During the opening plenary at the 2011 Council on Foundations Family Philanthropy Conference, Agnes Gund said (and I’m paraphrasing), “It might not be proper to say, but most of my giving has been motivated by guilt.” Her comment was honest, it was real, and it came from a older women who had clearly done so much…
I was home yesterday with an awful cold, watching television and feeling grumpy, when I got sucked into an old episode of Gilmore Girls. Here’s the part where I admit my pet project of analyzing pop culture portrayals of rich kids. It comes with a disclaimer—I know how painful these stereotypes can be, and, what’s…
“Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” – Jean-Paul Sartre There’s a new book about freedom. It’s called Freedom. It’s not a political book. It’s a novel, written by Jonathan Franzen, who last month’s Time magazine cover proclaimed to be the “Great American Novelist.” (Who knew that there were still novels?…
My name is Sarah and I am a 22-year-old owning-class white queer womyn. When I turned 21 I inherited around $600,000 from my parents. It came to me in two different accounts, and had no legal strings attached (and not many emotional ones either). This money comes from both sides of my family. On my…
My friend sent me a link to a podcast a few months ago from The Moth, a series that features true stories told live. The storyteller was Jamie Johnson, a documentary filmmaker who made Born Rich and The One Percent. Because I am the world’s slowest emailer, I only listened to it this morning, but…
Libbey Goldberg (no relation) wrote the piece below as an op-ed for Wealth for the Common Good, to help influence current public debates about taxes. I think it’s a great example of how we can use our stories about wealth and privilege as a part of larger campaigns. May we all thrive by Libbey Goldberg If…
Notes on last weekend’s Boston House Party from former RG Fellow Pete Redington (www.affluentangst.wordpress.com) … “Hi Pete. I’m Tracy.” I nearly choke on my absolutely outstanding lemonade as I, in turn, read the nametag of the unassuming party guest in front of me: Tracy Hewat. Tracy Hewat!? The Tracy Hewat?! Founding member of Resource Generation?!…
Lately, Resource Generation seems to be consuming every waking moment of my day! I’m finding myself dreaming about it, talking with my partner about it, vlogging about it, going to conferences about it, and even texting my mother about RG. It’s one of those crazy things that happens when you really believe in something. This…
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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