Vision Statement

Successful movements for social justice—from the civil rights, farm worker and feminist movements decades ago to the Black Lives Matter and immigrants’ rights movements today—require the leadership of impacted communities and the engagement and activism of large numbers of people. Individuals contribute to social movements in multiple ways: through their time, skills, connections, and resources. As fundraisers, we focus primarily on how people participate through their financial support, while recognizing that individuals who donate money are often engaged in many other ways. Building a broad base of individual donors provides both financial and political strength to organizations and movements.

For organizations striving to build community power for social change, having support from members, allies, and other individual donors is important not just for financial viability, but also to build and grow a constituency that the organization can depend on for engagement and involvement beyond the money they donate. For this reason, we help organizations raise money from individuals directly affected by systems of oppression and from allies who seek to build communities guided by justice and equity.

Because we believe that every nonprofit should have a fundraising philosophy, or a rationale for why it seeks funding from specific sources, we also help organizations working for equity and justice, especially within marginalized and disenfranchised communities, answer important questions. These questions include: What role should government serve in addressing injustices and community needs? Is the way we are funded consistent with our mission and approach to our work? Are we empowering our community members by asking them to contribute?

We at Klein & Roth Consulting encourage social justice movement groups to take the time to determine their own fundraising philosophies based on their missions and guiding principles. We can support you in this process to help align your group’s money-raising efforts with your vision for a better world.