Hi there, I’m Valeriya, an advocate member of RG and also our Membership Coordinator on staff. My life would be really different without RG, and I believe that is true for thousands of people. I want to tell you that story, update you on what happened during our Fall drive, and ask you to become a member or renew your membership if you haven’t yet. This last piece is particularly important now because we’re working hard to close a year-end income gap.

Doing this work is of particular personal importance to me. I came to RG through people I was organizing with in my community but primarily through my partner of almost seven years. These days, my partner is now my fiancé, and we’re moving through money coaching together, navigating emerging conversations with our birth and chosen families about our relationships to and intentions with this unearned wealth, and prefiguring the story that we want to tell people in our grandchildrens’ generations about how we stewarded wealth that was stolen, unfairly given to us, and rightfully returned.

I feel RG so strongly at our backs throughout this time of massive change. I feel groundedness and clarity because RG has taught me how to prioritize connective conversations with family about money. I feel moored by the 25 years of network weaving, skill-building, and much more that RG has built that supports my partner and I to be in such close alignment. I feel deep kinship with and comfort from people whose life experiences I don’t directly share, because I know we in RG are all striving to create belonging along a countercultural set of values and beliefs, towards healing and justice through wealth redistribution. It’s reasons like this that I want RG to thrive, it’s why I’ll be renewing my own membership dues this year, and it’s why I’m inviting you to do so, too. 

The Fall Membership and Redistribution Drive is one of the projects I coordinate at RG, and though it’s over, we still have a ways to go to finish 2022 strong, so we’re continuing to ask constituents to commit 5% of their overall redistribution to RG membership dues so we can raise a remaining $500,000 to finish off 2022 strong. We ask you to do this by December 15th at the very latest, because moving money sooner rather than later is a good donor practice, and we invite you to practice with us! 

Throughout the Drive, RG members have been signing the redistribution pledge and rededicating to RG by moving membership dues as a vote of confidence in their own political destiny, and in RG’s. More importantly, members have also been organizing their peers to do so too. To that end, let’s celebrate the chapters that hosted redistribution plan workshops, put on money moving coworking spaces, or integrated membership and redistribution pledge asks at fundraisers, skillshares, chapter events, and more: Bay Area, Boston, Colorado, LA, Ohio, Portland, Western Mass, Austin, DC, Michigan, NYC, NC Triangle, Philly, and Vermont! Huge shoutout to all of the leaders in these places who took part in this collective effort. 

Our Fall drive had two goals: Organize our base to pledge $100M to social movements with the Redistribution Pledge, and meet our 2022 budget of $3.6 million by raising an additional $1.7 million. As of today, we’re making great headway on the pledge goal (566 signers who’ve pledged to move $96.3 million to movements this year!) but we’re still coming up short of our income goal.

Though we have an income gap, the pledge data clearly indicates that we’re succeeding, and is perhaps one of the best reasons to continue ensuring the sustainability and health of this organization that’s transforming hundreds of young wealthy people’s giving patterns and commitment to the movements of our lifetimes. Back in October, we knew that success during this Fall drive was going to take everyone: people following through on their pledges, organizing lurkers into becoming new members, and following up on unpledged renewals. With one month left in the year, we still have more work to do to raise our budget.

In community,

Valeriya

Building off this past year's Fund Abortion Now! campaign programming, we are excited to invite you to Reproductive Justice 202! We will hear from panelists regarding state-based strategies for abortion funds in our current post-Roe landscape and also how anti-Blackness and anti-Southern sentiment is affecting the work of abortion funds.

The final date/time for this event is subject to change, please RSVP to show your possible interest at tinyurl.com/FAN-RJ202.

RG members of the CT chapter are involved in Recovery for All, a statewide coalition of labor, community and faith organizations committed to tax justice and building a more equitable economy. Although their focus is on CT residents, they are also welcoming anyone with strong ties to CT, like those who grew up, went to school or have family there. As neighboring states look to each other in setting policy, especially when it comes to the myth of millionaire tax flight, so interstate solidarity is essential!

Connecticut is consistently in the top 5 states with the widest wealth gaps in the country, a gap that is entrenched in the extremely regressive tax structure. A tax incidence report conducted this year revealed that working class residents pay more than 25% of their income in state and local taxes, while billionaires and multi-millionaires pay a mere 6% of their income. Wealthy corporations often get away with paying nothing in state taxes. All this while vital community services like public education, child care, health care (including mental health care and addiction services) and more are chronically under-resourced.

The circle will run from mid-January through April 2023 and is aiming to raise (at least!!) $100k. Participants of all ages will gather roughly four times (both on zoom and in person) to build community, ground themselves in Connecticut’s unique context and Recovery For All’s Equity Agenda, learn and practice transformative fundraising skills and support each other in meeting goals! There will also be opportunities to show up for RFA with more than just money, like attending direct actions, giving public testimony and building relationships with other coalition members and their organizations.

Learn more here and email [email protected] with any questions. 

The Vermont chapter hosted an open house and redistribution co-working space as part of the fall drive. The partnerships team also turned out the chapter to make calls to the governor to demand that he protect the healthcare and housing expansions made under the pandemic state of emergency, in solidarity with the chapter's partner, the Vermont Workers' Center.

Austin RG met this past week to touch base and talk about planning our chapter retreat in February. We're hosting a Winter Mixer in December to celebrate some redistribution highlights, gather folks who have shown interest over the course of this year, and generally enjoy each other's company.

RG Boston has been in the process of planning a virtual fundraiser for Cambridge HEART on Wednesday, December 7, from 7-9pm EST / 4-6pm PST! Cambridge HEART is a community-led organization creating alternatives to policing in the city of Cambridge that centers the needs of marginalized people. We have been partnering with them over the past year, and our goal for the fundraiser is to raise $25,000 to help HEART meet an ongoing $150,000 match offer.

On the 7th, we will hear from two HEART first responders, dive into our own relationships to abolition and redistribution, and renew our commitments to supporting transformative justice work. All RGers welcome! RSVP (and find info about donating) here: tinyurl.com/RGHEART22

So RG member leaders did a thing! Stemming from some excitement coming out of MMMC 2021, RG Michigan worked with the National TIPS team and RG staff to bring to life a conversation about the solidarity economy and the potential power it has to transform the Midwest. This two-part series was a beautiful balance of community building, political education, and resource mobilization. Based on the content and our debrief, here's our (Christina and Eliza's) takeaways from this series.

1 - Solidarity Economy Organizing is already happening in the Midwest & Ripe for More RG Possibility!

Part of the regional experimenting occurring within RG is highlighting existing organizing that is often portrayed as solely happening on the coasts. The question was not if Midwesterners have been organizing to build solidarity economy (shout out to RG Ohio for the real time case study), but how we can invite more RGers to participate in individual and collective transition towards solidarity investments. Finding small and large ways to bring folks across the Midwest into this work is meaningful as we continue to seek ways to leverage power.

2 - This would not have been possible without some year long plotting from member leaders who represent various aspects of RG organizing. Much appreciation to Curtis, Olivia, Laura V, Em, Alyssa, and others for bottom-lining, and community partner Michelle for joining in the second session. As we continue to figure out how to build power locally / regionally / while stretching our power & relationships across geography.

Eliza, RG Michigan Chapter Leader / MW Regional Organizer based in MI

Christina, 2019 - 22 Midwest Regional Organizer / Chapter Organizing and Basebuilding Director based in OH

This practice group, designed for people with access to wealth / class privilege, is co-hosted by The Next Egg, Cooperative Journal Media and RG’s Solidarity Economy (SE) / Transformative Investment Principles (TIPs) Member Team. It will be an opportunity to focus on the following questions: How can we shift our long term investment planning to play a role in wealth redistribution? How can we support each other to divest from extractive industries, avoid the traps of 401ks and IRAs, and reinvest in local solidarity economies? How do we acknowledge the brokenness of investment infrastructure (even the kind that seems good!)  and use our money to feed the seeds of a regenerative system? How can we invest our time and care in relationships with the land and community, building a safety net that makes accumulating money less necessary? How can we redesign our lives to lower our levels of “enough” money to save? 

The group will meet monthly (once as a full group and optional pod meetings as needed) to put Transformative Investment Principles into practice, experiment in local contexts, hear from wisdom-keepers, and share back stories from practice. 

Timeline: Learn more and express interest here.

• 1:1 consultations from Oct-Dec. Meet to explore visions, blocks, and how this Practice Group may (or may not!) serve you. 
• Informal Q&A Session 12/1 at 1:30-2:30 PT
• Register for the Practice Group by Dec 11th. 
• RR Practice Group begins with monthly group meetings January - June 2023 and consultation meetings as needed.

Peace RG Community. Many of y’all know me and many of you do not. My name is Ekundayo he/him and I have been on staff for over 5 years. In the beginning of this year, I transitioned out of Chapter Organizing and Basebuilding Director role, a position I held for over 4 years. I went on sabbatical and parental leave and returned at the end of summer in a new role: The Multiracial Basebuilding Manager. 

We have a history of a similar position at RG but it was always split with another role, so not a full time position since 2015. So what is different this time? After a half decade with RG, more financial and labor capacity toward this effort, I feel confident we are  equipped to tackle such a major political position we have held in our organization.  

We want to invest just as much time and capacity toward building a truly multiracial organization through the development of this position, the development of new strategies, and tactics. Over the next year, I will be in contact with many chapters to learn and share ways to build a solidly multiracial, multicultural organization. This will be challenging but we are committed to the task. We believe that if we want to take our organizing to another next, this is a must. This means we will be experimenting with new programs, doing more research than ever before, and being more rigorous with our collaborations. 

This is all a work in progress. None of this can happen without your leadership locally and nationally. I will be counting on it. Feel free to hit me up at [email protected] and know for sure that I will be reaching out to learn about your local work related to BIPOC engagement and MR organizing.

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!

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