Become a Revolutionary Donor

Original Author

mutsuko

Original Post Date

2010-06-10 11:38 AM

Original Body

Revolutionary Giving

POOR Magazine is proud to introduce a solution to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex and the exclusionary heirarchy of U.S. philanthropy; Revolutionary Giving. As an indigenous people led/poor people led non-profit, grassroots, arts organization we have long been critical of the classist, racist, model of philanthropy that perpetuates the deserving versus undeserving notion of caregiving, service provision and charity. This notion turns people's pain and struggle into a product, pits the poor against the poorest and ultimately inhibits, silences and detroys the spirit,culture, art, language, and voices of poor people, indigenous people, and cultures of color across the globe. This damaging notion is pervasive in instutions and systems in the US, from the Prison Industrial Complex to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, from the education system to the welfare System -it is how these harmful systems can continue to operate - it is how these systems can "profit" from our poverty without ever truly working towards change, access to equity, resources, civil, economic and human rights for all.

From POOR Magazine's perspective, we believe that giving and donating for the giver or donor is not a privilege, an option, or a nice idea , rather, it is a duty. A duty of people with class and/or race privelege, to give their time, their surplus income, their equity, and/or their support, towards change for people struggling with poverty in the US and across the globe.

Poverty Scholars as Co-Funders

In addition, Philanthropy which has its roots in the Slave/Master "plantation" model, operates from the premise that people with money and/or resources inherently hold more knowledge about money than people without money. Contrary, we believe that people who have struggled to survive, feed and clothe multiple family members and themselves in fact hold a deep scholarship about the use and distribution of resources.

Another mythology is rooted in the notion that a person receiving funding must be in a dire state of need to "deserve" the money. At POOR we believe that the roots of oppression and poverty is based on the separateness from our fellow human, the oppression of one peoples by another peoples, the theft of land and resources of indigenous peoples, and the truly harmful cult of independence (Bootstraps) that informs ALL parts of the Western US experience. Consequently, we believe that if we are truly going to bring about change it will be from the inclusion of all voices, all perspectives and from the collective leadership of poverty scholars working collaboratively with donors to inform a different and truly inclusive process that doesn't perpetuate the historical oppression of people of color living in poverty.

POOR's Supporters

POOR Magazine is a non-profit, 501(c)3, tax deductible organization. We have no current foundation or government funders, not for lack of trying and endless applying, but because of the policies held by most foundations and all government funding which is set-up to exclude very small, truly grassroots, people-led organizations like us. Currently our funding comes from our community of revolutionary donors, without whom their would be no us... Please consider becoming a member of our Revolutionary Donors Circle or contributing to one of our many important change media, art and education projects!