Dear RG Community,
What is your recipe for challenging cynicism when it creeps in? I often follow this simple process:
Step 1: I find stories of people taking collective action in the face of immeasurable odds (Like this incredible Margaret Killjoy piece on Gay Resistance to Nazis or this breakdown of Bargaining for the Common Good from Practical Radicals, Tactical Disobedience with Daniel Hunter from How to Survive the End of the World, or this invocation from Miss Major Griffen-Gracey, trans Elder and Stonewall leader) and feed them like kindling onto the embers of commitment. I spend time reflecting on my promises to myself and the world: to take risks that have collective reward, to play my small part in the big wins, to act from a place of fierce love. To take part in something bigger than myself.
Step 2: Find people with whom I can talk and plan: identify where I have power and conspire with others to use it on the side of the majority. I plug myself into the humming web of the social movement ecosystem and start looking for places to be useful. As a young person with access to wealth that answer is almost always “move money,” but connecting to the web shows me “how and to where” and the other resources (connections, local campaigns, relationships, time) that I can leverage. While step one can be done solo-dolo, step two requires a crew.
We want to do a version of this with you this week, March 6th from 4-5:30 ET/ 1-2:30 PT when we gather for a storytelling event titled “Political Repression and Donor Courage.” We are not facing the risks to life and limb in the stories I outlined above, but we still need to be together to realistically assess the risks and encourage each other towards action. We’re going to hear from donors who have faced backlash in the press for their Palestine Funding, fired their unaligned financial advisors, committed to stretch their giving in the Trump Administration and navigated thorny family organizing in the past 8 weeks. We’ll give concrete recommendations about how to move money outside of c3s and what to do with your DAF this year. Then we’re going to have a chance to talk to each other, and make a commitment to stay in it together.
Political Repression and Donor Courage
Thursday, March 6⋅4-5:30 ET/ 1:00 – 2:30pm PT
Sign Up Here
Why? Endemic cynicism is not something any of us can afford at the moment—without courage and action from all of us we risk facing a reality where our ability to fight back and work for change is severely diminished. Although many of us have access to wealth, hope and determination are actually the resources that may be scarce for us right now, and we renew them by gathering and telling stories. This prescient piece from Scot Nakagawa outlines what we’re up against:
This is a heist. It’s a political coup wrapped in the language of efficiency and innovation—but it’s really about creating a system where Musk, Trump, and their billionaire class own everything, and the rest of us lose our rights, our economic security, and our ability to fight back.
So what are we going to do about it? Start with Step 1.
In It Together,
Nora Leccese, RG Campaign Director
P.S. There is a secret step 3 to fighting cynicism—if I have my redistribution plan tuned up, and I found my organizing community, then I start thinking about what skills I need to build to ready myself for the fight. If you’re on step three, I really suggest you sign up for Organizer Praxis with RG where you’ll get training on strategy, recruitment, fundraising and the other bundle of skills you’ll need in the coming months and years.
