Dear Friend,

We are writing today because we just launched our 2023 End of Year Fundraising Campaign, #WeShowUp. Our goal is to raise $1.5M for our movement accompaniment work by December 31, 2023. 

At this moment, many of us are grieving for and raging against the injustices in the world. The tragic loss of lives in Palestine and Israel/‘48 since October 7 and the unfathomable genocide facing Palestinians as we write. The US role in destabilizing the political system in Haiti, and the undermining of self-determination through colonial interventions. The criminalization of organizing and attempts on the lives of Indigenous and Afro-descendant leaders defending their territories in Honduras. The threats to democracy and human rights in Guatemala. The destruction of entire ecosystems in Brazil, and attacks on the Indigenous, Quilombola, and peasant communities who defend them.

At a time of so much grief and rage, what do we do?  

We show up for the movements that are at the forefront of these struggles.
 

We show up for social movements in the best ways we can, whenever we are needed. And moving funding could not be more important in these times, to support the work of movements.

Thank you so much for following the work of Grassroots International. Now is the time to take action to support social movements during these simultaneous crises. 

Will you make your first gift with a contribution to our End of Year Fundraising Campaign?

With your support, we will start the new year in a strong financial position, able to continue and expand our movement support work. 

Here are some examples of how, together with your support and engagement, we have been able to show up with and for our movement partners this past year. 

In our Middle East program: In the face of unfathomable levels of violence against Palestinians, we have launched an emergency fundraising campaign to move at least $750,000 to Palestinian movements who are doing all they can to save lives. We are also organizing together with our allies to collectively demand an end to genocide. And we are preparing for the day when our Palestinian partners will be able to continue their longer-term transformative work – building food sovereignty, running mental health and decolonial healing programs, reclaiming their ancestral territories, and more. 

In our Puerto Rico program: In the wake of repeated climate disasters and ongoing land grabbing, we are supporting Puerto Rican movements in taking back their land and put it to regenerative, collective use. We have funded movement partners in purchasing land; setting up agroecology schools; farming collectively through agroecology; establishing community kitchens; buying buildings for feminist-led community programs; and setting up off-the-grid sustainable energy programs. Our donor organizing collective, the Friends of Boriken, has also been organizing in the US to mobilize both resources and solidarity for Puerto Rican movements. 

Across these regions, our partners have been working on six interlinked thematic areas on the journey towards liberation: healing and wellbeing, human rights defense, ecological justice, food sovereignty, grassroots feminism, and defense of territory. Given the breadth and scale of these issues, we make long-term partnership with these social movement partners core to this work to create the sustained change that is needed. Over the next few weeks, in our end of year fundraising communications, we will continue to provide examples of the essential work of our partners on multiple fronts. 

Your support in our End of Year fundraising campaign is critical. 

With your generous financial contribution, we can continue and strengthen our movement accompaniment work in the regions listed above, as well as our work in Haiti, Brazil, West Africa, and the United States, and our support of global social movements, including La Via Campesina and the World March of Women. 

Grassroots International does not have an endowment, and we do not accept money from governments or corporations. We raise our annual operating budget every year and rely very strongly on individuals like you to sustain this work. Thank you in advance for whatever you can give. 

Thank You for Showing Up With Us. 

Sincerely,

Having trouble viewing this email? View it in your web browser