We are inspired by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire’s description of solidarity as “a radical act of love.” For us, solidarity is not simply a feeling. It is a deep political commitment to the practice of love – the kind of love that has the power to liberate us, collectively, from the violence of colonialism and extractivism. This gets to the practice that we call Solidarity Philanthropy. 

In order to be able to show up in the way we do – with political commitment, and with radical love – our work needs to be adequately resourced. This is why we are asking you to show up with us, and make the largest contribution you can at this time to help us reach our goal of $1.5M.

Since many individual donors make their charitable contributions at the end of the year, we work very hard on our fundraising at year’s end in order to be able to meet our annual fundraising goals and start the calendar year in a strong financial position. 

Thank you in advance for whatever support you are able to offer to help us sustain and grow our work as a movement support organization. 

Multi-year pledges are especially appreciated, as they help us build our financial stability while walking alongside our partners in a relationship of deep accompaniment for the long term. Please consider reading more below. 

With your support, Grassroots International will be able to continue our work in regions across the world. The following examples are from a few regions that we work in. To learn more about the regions that we work in, visit this page.

Middle East: This summer, after hearing from our movement partners about the escalation of settler violence against Palestinians, we organized a delegation of donors and activists to meet with our partners on the ground in Palestine and learn from them about how we could best accompany their struggles. Our staff also went to Gaza, to be in solidarity with the communities under siege there. Shortly after our trip, when the violence escalated to unfathomable levels, we launched an emergency fundraising campaign and committed to moving at least $750K in funding to Palestinian movements who are doing all they can to save lives. 

We are also organizing together with our funder and movement allies, from virtual popular education, to strategy meetings, to mobilizations in the streets. Collectively, we are demanding a stop to genocide through calling for a ceasefire, unimpeded humanitarian aid throughout all of Gaza, an end to US funding and arms support to Israel, and adherence to international humanitarian and human rights laws by all parties. And we are preparing for the day when our partners will be able to continue their work building food sovereignty in Palestine, running mental health and decolonial healing programs, planting trees, teaching young people about Palestinian heritage and culture, reclaiming their ancestral territories, and living with freedom and democracy.

Mesoamerica: Earlier this year, when our Indigenous and Afro-descendant movement partners in Honduras told us of the heightened criminalization and threats to their safety they were facing, we organized a sign-on letter to bring international attention and pressure, and raised funds to support the protection of these leaders and their communities.

In November, three of our staff and one of our board members visited our partners in Honduras. They are learning and sharing solidarity at a time when this kind of international presence can contribute to movements’ collective protection strategies. We are moving infrastructure funding to our partner OFRANEH to further support collective protection in their territories, and to COPINH to expand their Utopia project, a site for political formation, organizing, and training in Indigenous lifeways and farming techniques.

Puerto Rico: In the wake of repeated climate disasters and ongoing land grabbing, our solidarity work in Puerto Rico has focused on supporting local organizations in taking back their land and developing the infrastructure they need to put that land to regenerative, collective use. We have funded movement partners in purchasing land; setting up agroecology schools; farming collectively using agroecological principles; establishing community kitchens; buying buildings for feminist-led community education and organizing programs; and setting up off-the-grid sustainable energy programs.

Our donor organizing collective, the Friends of Boriken, has also been organizing political formation spaces to educate people in the US about the work happening on the archipelago and to mobilize both resources and solidarity for movements there.

Thank you for your solidarity.

If you are new to Grassroots International, we also invite you to contact us with a message directed to Sasha to learn about our ongoing movement accompaniment work around the globe where we work. The fact that we are able to mobilize and move resources to these regions is because of our model of long-term accompaniment of movements working for our collective liberation. If this work is of interest to you, we welcome you to become part of our community of steady supporters and to take part in our donor political education and engagement spaces on a regular basis.