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Why We Do Media
Many of you will receive a 🔥special mailer🔥 in the next few weeks. All our members with (current) addresses on file will receive a fold-out poster illustrating (literally and figuratively) our new 5-year strategic plan. For all of 2022, our Board, Staff, and National Member Council labored over this expansive set of guiding principles.
Like all nutrient-rich soils, we needed a mixture of components to bring to life the final 5-year strategic plan. We added our history (can’t forget about our ComfortZone™ origin story), mistakes and wins, dynamic shifts to our organizing model, and the dreams for a reimagined world where racial capitalism has been dismantled and a restructured economy, where everyone has enough, thrives. (Bare with me while I continue this soil/plant metaphor) We grew a strategic plan(t) that unapologetically states our mission, vision, values, expanded organizing model, and theory of change.
Rooted in this reimagined organizing model is our commitment to shift mainstream narratives and our culture. As the Communications Manager at Resource Generation, I know that making culture shifts is integral to our organizing strategy but was previously unwritten.
We are all here because we chose not to be complicit in wealth hoarding and racial capitalism. But, choosing not to be complicit is not a one-time decision, it’s an ongoing action that needs to be continually reinforced. On an individual and interpersonal level, we have been extraordinarily effective in organizing each other. Beyond our own inner circles, our effectiveness wanes. And it’s in this nebulous “rest of the world” that has the most power to make colossal changes, the final kind, that we want to see.
So, are we being complicit in allowing narratives of wealth hoarding to dominate our airways, fiber connections, and sound waves? Unequivocally, yes.
We, young people with wealth, have a vital role in the redistribution movement. Whether it makes us uncomfortable or not, we have power, and we need to use it. We have the ability to disrupt popular thinking around money. The success of our movement and our dream for a world where everyone has enough hinges on how much we are able to grow, build, and reach more people.
Organizing a subset of a subset of folks will never be enough. This movement —the reason why we share our stories with strangers, attend chapter meetings after a long day at work, stick through a 6-month praxis where we lay bare all the shit we have about money, and by doing so, become incredible activists— deserves all that we can give. That’s why we must do media.
Media participation has been a contentious issue at Resource Generation. The journalists and media companies we speak to are not perfectly aligned with our movement. If we take a maximalist [[link removed]] * approach to our organizing, where “we hold to overly idealistic tactics and demands,” we constrain our ability to build power in favor of keeping us small but pure.
Clinging to lofty ideals may make us, young people with wealth, feel good and righteous, but it actively harms the communities our work supports. By placing our sense of virtue above all else, we give up resources that could go to frontline communities.
Resource Generation will never leave power on the table because our movement is dependent on our ability to grow and build power.
Jeannie He
Communications Manager
*Please read Maurice Mitchell’s “Building Resilient Organizations” [[link removed]] which greatly influenced this post. Maurice is the National Director of the Working Families Party.
RENEW OR BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!
We are more ready than ever to dig deep with you as we organize to end wealth hoarding with our generation. This year, we’re looking forward to working with you as you hone your leadership development and organizing goals [[link removed]] , redistribution plans [[link removed]] , support for our national partners [[link removed]] (Movement for Black Lives & The Center for Popular Democracy), and membership to RG [[link removed]] . RG is 95% membership funded. Being an RG member and paying dues is both an act of solidarity and an act of rebellion. When we are in solidarity with each other with the vision of ending wealth hoarding, we are in rebellion against individualistic values, traditional unjust philanthropy, and all the people and institutions that want us to fail.
Last year, through a last-minute effort, we raised nearly 25% of our budget in the month of December. We know that this is not sustainable for our organizing and work. This year, we’re committed to rooting ourselves within the power of transformative organizing and fundraising, staying true to our values, and making powerful asks of our people to recommit to being part of this membership organization. Because we know that in order to end wealth hoarding with our generation, it’s going to take every single one of us moving beyond the individual to the collective. A big shift you’ll be hearing about is a return to our pre-2022 ask that 10% of your overall redistribution go to RG membership dues. This is what is necessary for each of us to powerfully fund this work. We must be in relationship with one another; we must remain accountable to grounding our actions within the greater movement; and we must organize with our wallets and our bodies and voices.
Will you fund RG and be a part of RG’s membership community like you want us to win by making a commitment to move 10% of your overall redistribution to membership dues by May 31 of this year?
Renew or Become a Member Today! [[link removed]]
CHAPTER UPDATES
Fourth monthly BARG Potluck! Eight BARG members are sitting around a bonfire fire at night talking. There is a large bush behind them, and string lights above them. [[link removed]] Bay Area Chapter
In the Bay Area, we kicked off a deeper engagement with Transformative Fundraising with a training in January. We are hosting our third cohort of the Organizer Training Program in a few weeks, with 12 new praxis leader organizers ready to get trained. We've also started hosting monthly potlucks to get the community together in person and build our collective energy for organizing and redistribution (we had 17 people at our last gathering! So fun and inspiring!). We are also getting the whole leadership (18 people!) together on one zoom call to plan and collaborate. And finally, we are starting to use our tech better to organize ourselves (linktree, slack, interactive access and giving worksheet)--it is the Bay Area after all. 🙂
From left to right, back to front: Jae, Rachael, Rachel, Julia, Natalie, and Maura smiling outdoors in a park with sun shining on their faces. [[link removed]] Austin, TX Chapter
We had our retreat, which was a huge success! Core members met to discuss our priorities and leadership structure. We made some foundational decisions and feel confident moving forward with our year.
St. Louis, MO (Emerging) Chapter
Our St. Louis chapter is small but mighty! Our new focus as a chapter is to organize landlords and property owners to support housing justice. This January, members of our group testified in support of a right to counsel bill which would provide legal counsel for all tenants facing eviction and it looks like the bill will be passed very soon! In February, two of our members are speaking at an “impact investing symposium” and share personal perspectives on how to make an impact in the community. We will be sharing the RG Transformative Investment Principles and hope to recruit some new RG members. Lastly, several of us were part of a giving circle last year that distributed $53K to 5 Black-led organizations. We supported a follow up fundraising event that raised an additional $20K for these organizations and hope to be part of the next round of our local giving circle. Learn more here [[link removed]] .
Boston members standing with masks on in a large room [[link removed]] Boston Chapter
On January 29th, RG Boston joined together for their annual retreat. This was RG Boston's first all-chapter hybrid event since the pandemic began, so we began the retreat by getting to know each other. We then dove into visioning what we want the chapter to accomplish and some of the steps needed to get there. After lunch, we had a workshop provided by RG on the "Power of the Collective." We then spent the rest of the afternoon discussing our chapter structure and roles, including relaunching our base building and leadership development working group, shifting how we approach projects, and creating more ways for people to engage with the chapter.
Triangle, NC Chapter
The Triangle NC Chapter is kicking off 2023 with a bang! We had a group Watch Party for a Transformative Justice 101 Workshop with Mia Mingus, raised $83K for the N.C. Environmental Justice Network at our first Giving Dinner of the year, and are getting pumped up for our Chapter Retreat later this month (with extra excitement for the retreat's 2000s-themed lock-in sleepover party).
Colorado Chapter
The RG Colorado chapter is nearing the end of our first Praxis group in a few years. The group has been meeting monthly since October and has discussed things like reparations, the non-profit industrial complex, money stories, the solidarity economy, and more; all supported by our amazing member leader Molly!
Additionally, the RG Colorado chapter collectively--along with Chantelle from Funders for LGBTQ issues--sent over $14,000 to the Bread and Roses fund, Queers for Q, to support survivors and those affected by the Club Q shooting. We are now looking at raising more ongoing funds to be able to sustain this work in an ongoing way
Los Angeles, CA Chapter
After a period of transition and base-building, the RG-LA chapter recently organized a generative & connective community bonfire event on February 13th, where we welcomed new members, facilitated some juicy conversations about wealth & redistribution, and talked about the year to come! The LA chapter currently organizes with the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy, fundraises for Noname Book Club, and there is talk of organizing an RG-LA praxis later in the year!
text in black and blue reads: RG Western MA 2023 Winter Retreat Sunday, March 19th 2-6pm Join current and new RGers to build community, and develop shared vision & goals for our work together in 2023 Hybrid event in Westhampton, MA and online, outside lunch provided RSVP at [link removed] resource generation logo background image: photo of maple twigs and samaras dusted with snow crystals against a blue winter sky [[link removed]] Western Massachusetts Chapter
The Western Mass chapter met for our first general circle meeting of 2023, welcoming new folks and starting intentional conversations around capacity. We're gearing up for our annual retreat on Sunday March 19th 2-6pm, all are welcome! RSVP to join us in-person or online here: [link removed] [[link removed]]
UPCOMING EVENTS
[[link removed]] Apply for HNW Praxis By March 10! [[link removed]]
Apply [[link removed]] Resource Generation is thrilled to launch a new cycle of virtual praxis groups for young people with access to $1M or more in liquidable assets and/or who have influence over $10M through family assets to explore social justice giving. This will be a 10-month program in which you will create a long-term giving plan, develop a network of peers, explore different giving models and deepen your skills and capacity to implement a social justice strategy in your giving.
If you have any questions, please use this link [[link removed]] to schedule a one on one with Sahana, RG's HNW Organizer.
FROM OUR PARTNERS
Leftroots—A Left that Can Win: Organizing towards Liberatory Strategy
For nearly a decade hundreds of leftists who have been organizing oppressed and working class people across organization, geography and sector have been meeting and working together to strengthen the US left so we can build the kind of movements needed to win liberation for all people and the planet. We call ourselves LeftRoots, and we have reached a critical moment in building the infrastructure we need to position the grassroots, social movement left to win transformative structural change in our lifetimes. Please join us to hear more about what we've done, where we're headed, and how you can contribute.
Thursday March 23, 2023
4-5:30pm PT / 7-8:30pm ET
Register here [[link removed]]
OTHER COOL EVENTS WITH RG MEMBERS
Finding Freedom: White Women Taking on Our Own White Supremacy
5-week workshop called Finding Freedom: White Women Taking on Our Own White Supremacy . The workshop is on Tuesday evenings, April 4 - May 2, 2023 6:00-8:30pm on Zoom. Finding Freedom has created a special version of the workshop for the RG community. This invitation is specifically for white women & white genderqueer folks with access to wealth and class privilege. If this is not how you identify, please consider sharing this with people in your networks who do. Learn more and register here [[link removed]] .
We encourage you to consider joining RG as a dues paying member [[link removed]] , and if you would like to get involved in your local chapter, please fill out this intake form [[link removed]] !
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Resource Generation
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