Be More Than a Donor: Help Us Build a Larger Community for Social Transformation

During our #EachOneOfUs end-of-year fundraising campaign, long-time Grassroots International monthly donor Jeremy Rehwaldt, who works as a content editor at GiveWell, decided to write an entry in GiveWell’s annual staff blog post describing why he supports our work.

Jeremy says “I’ve been supporting Grassroots International for many years because I believe that people ought to have agency over their own lives, that we ought to center the perspective of those whose voices are often overlooked, and that creating a better world requires changing unjust structures.”

Jeremy thought writing the blog post about why he donates to Grassroots International might encourage others to contribute our work as well. And he was right!

Jeremy’s post was seen by attorney Caitlin Halpern, who was inspired by what he wrote, and decided to make a significant end-of-year gift to Grassroots International. Then Caitlin met with the Grassroots International Development Team to learn more about our work, and asked us a wonderful question: what kind of support does Grassroots International most need from donors?

We explained that because we support social movements for the long term, it helps us to have donors make long-term funding commitments, whether by making multi-year pledges as a member of the Leadership Circle, or by signing up to join the Sustainers Program, and make a recurring monthly donation. Caitlin decided to join Jeremy as a member of the Sustainers Program.

Caitlin says, “I first learned about Grassroots International from a blog post on GiveWell, where Jeremy, a staff member there, wrote personally about his giving. Like Jeremy, I see grassroots movements as the best path to systemic change. I am excited by the opportunity to support directly impacted leaders abroad as well as at home, in awe of Grassroots International’s deep and long-term commitment to its partners, and grateful to have the resources to be a monthly donor.”

When we told Jeremy about how his post had helped us connect with a committed new donor, he said: “I’m glad to be part of a community of Grassroots donors working to build a world where all can flourish and am glad that my reasoning encouraged others to give!”

We hope you will be inspired by Jeremy and Caitlin, and join them as members of our Sustainers Program by making a recurring monthly donation, at whatever level is possible for you. This year, our 40th anniversary, we are hoping to bring in 40 new members of our Sustainers Program. Will you be one of them?