RG Alumni Oona Coy talking about her experience becoming part of the Tracies, a team of major donors who have committed to giving at least $10,000 a year for at least three years to RG. During the first year, the group voted on a name and decided to call themselves The Tracies, in honor of one of RG’s founding members and first Executive Director Tracy Hewat (who is also one of the initial founders of the major donor team). 

What’s most profound for me about being a Tracy is feeling connected to a group of people that have committed to supporting RG financially in a long-term and significant way. I have given to RG for many years through my mother’s family foundation and personally at the Tracy’s level. I’ve also given to many non-profits and friends and other projects. But becoming a Tracy was the first time I’ve ever felt connected to the other people giving significant gifts to any organization. This isn’t about having my name put on a plaque or being seated in the front row — this is about real conversations together. Wow, it feels different. (more…)

Filed under: GIving, RG News by Coy
No Comments »

Dear Friends of RG,

Happy Resource Generation 15th Anniversary! It is an honor to ask you to support RG as I transition off staff.

Will you join me by donating today?

Today is the day with the greatest disparity in the distribution of wealth since the Gilded Age a century ago. The top 1% own (have a net worth of) more than 90% of America’s households combined. And the disparity is getting worse. Not the world you want to live in, right? Not good for you, not good for anyone.

But we know that the world could look really different… (more…)

Filed under: RG News by elspeth@resourcegeneration.org
No Comments »

The initial gathering of inchworms my son and his friends 'saved' from a foraging robin. Their investment grew to 72 inch worms.

RG Alumni Julie McVeigh talking about her experience becoming part of the Tracies, a team of major donors who have committed to giving at least $10,000 a year for at least three years to RG. During the first year, the group voted on a name and decided to call themselves The Tracies, in honor of one of RG’s founding members and first Executive Director Tracy Hewat (who is also one of the initial founders of the major donor team). 

When Resource Generation asked me to be a Tracy, pledging to give $10,000 each year for three years, I gasped and said I couldn’t. I wanted to support RG and I thought giving $30,000 was for those who had a lot of money, not me. The most I had ever given an organization was $10,000 once to a capital campaign. In general, my husband and I gave a handful of $1,000 gifts each year. I took a deep breath and stretched to pledge RG the support of 1/2 a Tracy at $5,000/year for 3 years. (more…)

Filed under: RG News by Julie McVeigh
1 Comment »

Holly Fetter, an undergraduate student at Stanford and praxis group leader, originally wrote this piece in STATIC, a site for Stanford activists to connect and create.

Holly writes of her piece: “This piece was written when I was first coming into my class identity and accompanying consciousness. Though my ideas and actions around class have shifted in the past year, it still feels important to share this with others. This particular post catalyzed the development of an RG Praxis Group and several class privilege workshops and cross-class discussions at Stanford University. If you’re interested in bringing RG to your campus or community, sharing your personal experience is a great way to start.”

As soon as the word “privilege” entered my vocabulary, I found myself unpacking an inundation of knapsacks filled with the stuff, frantically trying to unlearn 16 years of internalized racism, ableism, classism… My white identity was the easiest to grapple with because it was the most visible. So I spent (and am still spending) years reading, talking, and writing about whiteness so that I could begin to feel more comfortable living with the tension of being white in the United States.

But class was a different story. I didn’t want to even acknowledge my class identity because it made me feel guilty and ashamed. I worried about the (usually correct) assumptions that wealth carried with it, as well as how it might undermine my credibility as a budding activist. In high school, I avoided the topic altogether, choosing to make friends with other affluent kids because it felt a lot simpler. Class was apparent there – we knew what kind of cars our classmates’ had (or didn’t have), what their houses were like, and what their parents’ jobs were. (more…)

Filed under: Money Stories, Money Stories by anna.rg
3 Comments »

Re-blogged, due to our partnership with Bolder Giving:

Elspeth Gilmore, current executive director of RG, writes in Bolder Giving about coming to terms with class privilege and inheritance.

At age 33, I’m at last coming into my own about … Continue reading »

Filed under: Featured, Money Stories, Money Stories by anna.rg
3 Comments »