June 2023
Dear Class Action friends, supporters, and allies,
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
As we enter our 20th year of work, Class Action is facing a shortfall in the monies needed to operate through the end of 2023. Through the generous support of long-term donors, Class Action (CA) has raised the resources it needs to operate through early fall of this year. But, as the two-year commitments of some donors reach their end points, the organization is facing a gap in the income needed to bring our work securely into 2024. In order to close that gap, we need to raise $50,000 by July 1. If we are able to reach this goal, it will give us more time to lay a foundation for longer term sustainability. Without these additional funds, it is likely that Class Action will need to close down operations sometime this fall.
Since 2004, Class Action has been working to:
- Increase awareness of class identity, class bias, and classism;
- Create opportunities for and facilitate relationships across class;
- Foster understanding of the work needed at the intersection of race and class;
- Help connect and offer leadership opportunities to First Gen students; and
- Support efforts to end classism and inequality.
Life within U.S. capitalism, with its myths of meritocracy and strong individualist bent, has not only led to extreme wealth inequality, but also stoked false divisions among us, creating stubborn barriers to change. Many people in the U.S. believe we are a “classless” society or that “people get what they deserve,” blind to the structural inequality and racism that have defined for many the limits of their lives.
In addition, by almost all accounts, class is still largely absent from most activities in the growing diversity/equity/inclusion (DEI) field. Where some discussion of, or education about, class is included, it is typically structural and theoretical, rarely involving linkages to or exploration of the individual, organizational, and cultural levels at which class identity and class bias operate. Class Action works to bring understanding about class, class bias, and classism, and intersections between class and race in particular, into all anti-oppression work.
In the last two years, as the U.S. has experienced ongoing acts of white supremacy and the rise of white nationalism, CA has reached out to long-term and new potential partners to assess the need for our work and build new initiatives to meet the current moment. Building upon Class Action’s strong legacy of participatory education, cross-class relationship building, and support for First Gen students, we have been working to:
- deepen understanding about race/class intersections through a series of convenings of racial justice and anti-classism trainers and facilitators;
- build a stronger component of constituency leadership as part of our First Gen work through a “train-the-trainer” program for First Gen students/recent alumni;
- establish ourselves as a resource center for nonprofit workers.
I hope that you believe, as I do, that Class Action plays a key role in the extremely important work of developing understanding and relationships across differences in the U.S. If you do, then please choose this moment to make our continued work possible and donate today.
With much gratitude and in solidarity,
Ann Philbin
Executive Director
