In 2021, All Due Respect’s national research found that 9 out of 10 community organizers have experienced burnout. As a result, we’re seeking to raise labor standards for organizers throughout the sector and improve working conditions, including raising wages, improving access to full benefits, and shifting organizational culture in a way that values team members and increases long-term impact. All Due Respect runs programs across the country to test and implement new ways of working, including for funders.
Join the NYC Capacity Building Collaborative to shape a new program to test the practical and scalable interventions that make a material difference in working conditions for organizers. All Due Respect will share details from their ongoing programs in other locations and explore potential proposals for what could be implemented here, for example:
Certification for organizations who are implementing the highest labor standards, with a pooled fund to support and encourage groups who are still on the road to getting there.
Creation of an “Organizer Investment Fund” that draws from a small percentage on top of existing organizing grants. Organizations can apply for funds to directly improve conditions, such as instituting transparent pay scales, reducing the employee-paid portion of health insurance benefits, or testing a sabbatical policy.
Pledge for funders to commit to an updated set of protocol for new and existing grantees to better understand how organizers and staff are experiencing their jobs, such as a commitment to speak with staff beyond the Executive Director, encouraging full cost budgeting that represents the true costs of operating sustainably, and gathering anonymized data as a part of an annual reporting process to examine wages and benefits in the organizing sector over time.
These are just options to help open the conversation, and we hope you’ll join us to co-create a program design that makes sense for you, your organization, and your grantees. Register to join us here. This session is open to all interested funders. You can learn more about All Due Respect and read the toolkit here: https://www.allduerespectproject.org/