I highly recommend readers to also watch the following 27 minute speech by Nandita Das, an Indian actress and social activist, on the meaning of identity and “the other” in today’s world.Juggling multiple identities can be both a rough and empowering experience at many levels. And I don’t mean in the sense of the struggles…
Originally posted on boldergiving.org. Jessan is a RG Member Leader in our Seattle Local Chapter. In 2007, at 20 years old, I got my first job as an engineer. When I opened the offer letter from Google, I realized that my starting salary of over $100,000 would be more than anyone I’d ever been close…
Originally posted on thehuffingtonpost.com on September 10, 2013. Simone Sneed is a member of Resource Generation and a part of the New York City People of Color Praxis Group. “No building bears their names. No boardroom displays their portraits. No foundation sustains their legacy. And yet, the philanthropists best known to me are the ones…
dis/abilityabilityablei am able to do somethingi am not able to do somethingclass privilege is an abilityable-bodiedbody is able to do somethingbody is not able to do somethingif i am able to do somethingit takes a lot of things,people,privilegesto make that happenit helps if you’re whiteit helps if you have moneyit helps if you speak Englishit…
Re-post from Interaction Institute for Social Change blog written by Cynthia Silva Parker, reflecting on workshop by Mijo Lee of Social Justice Fund Northwest and Nitika Raj of Resource Generation titled “Race and Class: Why an Intersectional Approach is Critical to Undoing Structural Racism”.“Justice is when… Mijo Lee of Social justice Fund Northwest and Nitika Raj of Resource…
I’m not one to brag about myself. But that is exactly what I am going to do right now. I am going to brag about my class background. Because sometimes, it’s rough to be the only middle class person of color on a staff that is predominantly white and of upper class. It’s not a…
Last week, I had the pleasure of spending two days on Bainbridge Island at the beautiful IslandWood retreat center with Resource Generation (RG), a social sector organization that organizes young people with wealth to leverage resources and privilege for social change. I am so grateful to RG’s National Organizer, Nitika Raj, for her invitation not only to this year’s…
2012 has been a transformative year so far. I moved across the country from Seattle to New York, started a new job at Resource Generation organizing young people of color with wealth, and turned thirty. I was excited to step into the unknown, and ready to take on big challenges. I expected that there would…
This last May 4th-6th, we hosted and coordinated our 6th Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy Retreat (CCTFP). It is specifically for young(ish) people, 18-40, who are involved, or want to be involved, in their families’ philanthropy and care about justice and equity. Some participants attend because they participate in generations old family foundations, some attend because they earned…
Another version of this post originally appeared on the AAPIP blog. It is probably no surprise that there is a long-standing need for funding for organizations that support Asian American and Pacific Islander LGBTQ communities, but I was surprised by just how little funding these organizations get. The numbers tell the beginning of the story:…
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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