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SEF's Internal Changes
Most organizations have internal problems, but we very rarely talk about them. The folks at SEF have been working on our struggles with the help of an amazing facilitator, a self-educated woman who is working with us for free because she "sees this as part of her intergenerational responsibility." Through this process we've come closer to understanding and finding real solutions. I want to share this with you because I don't think we're alone in these challenges-and I think our solutions are inspiring.
After a year of working together, the six members of SEF took a step back and recognized a pattern: we were all working on self-education organizing, but we barely talked to each other about our separate work. Nicole works on prison issues, Taina and Adrienne work on BUILD, Erica works on School Funding Equity, Sara Zia and I work on the philanthropy side of things, Sara Zia works on independent media.
We were recreating the very problem we seek to address in the larger movement -- we see many different pieces of the self-education world but few talk to each other, share resources, or build alliances. The need to share space became obvious, and as a solution we're moving to a building in Southwest Philly -- a space that meets all of our needs and is the missing piece for the BUILD program.
Here are some more solutions: Sara Zia is done with her video, "60%: The Sentencing Policies of the War on Drugs and their Effects on America," which gives us a tool for organizing between independent media and prison activists. We chose grantees whose work was in the intersections of the areas we work and make grants in, and our 501(c)3 status lets us support tiny organizations in a new way -- as a fiscal sponsor.
We also had real difficulty talking about our relationships with money and fundraising. Our shared history of being in marginalized communities, and the reality that we're trying to work across lines of race and class privilege, had left us all defensive and careful. As people raised as women, some women of color, and without our own sources of wealth, we were struggling to do effective fundraising and maintain our dignities -- to do fundraising and grant making that really challenges institutional racism, sexism, and capitalism.
As a solution, we're creating a fundraising plan that lets each of us plug in along our comfort lines -- and still get the work done. We brought our vision back into focus and said it: we're doing this work together because we want to bring these movements together and move resources and money to all of them.
Attending grant making and donor-activist conferences this year has given me a lot of perspective on SEF's role in the philanthropy world. I've been able to see that we stand as a challenge to the larger grant-making world to create cross-class decision-making structures. The fact that we (young people without our own sources of wealth) take on the task of moving money stands as a big reminder to other philanthropists that people like us want to do this work and need to be included. I've also been able to see how unusual we are in recognizing the massive impact of really grassroots groups with tiny budgets and no time for writing long grants.
The groups we've chosen in this award cycle are all inspiring models of ideas that could be replicated in almost any community. These groups are pulled together out of inspiration and necessity, rarely with funding or institutional support. We know that these groups will use every cent that comes their way and that they'll use every resource as creatively as possible.
We know this because we're doing this work along side of them. This is the part where you come in. Please consider donating to SEF so that we can continue to support inspirational self-educators and community resources. As you'll see in the group profiles within our latest newsletter, a little bit goes a very long way.
--Emily Nepon, 06/04/02
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