History
Resource Generation owes its existence to a long legacy of amazing leaders on staff, in the membership base and from allied organizations. Here is a snapshot of some of the important events in our organizational history.
1995
A group of New England donors and activists plan a follow-up for the Next Generation conference. When the conference is canceled, they agree to keep meeting as a collaborative and develop local outreach to young people with wealth.
1996
The collaborative solidifies, made up of young people with wealth working in partnership with Boston Women’s Fund, Haymarket People’s Fund, Impact Project (soon to be renamed More Than Money), Peace Development Fund, United Black and Brown Fund, and more.
They decide to create a written resource to use for outreach. Research for “the packet” begins. Young donors Tracy Hewat and Lynne Gerber take on editing duties.
1997
The first edition of Money Talks, So Can We are printed, a resource guide full of interviews, articles, and advice for young people with wealth in their 20s. Inspired by the response to Money Talks, the collaborative transitions to a new non-profit organization called Comfort Zone, which focuses on outreach to young people with wealth. Tracy Hewat and Lynne Gerber begin recruiting for its first board.
1998
Staff and Base Growth: Comfort Zone’s new board begins meeting.
Programmatic Highlights: YDONTWE (Young Donors Organizing Nationally to Transfer Wealth Equitably) meets for the first time, to create a network that supports the strategic growth of young donor-organizing projects.
1999
Staff and Base Growth: The first regional outreach gatherings are held. Tracy Hewat becomes Comfort Zone’s Director.
Programmatic Highlights: Comfort Zone joins the Third Wave Foundation, the Tides Foundation and the Funding Exchange, to host the second ever Making Money Make Change (MMMC) retreat for progressive people with wealth, ages 15-35.
2000
Staff and Base Growth: Regular gatherings begin in Boston and Western Massachusetts. Hez Norton joins RG as Assistant Director. Comfort Zone officially changes its name to Resource Generation (RG) with an office in Cambridge.
2001
Staff and Base Growth: Monthly RG gatherings begin in the Bay Area and New York City. Tracy Hewat steps down, and Hez Norton becomes the new Director. Sally Bubier joins RG as a part-time Office Manager.
Programmatic Highlights: Alison Goldberg launches Foundations for Change, providing training and resources to young donors and family foundations interested in social change philanthropy. YDONTWE becomes The Young Donor-Organizing Alliance (YDOA), and RG takes on leadership for coordinating regular retreats and serving as fiscal sponsor. A pilot Donor Organizing Institute (DOI) is held as a pre-day event for the fourth MMMC.
2002
Staff and Base Growth: Monthly gatherings are now in nine locations: Boston, New York, Western Massachusetts, Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, the Bay Area, and Southern California. Karen Pittelman joins staff as RG’s first Program Coordinator.
Programmatic Highlights: Intergenerational workshops on family dynamics and giving are held at philanthropy conferences and “Class and Activism” workshops, a cross-class workshop that examines issues of classism and privilege, are held at college campuses.
2003
Staff and Base Growth: Foundations for Change and Resource Generation merge. Alison Goldberg becomes RG’s first Donor Education Coordinator. John Harrison joins the staff as Networking and MMMC Coordinator.
Programmatic Highlights: A 4 day Donor Organizing Institute with workshops that focus on money and relationships, class privilege, giving plans, and social change financial planning occurs. MMMC includes a Reflective Leadership pre-day training, helping to develop RG leaders who lead small groups throughout the conference. The first Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy Conference (now Transforming Philanthropy) for young people involved in their family foundations is held, undeterred by a giant snowstorm!
RG publishes two booklets, Protest and Privilege: Young People With Wealth Talk about Class and Activism and Voices Carry: Young People With Wealth Talk about Silence, Guilt and Social Change, written by RG fellow Courtney Young, based on over 30 interviews.
2004
Staff and Base Growth: Monthly gatherings expand to Durham, North Carolina, and Portland, Oregon. Karen Pittelman leaves to work on an updated version of Money Talks, and Courtney Young becomes RG’s new Program Coordinator. Board and staff convene for an all-day anti-racism training session focusing on the RG constituency and future goals.
Programmatic Highlights: The second Donor Organizing Institute was held.
2005
Staff and Base Growth: Hez Norton retires and Taij Moteelall becomes RG’s new Executive Director. Alison Goldberg leaves RG to work on an RG family philanthropy book, and Jamie Schweser becomes the new Donor Education Coordinator.
Programmatic Highlights: The third Donor Organizing Institute and the second Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy Conference occur. RG helps develop and host the Momentum Conference, an intergenerational gathering for progressive donors, together with Tides Foundation and Threshold Foundation. YDOA transitions into the Dialogue Project run jointly by RG and Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP). RG’s first book, Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use it for Social Change, written by Karen Pittelman and illustrated by Molly Hein, is published by Soft Skull Press.
2006
Staff and Base Growth: RG members form the Gulf South Allied Funders (GSAF), partner with the Twenty-First Century Foundation, the only explicitly Black foundation working in the region, to support their Hurricane Katrina Recovery Fund. Sally Bubier and Courtney Young leave RG, and the organization relocates to New York City. RG faces a funding crisis, and Taij Moteelall, Jamie Schweser and John Harrison are laid off. A wave of donor support by constituents, staff and board allow the organization to stay afloat. Sam Stegeman takes on the role of coordinator for the CORE program.
Programmatic Highlights: The Catalyzing Our Resources for Equity (CORE) program is launched, seeking to expand RG’s constituency to include more young people of color with wealth and to promote racial equity within the field of philanthropy. The first Anti-Racist Grantmaking Workshops are held at conferences and retreats. The Dialogue Project’s first national retreat brings together young people with wealth, next-gen fundraisers and philanthropy professionals to talk about power dynamics, race, and class in philanthropy. The third Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy conference is held.
2007
Staff and Base Growth: Local programming expands to Minneapolis. Staff and constituents lead a 30–person delegation to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, GA. Elspeth Gilmore takes over for Jamie as the new Program Coordinator. Alice Rich joins RG as the first Communications and Development Coordinator.
Programmatic Highlights: RG celebrates its tenth annual MMMC retreat. RG helps found the Social Justice Philanthropy Collaborative with National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), Funding Exchange, Changemakers and the National Network of Grantmakers.
RG releases its second book, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy: The Next Generation by Alison Goldberg and Karen Pittelman from Soft Skull Press.
2008
Staff and Base Growth: Mike Gast joins the RG staff as Family Philanthropy Coordinator..
Programmatic Highlights: The fourth Donor Organizing Institute is held. RG helps to plan a slate of Next Gen events together with Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) and 21/64, and brings a 30-person delegation to the Council on Foundations Summit.
2009
Staff and Base Growth: Taij Moteelall retires and Rodney McKenzie, Jr. becomes the new Director. Sam Stegema leaves and Nicole Lewis joins the staff as the new CORE Coordinator and National Organizer. Jessie Spector joins RG as a National Organizer.
Programmatic Highlights: The fifth class of the Donor Organizing Institute graduates! The Dialogue Project’s second retreat meets to discuss strategies for transforming philanthropy for social change.
2010
Staff and Base Growth: Praxis Groups, small local groups of RG’ers meeting monthly over the course of 5-6 months to support and challenge each other to work on their goals and action steps, begin. Rodney McKenzie leaves his role as Director, and Elspeth Gilmore and Mike Gast become RG’s new Co-Directors.
Programmatic Highlights: The fourth Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy Conference. Making Money Make Change (MMMC) is held as a stand alone RG program for the first time.
2011
Staff and Base Growth: RG praxis groups partner support four cross-class giving circles. RG’s work becomes more visible with Occupy and the We Stand with the 99% blog, which over 100 media outlets covered. Nitika Raj, the Director of National Organizing and Racial Justice, and Sarah Abbott, the Director of National Organizing, joined RG’s staff.
Programmatic Highlights: MMMC had a wait list for the first time in its history, and RG held the fifth Creating Change through Family Philanthropy Retreat. RG officially launched its Tax Campaign and held Tax Day actions in 8 cities around the country; RG begins deepening its commitment to organizing people of color with wealth, including executing the first praxis group for POCWW. RG started the mission-related investing fellowship.
2012
Staff and Base Growth: Members support Hummingbird Fund for Migrant and Border Justice by practicing donor organizing. Members participated in a national day of action to stop “fiscal cliff” cuts to social programs and call for tax reform. RG became 86% community funded and membership grew from 153 to 224 people.
Programmatic Highlights: Making Money Make Change expands to 100+ people in attendance, with an active waiting list. The sixth Creating Change through Family Philanthropy is its largest yet with leaders across the class spectrum coming together to shift family funds and the field of philanthropy towards progressive social change.
2013
Staff and Base Growth: The first ever RG Alumni Retreat is organized in upstate New York. RG hosted its 15 year anniversary party, Moving Money, Shaking Things Up! Jessie Spector becomes the new Executive Director of RG.
Programmatic Highlights: The first Transformative Leadership Institute is launched to focus on skill building opportunities for RG’s base. RG launched the Tax Justice Platform, written by the National Tax Organizing Team (a group of six young people with wealth supported by staff member Isaac Lev Szmonko). This campaign focused on the role that young people with wealth can play advocating for a more just tax system. Nicole Lewis and RG published Between a Silver Spoon and the Struggle: Reflections on the Intersection of Racism and Class Privilege which focuses on the experiences and opportunities for action of people of color with wealth.
2014
Staff and Base Growth: This was a notable year for staff growth. Colette Henderson was hired as the first Membership and Communications Associate, Iimay Ho became Associate Director, Emil Paddison joined staff as a Chapter Organizer and Iris Brilliant joined staff as Family Philanthropy Organizer to relaunch the family philanthropy program. Isaac Lev Szmonko leaves staff and is replaced by Kaitlin Gravitt, who becomes the Campaign Director and Tiffany Brown expands her role to direct three annual retreats as RG’s Retreat Director.
2015
Staff and Base Growth: Yahya Alazrak, Adam Roberts and Kirin Kanakkanatt join staff as full-time national chapter organizers with Yahya also serving as the Coordinator of People of Color-based programs. After 17 years of fiscal sponsorship, RG finally became an independent 501c3.
Programmatic Highlights: RG Re-launched a successful retreat for people with family giving vehicles, Transforming Family Philanthropy. RG hosted a series of sessions with members to craft a 40-year campaign vision to bolster our commitment to cross-class solidarity.
2016
Staff and Base Growth: Over 300 new members join RG following the election of Donald Trump. Faisal Alam joins as our Events and Operations Coordinator, Jes Kelley joins as Retreat Organizer and Maria Myotte as our first Communications Director.
Programmatic Highlights: RG hosts its second National Campaign Summit to bring together member leaders from multiple chapters to discuss and select a cohesive national priority of Valuing Labor for All. Writings, all member calls, and Making Money Make Change help us orient ourselves to the current political moment and our task ahead as young people with wealth.
2017
Staff and Base Growth: The National Member Council forms, comprising Campaign, Resource Mobilization, and Base-Building and Leadership Development teams, made up of staff, board, constituent, and advocate members. Ekundayo Igeleke joins as the Director of Chapter Organizing. Jessie Spector transitioned off staff as RG’s Executive Director and Iimay Ho was promoted to Executive Director. Braeden Lentz became Associate Director after serving on RG’s board for many years.
Programmatic Highlights: RG staff and members marched in Washington D.C. three times – once for the Women’s March and twice with the It Takes Roots coalition for the People’s Climate March. Member leaders and staff were arrested as a part of civil disobedience protesting the #taxscam. RG also held three successful skill building regional retreats to ensure leadership development of our members.
2018
Staff and Base Growth: RG established formal partnerships with the Movement for Black Lives and Popular Democracy. The National Member Council Resource Mobilization committee creates the original Redistribution Pledge and Redistribution Guidelines, and the National Member Council Base-Building Committee creates a leadership trajectory for member leaders. We welcomed Etta Monique as Events Planner, Danielle West as Director of Development, Frankie Jones as our first-ever Southern Regional Organizer, and Katie Wang as our first-ever West Coast Regional Organizer.
Programmatic Highlights: We conducted our Resource Survey for the third time and found that those who join RG increase their giving by an average of 16 times. The survey revealed that our Make Money Make Change (MMMC) conference, signing the Redistribution Pledge, and having a personal spiritual practice were the most significant inspirations that increased personal wealth redistribution within RG’s community.
2019
Staff and Base Growth: After two years of experimentation, the National Member Council (NMC) dissolved itself, a group of members formed to lead the creation of a NMC 2.0. We welcomed Eddie Andújar as Operations Manager, Nora L. as High Net Wealth Organizer, Christina Brown as our first ever Midwest Regional Organizer.
Programmatic Highlights: We launched our first-ever College Fellowship, which garnered engagement from over a dozen campuses with three fellows leading the charge of dedicated programmatic support for college students. The Transformative Leadership Institute returned for a three-day training, bringing together nearly 50 leaders from around the country. We launched RG Action as a 501c4. After a pilot launch in 2018, RG formally launched the Redistribution Pledge and Redistribution Guidelines this year, exceeding our goal to move $25 Million to movements.
2020
Staff and Base Growth: Constituents across the country get activated by the COVID-19 pandemic and Black-led racial justice uprisings, accounting for a large increase in RG’s membership. We collectively directed over $60 Million to social justice movements. Representatives from our campaign partners, Movement for Black Lives and Popular Democracy join RG’s board. We welcomed Charlotte Hakikson as Operations Associate, Nadav David as New England Regional Organizer, Nicole Follman as Mid-Atlantic Regional Organizer, keithlee spangler as our first ever College Organizer, and Falon Shackelford as our first-ever Database and Digital Engagement Manager.
Programmatic Highlights: RG pivoted into a virtual event to respond to the COVID-19-related conditions and hosted more than 40 virtual events, including a series on land returns for Indigenous and Black communities, an online praxis, a virtual Transformative Leadership Institute and Making Money Make Changed. RG also launched the #ShareMyCheck campaign, which encouraged those who did not need government stimulus checks to redistribute them to communities, movements, and individuals most affected by the pandemic.
2021
Staff and Base Growth: The National Member Phoenix committee launched the National Member Council 2.0, bringing together representation from RG chapters across the country. We set a goal to collectively direct $100 million to social justice movements through the Redistribution Pledge. We experienced conflict and began a resolution process within the organization with the Member Led Movement for Accountability and Transparency. Iimay Ho transitioned out of the Executive Director role and Yahya Alazrak became Executive Director. We welcomed Amira al-Dasouqi as our new Southern Regional Organizer, Jeannie He as our first ever Communications Manager, and Viva Yeboah as our first ever Finance Manager.
Programmatic Highlights: RG strengthened its political education focus with webinars on topics ranging from the Transformative Investing Principles to campaigns like Defund Line 3 and Unmasking Fidelity. RG maintained its Transforming Philanthropy and Making Money Make Change conferences, moving them to take place virtually and run simultaneous High Net Wealth Praxis cohorts.
2022
Staff and Base Growth: Staff, Board, and National Member Council co-created a new Strategic Framework through a collaborative process, building clarity to our mission, vision and values. RG Members led a Fund Abortion Now campaign, responding to the attack on reproductive rights. We welcomed Eliza Webb as the new Midwest Regional Organizer, Leah Versano as Resource Mobilization Director, Julia White as Membership Director, Charlie Epshteyn as Membership Coordinator, Sahana Mehta. as High Net Wealth Organizer, Megan Marchetti as our first-ever HR Manager, and Emery Coco. as our first ever Local Power Organizer.
Programmatic Highlights: Host nearly 40 virtual events such as Making Money Make Change, an alumni reunion, a member-focused media training, Organizing School and climate justice giving circle with Popular Democracy. RG expanded the college fellowship program from 3 fellows to 6 fellows and continued running multiracial and white anti-racist high net wealth praxis groups.