My favorite tradition of the new year and thinking about how we want to make philanthropic decisions for the next year.
Last year, the donations at the start of the year was an incredibly good idea. I had made a resolution that I would learn more about water in 2020. In a year that had so many priorities and challenges the urgency of climate and water challenges often fell to the side. Due to our January donations and my new found time to read books I ended 2020 having accomplished my goals. I had helped keep climate action groups going and I personally had learned more about water.
See our 2020 Donation Post here: https://surrealvolunteering.blogspot.com/2020/01/2020-donation-guide.html
This year we had long conversations about what we wanted to do this year. We quickly agreed that we wanted to support BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women.
Starting with the traditional charity idea, I did some reading and had a few important takeaways.
- Equity, thinking about how our modest donations could help tip the scales towards greater equity.
- Due to historic inequities in funding, voices (ideas, stories, businesses, inventions) from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women have not had an equitable chance.
- The donor designation dynamic has created limitations.
- The need to not only create direct charity programs but to go deeper, thinking root cause and how to support that. Is it advocacy, education, employment, wealth creation?
Reflecting on this, I started to think about small investments in startups. Finding startup founders who identified as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or female. Explored a few apps (Republic & WeFunder), both had a good selection of businesses. The drawback came down to that these would be donations that we would potentially be engaged with for many years, any startup that got off the ground, we would be an early investor of. This multi-year management was not for us at this time.
I pivoted to exploring Donors Choose, looking at classroom funding. How to invest in the education of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and girls. I have used this platform in past years for donating and genuinely enjoyed the experience. I came across some great projects, that helped me understand that this year I actually want to donate to BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women businesses/creations. (Classic example of donors' feelings above anything else being the driver for donations).
So tonight we landed on Kickstarter as the platform for this year's donations. We each had an equal dollar amount and with the guidelines of BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women we started searching. The goal here was not to fund things that we wanted or thought would be successful. Not to judge if the proposal or plan was good. Only to find ideas lead by BIPOC, LGBTQ+, or women, where they are who we are supporting.
We ended with a HUGE array of ideas that we backed.
Shop Sugar Clothing https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kieshab/shop-sugar-expanding
Valleto Dance https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/valleto2020/valleto-2020-performance-and-beyond
Rofhiwa Book Store https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2025896590/rofhiwa-book-cafe-a-book-and-coffee-spot-for-east-durham
Antarktikos Magazine https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/antarktikos/antarktikos-magazine
Aseda - Artist & Musician https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wmwio/wake-me-when-its-over-an-ep-by-aseda-safoa
Urban Dreams, Music and Art program https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/key2dakingdom/give-us-the-steam-to-power-our-dream
Sam - Comic Artist https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mushki/mixed-0
Jank - Debut Album https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janksetup/jank-setup-debut-album-look-whos-talking
Krafty Kravings Cookie Company https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kraftykravings/krafty-kravings
LGBT Cat Pins https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/faeryphos/lgbt-cat-enamel-pins
Black-Owned Radio Station https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/247blackradio/rhode-islands-black-owned-radio-station
Alma Ocean Kiddy Pools https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/almaocean/alma-ocean?ref=discovery&term=pool
A bunny sweatshirt https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xpinkwolfy/x-bunny-oversized-jacket?ref=discovery&term=sweatshirts
A diverse writer residency https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/therealauthorfactory/author-factory-a-writing-oasis-for-diverse-writers
A solar charging system https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398120161/solar-cow-school-teleporter?ref=discovery&term=solar%20cow
I continue to volunteer a few hours each month with the Red Cross and we have recently begun to explore other volunteer opportunities in the area, hope to add additional organizations to our volunteering list this year.
As in years past the goal of sharing these is to help shine additional light into the work being done and to hopefully encourage you to make a positive impact as part of your plan for 2021.
