We are moving full-steam ahead into 2024. With the state of the world, there is so much organizing to do. Yet, in the midst of it all, RG continues to shift and change. Every year, new people join RG, move into leadership, move, join staff, and leave staff. 

In the past three months, three long-time staff members clocked in for the last time at RG.

In December, we said goodbye to Ekundayo. He started at RG in 2017 as the Chapter Organizing and Base-Building Director, managing our Regional Organizers and building strategy for leadership development and base-building. In his last two years, he built out the Multi-Racial Base-Building Manager role, furthering strategy development this time going deeper, and last summer, he ran RG’s first-ever Internationalism Summer School, a cross-class space to grow our political education of global movements for justice and liberation. 

His political clarity, commitment to joy and art, humor, and impeccable fashion will be sorely missed on our team. 

In 2018, Etta joined our team as the Events Planner, working on our national retreats and convenings. She was a powerhouse in creating seamless spaces where people were cared for. Etta and Jes were a powerhouse duo putting together Making Money Make Change, Transforming Philanthropy, and Transformative Leadership conferences. She was also a driving force in pushing our staff culture to one that took better care of our people. With the pandemic and the pause on in-person events, she transitioned into the Director of Special Operations Initiatives before building out the role as our inaugural Director of People and Culture. 

Her wisdom, truth-telling, attention to detail, colorful hair, and fierce energy playing games will be irreplaceable.

Faisal joined the team in 2016 as the Events and Operations Associate and grew responsibilities into Finance and Operations Manager before finally becoming Associate Director (title later changed to Deputy Director). Over time, he moved from being a jack-of-all-trades, doing everything on the Finance and operations side, to building a robust Operations team and transforming the Deputy Director role. Along the way, he pushed for stronger and more supportive organizational policies from which staff continue to benefit. 

From the stability he offered during our ED transition to his passionate and hilarious karaoke performances to his certifiably Gen X memes, Faisal’s impact on this organization will be long-lasting.

It is bittersweet to say farewell to Etta, Ekundayo, and Faisal. Their care, heart, time, and labor irrevocably changed Resource Generation and we are all better for it. We are grateful for the time we had together and we look forward to seeing the amazing things they will accomplish in the future.

At RG Action’s event, Ready or Not: Political Giving in 2024 (recording here!), we heard from leaders with Working Families Party, Movement for Black Lives Action Fund, and Center for Popular Democracy Action to discuss this election cycle and the opportunities to build durable power and govern on the other side of the massive organizing project that is the 2024 election. And the biggest takeaway from the event was… 

Give big, give early, and give to organizations connected to the grassroots. 

It’s soooo common for donors to give at the last minute, and this is especially true for electoral money, which always floods the field in October before a big election… too late for organizations to do much except buy ads. This is the year to switch it up and give at the most strategic time for the organizations and projects that you’re funding. Which is now! Have 2024 be the year you give early. 

For our friends at Working Families Party, Movement for Black Lives Action Fund, and the Center for Popular Democracy Action, giving early means March 31. And in alignment with RG’s commitments to M4BL and CPD, consider making those donations at least 10% (or more!) of your overall redistribution this year. Giving early makes it possible for grassroots orgs to hire staff, build ambitious voter contact plans, and break the boom and bust cycle of electoral organizing.

Now, what does giving early mean to Resource Generation? We ask all our members to move your dues by May 31. You have been instrumental in ensuring RG can do this work day in and day out… thank you. And we want to share that with more than half of our members moving dues in the final quarter of 2023, this would be a really big shift… for you and us. 

If it’s possible, I encourage you to take the four-step practice that was recently shared with me by Karen Pittelman, an OG RG staff member and member: 

1. Take out your checkbook and write a check, head to your DAF portal and request the donation, or do whatever it may be 
2. Drop it in the closest mailbox or click submit 
3. Celebrate being in alignment with the organizations you are funding and the movements you are a part of 
4. Buy/make some delicious food to appreciate yourself for doing the damn thing

This practice is meant to support you in thinking through how you can simplify your giving, remove any blocks or barriers, and make your donations early, early, early! Sending so much appreciation to you for your ongoing membership and support to RG and for receiving this invitation with the intention and determination to build more powerful organizing projects.  

In solidarity and commitment to a more united movement, 

Julia 

RG’s Membership Director 

LA chapter leaders had a retreat this past weekend to plan out our year! We have teams of folks working on partnership building, political ed/praxis, outreach and onboarding, and community building. After day of productive time and continued relationship deepening, we ended with a bonfire.

Last year, our emerging Nashville chapter welcomed about 100 participants, RG staff members, movement partners, financial professionals, and panelists to town for the first MMMC in the South since 2007. In our short four days, we committed over $2M to movements for the year and raised $100,000 on the spot for Grassroots International’s Palestine Solidarity Fund. Imagine what we might be able to do together in 2024?! 

MMMC is a welcoming landing place for RG newbies and for those who have been around for a while but have not yet been to MMMC in person. And if you’re lucky enough to have attended MMMC in the past, we hope you’ll apply to come back as a pod leader this year and invite your friends, too. Since MMMC in 2023, multiple Southern chapters are getting ready to take the steps to level-up to official chapters (shoutout to N/Asheville!) and deepen the ways we’re showing up for our movement partners, both nationally and locally. Our steps to get ready for applying for official chapterhood were possible because of the relationships and commitments made during last year’s conference. 

MMMC is a space to get connected to RG's national movement partners and campaign work, pledge to fund the work, build relationships with other peers with wealth/class privilege, and eat really good food, thanks to the amazing staff of Scarritt Bennett Center. What happens in the South impacts us ALL, even if you live elsewhere. Coming back to Nashville means we have the chance to learn more about the legacies towards liberation in this region, much of which has midwived the movements we flank today. 

We don’t know what November will bring, but we know we will be together in the long-lasting commitment to the equitable redistribution of wealth, land, and power. Meet you there! 

With love and solidarity, 

Lathram

RG Nashville’s Emerging Chapter 

Are you a dues-paying alumni member of Resource Generation? Do you want to be on the alumni listserv? I am embarking on a process to recruit dues-paying alumni members to this Google Group who are not currently on it, but may want to be. If you ARE a dues-paying alumni member of RG and want to be on the alumni listserv, please fill out this form.

Not a dues paying member but want to be? RG is over 95% funded by its members. Membership dues = wealthy people organizing happening = more money to movements (RG moved $120M to movements just this year!). Renew your dues here! 

There has been an alumni listserv in existence for many years but most people on there are not current RG dues-paying members. The protocol for that listserv is shifting so that it will be a space for dues-paying alumni members. This is in an effort to increase digital security and the quality of organizing facilitated by our internal communications channels, and to make sure that alumni who want to be connected to each other are indeed connected. RG remains focused on organizing 18-35 year olds in the top 10%. Organizing alumni is a strategy we could prioritize if we grew our budget (something I'm personally passionate about on both fronts!). In the meantime, alumni are asked to resource RG's work (and do! about 40% of our budget is funded by alumni) because we know alumni believe in the power of RG, have been transformed by RG, and understand that movement work is multigenerational. 

Where does RG currently point people over 35 if they're looking for more active organizing community? 

• Some of our chapters maintain a network of RG alumni and other 35+ people with wealth in the area. If you are located near one of our chapters, feel free to let me know and I can let you know if there are RG alumni organizing near you. 
• Intergenerational donor network that are part of the same ecosystem as RG. For example: Solidaire, Families Organizing to Resource Movements, Donors of Color Network, the Women Donors Network, Movement Voter Project, 
• I can also share this collection of resources we’ve put together on land justice, reparations, building cross-class relationships and the equitable distribution of wealth, land and power.
• We also encourage people over 35 to check out our Redistribution Pledge and Redistribution Guidelines to support you in making your redistribution plan. 

And remember! If you are a dues-paying alumni member of RG and want to be on the alumni listserv (and aren't already!), please fill out this form.

Let’s crowdsource some knowledge and practices on how you manage the process of wealth redistribution. If you're interested in sharing how you do this, please fill out this form by the end of February. Whether a RG member is new to the work of wealth redistribution or many years into a wealth redistribution process and coming across new challenges, a universal truth of wealth redistribution is that the process of wealth return requires some amount of project management, or simply time management. 

• What have you learned about this? 
• Where have you built practices, gained knowledge, or run into challenges? 

Let's crowdsource some experiences about how to manage the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual to-dos/tasks of wealth redistribution. Please complete this form by end of February. Thank you for generating/aggregating learnings and practices together! The responses will be summarized into a blog and shared with RG members in March. 

May the forthcoming resource serve to support all RGers in the swift and intentional process of redistributing land, wealth, and power.

Our partners (M4BL, USCPR, Rising Majority) are organizing the People's State of the Union in DC on March 7th to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to our complicity in genocide. They will have a big rally followed by a direct action in which hundreds will put their bodies on the line to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. There is more information at PeopleDemand.org.

They need to raise $60,000 to help pay for materials, photographers, travel expenses, food, meeting space, and legal and logistics support, among other things. There is a draft budget here. Please contribute, if you are able, to help ensure they get the biggest crowd possible and send a message that our elected officials and the media cannot ignore.

To make a tax-deductible, 501(c)(3) contribution online: Please click on the Donate button on the ACRE Institute website, and write "Palestine" in the comment field when prompted. You can contribute using a credit card, ACH, or PayPal at that link. 

To mail a check: Please make the check out to "ACRE Institute", write "Palestine" on the memo line, and mail it to Saqib Bhatti, 4908 W Argyle St, Chicago, IL 60630.

This action is being sponsored by:

Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE)

Adalah Justice Project

Funding Freedom

Movement for Black Lives

Rising Majority

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) 

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

New Economy Coalition is launching the Solidarity Economy Funding Library with a webinar next week on Wednesday, March 6 from 1 - 2:30pm EST. RSVP here.

Be sure to reach out through your funder networks to invite institutional funders to attend the "Will the Revolution be Funded?" event on Wednesday, March 6th. 

You can also lift this event up in your respective channels (listservs, social media, LinkedIn, Slack channels, etc.) with information about this event.  

We encourage you to consider joining RG as a dues paying member, and if you would like to get involved in your local chapter, please fill out this intake form!

Resource Generation
1216 Broadway
New York, NY 10001
United States

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