Since I’m that “friend” who’s likely to drag you to a fundraiser (FYI, my high school superlatives were way less flattering), lots of people have asked me where to donate right now. Although this is no where near a comprehensive list, we’ve researched where you can really make an impact… and don’t worry. We put our money where our mouth is.

From our perspective, we see racial injustice as an issue plaguing our whole country and see an opportunity to help in two ways:

1. Support the black community as a whole

2. Support eradicating police violence

Black Lives Matter

BLM is relatively new on the scene: it was formed in 2013 by 3 badass black women in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. It is now a member-led global network of more than 40 chapters.

Their mission is to build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and local governments. Research shows that expanding social and economic programs for under-resourced communities leads to an overall decrease in crime. Hence one of BLM’s main tenants: #defundthepolice, which essentially means spread those dollars to other community building initiatives that are underfunded. But more on this to come in our next post ;). To learn more about them or donate, you can click here.

Campaign Zero

Their main 3 tenants are:

1. Limit police intervention

2. Improve community interactions.. and

3. Ensure accountability

They’ve created a 10 point plan to end police brutality based on these 3 tenets. It’s smart and most importantly, it seems like it actually would work! You can check it out on their website here. They use donations to research policing policies, give technical assistance to organizers and develop model legislation to end police violence. Campaign Zero also tracks police related legislation: 107 laws have been enacted from 2014-2019 addressing police violence (clearly not enough but it’s… something?).

If you’re anything like me, you’re not always *aware* of smaller elections until you literally need to go there so you can sign up on their website with your zip code to be sent more information. Many of the police reform policies they suggest would be handled by local officials so it’s important that we show up for these elections if we want to see change.

Building a more equal life for all in the US is not going to be an overnight success (and honestly, no one was a success overnight anyway). So we recommend thinking about joining the charity that suits you best for the long run. Do your values align? Would you be motivated to take further action with them? Does what they stand for seem like it could interest you long term?

If so, sign up for their email blasts or consider doing a reoccurring donation if you are financially stable right now. These are helpful little reminders to keep you in the game after the hype dies down.

xoxo,

nicole rosé

Giphy Source: Michelle Obama @ SXSW