Money. It’s Also the Root of Good.
July 28, 2021
While nonprofit, movement, and foundation leaders may have different approaches, we’re all driving – in some way or another – toward building a healthier and more equitable society. And there’s one thing we all need to do that. Money.
Sponsored by ActBlue, our July 27 Upswell Pop-Up “Let’s Talk About Money,” explored various aspects of, well, money – including being more intentional about what we do with it, how we use it, how digital fundraising can help us achieve our goals, and how reparative-focused funding can help us heal, restore, repair, and rebuild communities that have suffered the crushing weight of systemic racism. We also took time to consider how to use healing strategies to examine our lives through a healthy lens and bring our personal and professional selves into balance.
To address the need for systemic change to achieve racial justice and liberation in our country, some funders are now employing a reparations strategy that acknowledges the impact of historical racism and focuses on restoring what was taken from Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.
This Main Stage considered the hot-button topic of reparations and what is needed to restore, repair, and rebuild communities. Speakers discussed their roles in shaping reparations- and reparative-focused philanthropic funding models intended to increase wealth in Black and Native communities. They also addressed advocating for reparations-focused policy to repair generational harm done to Black people by government or corporations – and what is needed to move the entire sector in this direction.
Featured Speakers:
Key Takeaways:
The people-powered movements that emerged in 2020 around the pandemic, anti-Black systemic racism, voting rights, and social justice were people-powered movements that didn’t necessarily rely on big-money donations and mega-donors. This session, hosted by ActBlue, sponsor of this Upswell Pop-Up, showed how to use accessible, online tools to build and run a flexible, inexpensive, and empowering digital fundraising program to reach your organizing and movement goals.
Featured Speakers:
Key Takeaways:
The turmoil of the past 16 months has forced us to open our eyes to the unequal realities of our country and reimagine how intentional fundraising can help us better serve our communities. During this session we took a look at Community-Centric Fundraising, a movement pushing us to re-evaluate our modern-day fundraising practice and philosophy, and to shape a new strategy that views fundraising through a systems lens that reflects social and economic justice.
Featured Speakers:
Key Takeaways:
How do we achieve healing and balance in our lives? This session offered tools to help us “let go” of things that are negatively impacting wellness in our homes, communities, and workplaces in our quest to become whole. “Where there has been trauma, healing is the answer.”
Featured Speaker:
Key Takeaways: