As activity across the country is ramping up for the November 2018 elections and the social movement organizations that many Resource Generation members are in relationship with step up their civic engagement activity, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to apply Resource Generation’s values and social justice philanthropy principles to elections.
I grew up moving from ‘relatively comfortable’ to verifiably wealthy. I was well provided-for, and, provided for. I never had much monetary awareness -my family always told me we were upper-middle class. A few memories of attempts to learn more are met with dismissal or outright being laughed at. With friends, I never kept my wealth…
Some suggested holiday reading: a few articles to help the RG community continue to understand the connections between the banner of “Black lives matter” (including the origins of the hashtag) to other movements for justice, and what it means to be an ally. ~ 5 Tips for Being an Ally (Chescaleigh: video)“All [privilege] means is there…
One thing is for sure- the people who work at RG have a lot of good ideas, and sometimes too many. A couple months back, Mike sent me this sprawling document (9 pages long!) that various staff members had worked on. It was called “Leveraging our Resources for Change: 55” Ways to Take Action (need…
July 2nd, 2014- today marks fifty years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted. In honor of this history, I’d like to tip my hat towards those foundations who funded the civil rights movement that helped make this legislation possible, as part of RG’s Rich Role Models series and RG’s larger vision of…
Reposted from Ari Sahagun’s blog. I just got back from an amazing discussion: Organization 2.0: Empowering our Understanding of Nimble Formations that Build Power hosted by the Bay Area Justice Funders Network. It was a rich and generative space to think about organizations, movements and networks. I heard about it as a local chapter leader of Resource…
Here are 3 facts that came across my inbox in the past 3 days: 1) A new report shows a revised estimate for the current generational wealth transfer between 2007-2061 is $59 trillion dollars!What used to be popularly quoted at a $41 trillion collective inheritance, essentially, has now been increased to $59 trillion. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of the…
Adapted from Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social ChangeTo go to Adam’s Buzzfeed article with the above title, click here. Hey all. My name’s Adam, and this is a first time post to the RG blog! I’m excited to contribute to a community that has, in a short period…
This article is reposted from Jessie’s personal blog from 12/24/2013 Its that time of year when there is an all-time high of people in my community asking my opinion about giving and charity. I’m writing this for my personal blog, but in such a way that I hope it is shareable with all of our…
We received this informative infographic from our friend Jaelynn Ficarra at the Finance Degree Center. They have put together a great graphic highlighting Americans’ perceptions of inequality versus the startling reality of the Unites States’s wealth disparities. With inequality issues like this we need tax justice now! Check out the graphic after the break. The Finance…
We hold the liberation of Black and Indigenous people as central to the liberation of all people. We know that attempted genocide and chattel slavery created the initial foundation for massive wealth disparity in the U.S. and that the continued exploitation and criminalization of those communities upholds the racial wealth divide. We believe that well-resourced Black and Native Left organizing is a critical part of how we all get more free.
We believe social justice movements need to be led by communities most directly impacted by injustice. As young people with access to wealth, we choose to undermine the pattern of funders dictating the work and instead choose to follow the leadership of transformative social justice movements and communities, led by people who are: poor, working-class, Black, Indigenous, of color, women, disabled, queer and trans.
We work towards eradicating classism and towards wholeness. We believe that all classes and communities are interconnected and interdependent and that classism has been used to wedge and divide us. We know that much is lost communally in the name of wealth accumulation and that people with wealth have a lot to gain from returning wealth to the collective and transforming our economy. We know that the current economic system is untenable, and we work to build a solidarity economy.
We believe that people ages 18–35, with wealth and class privilege, are at a pivotal stage in life to make a lifelong commitment to social movements. Youth movements and organizing are, and have been bold and visionary. We are building on the legacy of those who came before us, and we are working for a better world for those who will come after. Young people with access to wealth and class privilege need to be organized as protagonists—actively engaging in and seeking out ways that leverage and redistribute our access to power and resources within our control, and redirect resources and power within the networks and institutions we are connected to. We are committed to resisting ageist norms of people acquiring power and holding on to it and constantly doing leadership development to bring about new leadership.
We believe personal and structural change are deeply connected, and every person has the ability to heal and grow. We are committed to working towards transforming ourselves, our organizations, our communities, and society as a whole through our work. We bring our full selves, our experiences, our stake, and our strategic thinking to build cross-class relationships in working for a just and livable world.
We believe in collective and individual growth, groundedness and interdependence. We know that tensions will arise, and we will approach these with curiosity on behalf of our personal and collective wants. We will work to see tensions as generative rather than destructive and finite. We welcome principled disagreement and will strive to keep conflict generative in service of our broader goals and mission.
We believe in the power of collaboration across class, race, and movements. We know that our vision depends on our relationships with communities, organizations and people across our movement ecosystem, with whom we share similarities and differences. Through our organizing work we also seek ways to invite our families, communities, and other people with access to wealth to this work.
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