RG’s Redistribution Guidelines

Resource Generation is working toward a vision in which wealth, land, and power are equitably shared. Achieving this vision requires systemic cultural, policy, and institutional shifts, reparations, and a radical reimagining of society. The best way to achieve this vision is through well-resourced grassroots social movements led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, poor and working-class communities, women, and queer and trans people. Young people with wealth have meaningful roles in supporting this visionary leadership as organizers, fundraisers, and donors. As part of a coordinated strategy to redistribute private wealth and repair the harm created by wealth extraction, RG asks our members to take bold action with the resources currently acquired through work, inheritance, or our families. Together, we can move toward greater alignment with humanity and the planet.

We are living in a time of extreme wealth inequality and the largest wealth transfer in history. As young people, this stops with us.

REDISTRIBUTION GUIDELINES

  1. RG asks people in the richest 10% of the U.S. economy to redistribute all or almost all inherited wealth and/or excess income to social justice movements in alignment with our social justice philanthropy principles. This includes a commitment to a more equitable and sustainable standard of living: having enough money to cover expenses and keeping expenses moderate. See “Notes on Financial Planning” below.
  2. Secondly, we ask our members to divest any remaining inherited wealth and/or excess income from Wall Street and reinvest it per RG’s Transformative Investment Principles. Where possible, we encourage our members to advocate for their families and philanthropic institutions to take similar actions.
  3. Finally, alongside the individual acts of redistribution outlined above, we ask our members to commit to a lifetime of collective action toward structural wealth redistribution. This can look like fighting for redistributive legislation (such as increased taxes on the rich), returning land to Indigenous stewardship, donating land to Black growers and organizations, working to end cash bail, building local electoral power, etc.

We encourage you to use this guide as a general direction, not as a perfect roadmap. Everyone’s wealth, life, and family situation are different. Some of our members have current access to wealth, while others may anticipate one day inheriting or have restricted access to funds. Wherever you are on this spectrum, we ask you to take decisive actions toward greater alignment with our planet and humanity.

We want everyone, our members included, to have access to basic human rights and opportunities to thrive. We are working toward a world where everyone can retire with dignity, has access to a fulfilling education, meaningful work, quality healthcare, plenty of food, stable housing, and enough of a safety net (personal or community) to deal with emergencies.

The vast majority of people in the US and globally don’t have the basic human rights described above and do not have the luxury to consider “how much is enough?”. As individuals with class privilege, it is our responsibility to share risk and operate within community to ensure there is enough for everyone. And, as young people with wealth, we have an incredible opportunity to be on the side of justice by fueling and amplifying the power of social movements with our hearts, bodies, minds, and resources.

These guidelines ask us to go against societal training and will inevitably bring up feelings such as excitement, hope, inspiration, anger, fear, shame, numbness, and more. We welcome these feelings. The guidelines are not meant to demand perfection or shame us, but to call us forward into action and transformation. This is an invitation to grapple with these alongside a community of people doing the same. As you begin to make plans around giving, consider sharing with trusted people in your life for feedback and support.

REDISTRIBUTION LEVELS

Assess your current giving (by percent of overall net wealth) and join RG in pledging one of the following levels:

  • Note: If you have class privilege but do not have current access to wealth, make a Redistribution Pledge at a level that reflects bold giving for you, and start to plan for future inheritance or earnings. 
  • Additional support resources: Average cost of living by location, social justice philanthropy principles, and general best donor practices.

LEVEL 1: START THE JOURNEY

Give 1-7% of your assets annually or 1-10% of your income.
If you are invested in the stock market and are giving less than what you make through your investments each year, this means that you are making more money off of your money. For those acquiring wealth through work, give 1-10% of your income.

LEVEL 2: SAY NO TO MAKING WEALTH OFF OF WEALTH

Give all capital gains to social justice movements – around 7% of your total assets annually.
For money in the stock market, average annual capital gains are about 7% of your assets. Giving at this level puts a pause on accumulation. This may not apply to you if you have no investments in the stock market.

LEVEL 3: BEGIN TO SPEND DOWN 

Redistribute 10% of your assets.
At this level, you begin to redistribute wealth. For inheritors, redistribute 10% or more of your assets annually. For those acquiring wealth through work, redistribute 10% or more of your annual income.

LEVEL 4: ESCALATE YOUR REDISTRIBUTION

Turn up the heat on your giving!
If you already give more than 10% of your assets, set a goal to redistribute 50-90% of your total assets within a specific timeframe. For those acquiring wealth through work, evaluate your total assets and savings and determine what escalation looks like for you. 

LEVEL 5: RETURN THE WEALTH

Redistribute ALL inherited wealth and/or excess income.
Choose a time frame and determine who in your community will help make decisions around redistributing all excess wealth you hold. Be a relational donor and shift economic power to the poor and working-class-led organizations and communities that our wealth comes from.
For those acquiring wealth through highly-paid work, redistribute all wealth above a moderate standard of living.

REMEMBER:

Everyone starts somewhere! Wherever you’re jumping in, the important thing is to take action, learn, and keep moving. And remember: the RG community is in this with you.

Sign RG’s Redistribution Pledge!

GUIDING VALUES AND BELIEFS

We come to our wealth from different backgrounds—some of us grew up working class, now have high-paying jobs, and financially support people in our families and communities. Some of us come from multiple generations of wealth that can be tied directly to colonization, war, and slavery. Some of us received settlements from traumatic situations that changed our lives. For some of us, our families’ wealth helped us escape war or the worst impacts of racial or ethnic oppression.

But all of us with access to wealth have benefited financially from an economic system that accumulates wealth by stealing the land, labor, and lives of poor people, Indigenous people, Black people, and people of color. We have the opportunity to turn the tide on these past and present harms by participating in reparations and returning wealth to communities leading the work to overturn oppressive systems. For all humans, the earth, and all its inhabitants to heal, especially the most exploited, reparations and repair on all levels is necessary.

We’ve got to be brave and bold. Often making a commitment to wealth redistribution means going up against societal and family norms and committing to transform ourselves in the process. It means learning to find safety in our relationships and community, not our bank accounts. It means being willing to change our personal standard of living to improve our collective standard of living.

As wealthy people, we have a lot to gain from redistributing wealth, including:

  • Being able to make significant and meaningful contributions toward building the world we long for and moving away from our investment in the current exploitive system
  • The satisfaction of integrity and living in alignment with our values
  • An increased sense of interdependence and reliance on other people, which builds intimacy and community
  • Letting go of guilt or shame that we have so much while others are struggling
  • More connection with other people’s experiences and less isolation
  • More resilience — knowing in our bones that we are resilient and resourceful and can meet our needs with the support of our communities

NOTES ON FINANCIAL PLANNING

We encourage all young people with wealth, who are able, to work to cover their cost of living and save toward our financial goals. Though work within capitalism is imperfect and often challenging, being able to support ourselves financially brings important structure, dignity, and connection to our lives. Some people, especially people with disabilities and transgender people, may have limited options for paid work. If this is true for you, and/or if you provide significant financial or caregiving support to others, take that into consideration as you figure out what a powerful giving pledge means for you.

Assess your safety net and plan accordingly. Some useful questions to consider:

  • Based on your immigration status, race, ability, gender, religion, and sexuality, are there needs for a larger or smaller safety net for you or your community? Are you the first person in your family to be wealthy?
  • How many people do your finances support? Are you financially supported by someone else, like a partner or family?
  • Will you inherit money in the future? Will you continue to have high earning power?

Financial planners recommend having 4-6 months of living expenses in non-retirement savings. We consider saving money from income towards an emergency fund and saving money towards retirement or other goals as good practice.

Where do my financial choices fall in relation to other people in the US?

When financial planning, we encourage people with wealth to ask: are these choices getting me/us to the kind of world I/we want to live in? What action can I take toward that world? Below are some statistics to help locate your experience in relation to other people in the U.S.

  • The odds of becoming part of the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans are more than 700% greater if your parents were in the top 20 percent instead of the bottom.1 
  • One recent study found that: “The most important way in which families maintain their wealth is…the transmission of wealth to the next generation…through…supporting children’s education…their ability to purchase a home, or to get married…All of these…in turn help you accumulate wealth.’”2 
  • Only 8% of graduate student costs are covered by contributions from friends or relatives.3
  • In 2021, “the typical white millennial family has about $88,000 in wealth, [while] the typical Black millennial family has only about $5,000 in wealth..”4
  • In 2024, almost 60% of Gen-Zers said their basic needs were not being met. 5
  • 35% of people in the U.S. who work full time are struggling to pay for their basic needs such as groceries or housing.6
  • Only 27% of individuals aged 45-59 are on track to retire with savings of $250,000 or more.7

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT YOUR REDISTRIBUTION PLEDGE

SOURCES

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5560613/
  2. https://phys.org/news/2018-03-wealthy-white-families.html
  3. https://www.salliemae.com/research/how-america-pays-for-graduate-school/
  4. https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/04/27/990770599/there-is-growing-segregation-in-millennial-wealth
  5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/09/29/gen-z-faces-financial-challenges-stress-anxiety-and-an-uncertain-future/
  6. https://www.diversitydatakids.org/research-library/journal-article/families-job-characteristics-and-economic-self-sufficiency