Been loving these reflections and totally resonate how middle class folks / adjacent wealthy folks have a critical role and privilege. In most if not all revolutions the petty bourgeois had key roles! Also I think it is so needed to share more openly about resource mobilizing / donor organizing / wealthy ppl organizing. Thank u for the nuance and sharpness, strategy and incredible emotional intelligence.
thanks alex! so glad these interviews have been helpful. ive been loving doing them. and id love to learn more/understand more about the role of the middle class/petty bourgeouis in revolutionary movements. curious to read more from folks who have studied that piece. i certainly personally relate and see the impact of that sector/class of people all over the place in current movements. and yet, we don't talk very openly about it. the wonderful things about that dynamic and the challenges.
Totally! It's ironic because at SJF a big focus of my work was cross-class donor organizing and I spent more time organizing middle class donors than any others. So if you talked to me a few years ago that would've been what I meant by "donor organizing." But now I only work with wealthy donors so that's just where my head is and that's what I talked about here. But you're right, I completely agree that middle class people have an important and strategic role to play and more of us need to be thinking seriously about that. Add that to the list of things we should discuss some time!
Appreciate the footnote on donor organizing for this one! Much of our time at Donor Organizer Hub is reminding people that donor is not synonymous with wealthy person, and the false binary of "giving money versus time" doesn't account for how valuable time is for poor and working class folks, particularly those of us who are working multiple jobs, providing dependent care, etc. Oftentimes, a donation is the first step that folks choose to take to enter our movement spaces.
hell yeah haley. love and cosign this..."donor is not synonymous with wealthy person, and the false binary of 'giving money versus time'...". amen. agreed that giving money can be the first step in...and i hope there are more ways we can move people from donor to engaged member and leader in class conscious political homes.
@haley, i got a future post in mind about how organizing the middle class is at least or more important than organizing the rich...just not the work i've mostly done for the last decades. and i want more class conscious ways for non-unionized professional middle class folks to engage in movements outside of just giving or doing a phonebank now and again. if you write that before i do, let me know!
Haley I totally agree and appreciate Mike's footnote and your comment for adding what I missed. See my reply to Alex above. Cross class donor organizing, including DO strategies that center poor and working class folks, is critical!
Mike and Mijo - what an offering! I'm an RG alum who is coming back to my relationship with wealth and organizing, partially through a new job with a philanthropic services/consulting firm. Both parts of this interview have rich (pun intended?) areas of thinking and dreaming that I want to come back to, in particular the section at the end about holding/handling/exploring need for validation as donor/wealthy person.
yes! that's a real interesting part of the conversation for me too. much more to unpack and reflect on around how we help wealthy people support each other to get the validation, support and re-assurance they/we need...without putting that work on to working class colleagues and organizations and movements. so glad to know what's grabbing you on this Kate. thanks!
So appreciate these ideas Mike and Mijo! Mike - I particularly love the push to replace the term "Donor Organizing" because the more we push rich people into tying their identity to being donors (which that term does, with it's positive flavor), the more they must hold onto and grow their wealth to ensure they never have to part with that identity. Getting folks thinking of themselves as "rich people" on the other hand may, I think, agitate people to perhaps, just maybe, lose the first of those words by (temporarily) being donors!
thanks greg and right there w you about 'donor organizing'. i think there are places and times that it makes sense to use the term 'donor organizing'. particularly when it's about engaging a cross-class set of donors in an organization to donate and fundraise towards a collective money moving campaign (like many social justice public foundations and philanthropic intermediaries do). and it is sooo often used as code for wealthy people organizing. i dont like that. i think so many revolutionary, exciting, interesting possibilities are opened up when we organize around someone's class identity, whether it's poor, working, middle or owning class, rather than their identity as a donor.
Been loving these reflections and totally resonate how middle class folks / adjacent wealthy folks have a critical role and privilege. In most if not all revolutions the petty bourgeois had key roles! Also I think it is so needed to share more openly about resource mobilizing / donor organizing / wealthy ppl organizing. Thank u for the nuance and sharpness, strategy and incredible emotional intelligence.
thanks alex! so glad these interviews have been helpful. ive been loving doing them. and id love to learn more/understand more about the role of the middle class/petty bourgeouis in revolutionary movements. curious to read more from folks who have studied that piece. i certainly personally relate and see the impact of that sector/class of people all over the place in current movements. and yet, we don't talk very openly about it. the wonderful things about that dynamic and the challenges.
Totally! It's ironic because at SJF a big focus of my work was cross-class donor organizing and I spent more time organizing middle class donors than any others. So if you talked to me a few years ago that would've been what I meant by "donor organizing." But now I only work with wealthy donors so that's just where my head is and that's what I talked about here. But you're right, I completely agree that middle class people have an important and strategic role to play and more of us need to be thinking seriously about that. Add that to the list of things we should discuss some time!
Appreciate the footnote on donor organizing for this one! Much of our time at Donor Organizer Hub is reminding people that donor is not synonymous with wealthy person, and the false binary of "giving money versus time" doesn't account for how valuable time is for poor and working class folks, particularly those of us who are working multiple jobs, providing dependent care, etc. Oftentimes, a donation is the first step that folks choose to take to enter our movement spaces.
hell yeah haley. love and cosign this..."donor is not synonymous with wealthy person, and the false binary of 'giving money versus time'...". amen. agreed that giving money can be the first step in...and i hope there are more ways we can move people from donor to engaged member and leader in class conscious political homes.
@haley, i got a future post in mind about how organizing the middle class is at least or more important than organizing the rich...just not the work i've mostly done for the last decades. and i want more class conscious ways for non-unionized professional middle class folks to engage in movements outside of just giving or doing a phonebank now and again. if you write that before i do, let me know!
Haley I totally agree and appreciate Mike's footnote and your comment for adding what I missed. See my reply to Alex above. Cross class donor organizing, including DO strategies that center poor and working class folks, is critical!
Mike and Mijo - what an offering! I'm an RG alum who is coming back to my relationship with wealth and organizing, partially through a new job with a philanthropic services/consulting firm. Both parts of this interview have rich (pun intended?) areas of thinking and dreaming that I want to come back to, in particular the section at the end about holding/handling/exploring need for validation as donor/wealthy person.
yes! that's a real interesting part of the conversation for me too. much more to unpack and reflect on around how we help wealthy people support each other to get the validation, support and re-assurance they/we need...without putting that work on to working class colleagues and organizations and movements. so glad to know what's grabbing you on this Kate. thanks!
So appreciate these ideas Mike and Mijo! Mike - I particularly love the push to replace the term "Donor Organizing" because the more we push rich people into tying their identity to being donors (which that term does, with it's positive flavor), the more they must hold onto and grow their wealth to ensure they never have to part with that identity. Getting folks thinking of themselves as "rich people" on the other hand may, I think, agitate people to perhaps, just maybe, lose the first of those words by (temporarily) being donors!
thanks greg and right there w you about 'donor organizing'. i think there are places and times that it makes sense to use the term 'donor organizing'. particularly when it's about engaging a cross-class set of donors in an organization to donate and fundraise towards a collective money moving campaign (like many social justice public foundations and philanthropic intermediaries do). and it is sooo often used as code for wealthy people organizing. i dont like that. i think so many revolutionary, exciting, interesting possibilities are opened up when we organize around someone's class identity, whether it's poor, working, middle or owning class, rather than their identity as a donor.
pumped to get more into this soon! and love you and your leadership and thinking on this