Voting With My Wallet: Organizations to Donate To

Over the past two and a half weeks I have struggled with how best to help the current civil movement. I feel called to be involved. I feel frustrated and disappointed in my own lack of involvement over the past decade. And yet, I’m not exactly sure how I can be of the most service. A big part of me wants to protest in person, but another, quite loud, inner voice tells me that now is not the right time for me to be using my physical presence in this way. I’m six and a half months pregnant - my body isn’t putting up with much physical exertion anymore and I am incredibly protective of my belly. I knocked into the side of a bookcase the other day and had a bit of a melt down out of fear of hurting her (of course she’s absolutely fine). And there’s a pandemic. While there is no research that shows pregnant women are more susceptible to COVID-19, there is a lot of research that shows that high fevers during pregnancy can be very dangerous. And so, even though my brain and emotions say, “go out, use your physical presence, use your physical voice”, my pregnant during a pandemic brain says, “absolutely not” and, right now, that’s the brain that wins.

I know that my inner struggle and my conclusion shows the privileged place I hold. I get to protect my body and am both grateful and a little embarrassed that I hold that space.

So here I am. Someone who wants to help, someone who knows my limitations and I’ve been wondering if any of you have been feeling the same way. Maybe you’re not pregnant, but maybe you have a pre-existing condition. Maybe you live with folks who are vulnerable, maybe you get anxious in crowds. Maybe you just don’t feel called to protest physically. I should not and will not tell you what to do, but I will share what I’m doing.

I’m starting with two things: 1) I am exploring my own place of privilege, my own prejudices and conscious and subconscious beliefs and 2) I am voting with my wallet.

Last week I shared how I am making adjustments to how I regularly vote with my wallet. This week I want to share a few places that I, or other members of my community, have supported financially. All of these organizations have missions to support racial equality, stop police brutality, dismantle systemic racism and/or improve our justice systems.

Note: If you are part of or know of another organization that is doing great work and you’d like to share, please reply to this email with their name and contact (website, email, instagram etc). I will share their information in the next newsletter and include them on instagram. Thank you!