolition. Wensley believes we would all benefit if the resources used to inhumanely detain immigrants were used instead to welcome immigrants into our communities.

Wensley’s interest in immigration issues deepened during his time in college as part of Fuerza Latina, a student group at the University at Albany. Wensley's participation and leadership, which included organizing pro-immigration marches, workshops, and conferences, helped bring awareness to issues affecting Latino communities.

Wensley brings 10 years of nonprofit fundraising experience to his role at FFI. He previously worked as a Campaign Manager for the Development Office at the Archdiocese of New York, where he worked with more than 100 parishes in Manhattan and the Bronx. He also served as an Operations Associate for the Archdiocese of New York, helping them surpass the goal for the fundraising campaign. Most recently, Wensley served as the Director of Development Operations for the Office of Stewardship and Development at the Archdiocese of Newark. There, he led a gift processing team that processed 22,000 gifts a year and implemented changes that helped the department reach its fundraising goal for the first time in over 10 years.

Wensley has a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies from the University at Albany and a Masters of Science in Church Management from the Villanova School of Business. Wensley resides in Northern New Jersey with his wife, two children, and a loving and protective rescue dog. In his free time, Wensley enjoys growing vegetables in his garden and traveling.