An Equity-Aligned Approach to Fundraising

ACLU NorCal believes in the power of partnership to achieve freedom, equality, and justice. We’re deeply grateful for all the partnerships that make the ACLU’s work possible—partnerships between our Boards of Directors, staff, clients, volunteers, activists, partner organizations, donors, funders, and others.

We recognize that freedom, equality, and justice are not equitably enjoyed by all people of this country because of the ongoing impacts of what bell hooks called the interlocking systems of domination: white supremacy, imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy—all of which came together to manifest in colonization, genocide, slavery, and other forms of violence and exclusion. The enduring legacy and continued manifestations of those injustices are core conditions that we seek to change today. Many laws themselves and their unequal enforcement create and maintain systems of oppression, exclusion, and disenfranchisement for many groups of people, including Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), immigrants, currently and formerly incarcerated people, LGBTQ+ people, women, people with disabilities, youth/elders, religious minorities, and low-income, poor, and unhoused people.

Wealth—and how it is used—is a racial and economic justice issue because all wealth was created within these same interlocking systems of domination. Just as we apply a racial and economic equity lens to our programmatic work, we must apply a racial and economic equity lens to our fundraising practices. This is part of our commitment to continuously examine whether our fundraising program is operating in ways that align with our organizational values and goals. We do this by working to dismantle white supremacy, and by providing opportunities to redistribute money towards repair, healing, and systemic change.

ACLU NorCal believes in the importance of bringing a community-centered approach to our fundraising. As we mobilize resources for the ACLU, we also use our relationships, power, and privilege to support community-based partner organizations and build stronger movements overall. We continue to evolve the ways we can do this, including: lifting up the voices of our community partners in ACLU donor communications and events, helping to make connections between ACLU donors and BIPOC-led partner organizations, and being thoughtful about when and how we seek competitive funding that may have greater impact for another organization.