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Moving money is one way to shift power and the unequal distribution of resources from white communities to Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities and community members.

Wealth and resources have disproportionately accumulated in white families and communities as a result of the profits and privilege gained through legacies of slavery, colonization, imperialism, dispossession of Indigenous land, discriminatory hiring practices, university quotas, racist immigration policies, residential schools, segregationist housing policies, and other forms of racism and white supremacy. White people do not have to have put on white hoods or Nazi armbands in order to have benefitted from state policies and institutional practices that continue to privilege white people to this day.

Moving money to BIPOC-led organization isn’t only ethically and emotionally useful; it’s also good strategy! We acknowledge that Black communities, Indigenous communities, and People of Colour communities have always engaged in anti-racist and anti-colonial movements out of necessity, and therefore we believe that they are well-positioned to lead today’s multi-racial majority for racial and social justice. Moving money to these organizers empowers their leadership and helps SURJ Toronto to build, sustain and grow relationships with BIPOC-led organizations.

When we raise money we will be clear about where it is going. Fundraising campaigns generally fall into one of the following categories:

We often move money to a specific Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led organization from our members and networks. In this case we will name the organization (and why we think it’s great) in our pitch, and all of the money raised goes directly to the organization.

We sometimes also raise money to support our own internal organizing to build a broader movement of white people working for racial justice. While these campaigns are pitched as “for SURJ Toronto”, they are subject to our at-least-three-to-one ratio for internal fundraising, which means that for every dollar that we raise or allocate for internal costs, we move three dollars to BIPOC organizers/community. This means that we keep less than one quarter of the funds raised during these campaigns for internal costs, with the remainder used to support BIPOC-led organizing. When we are fundraising for a specific BIPOC-led community initiative, action, or organization, 100% of these funds will be moved there.

We are a non-governmental group, we are not a funding body, and not a registered charity.

Often, we find organizations to move money to through the existing relationships of SURJ Toronto and our members with BIPOC-led organizations. If you would like to request funding for your racial justice organizing, please note the ‘Where We Move Money’ section and contact us with some information about your organization and the amount of money you’re asking for.

The primary goal of our fundraising is to move money to Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities and community members, which we do in two ways:

We move money to organizations that are Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led

In the past, we have moved emergency funds to Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community members

Organizations that SURJ supports financially are:

Made up of majority BIPOC members

Led by BIPOC community members

Doing on-the-ground, in-community work in Toronto

Doing a blend of organizing (political education, mobilization, campaign work) and service provision

Underfunded or ‘hard to fund’ (we prioritize organizing without government funding)

Queer and trans-femme friendly

Aligned with SURJ values

SURJ moves money to BIPOC-led organizations that SURJ has existing relationships with, or relationships that are being built.

In the past, emergency funds that have been distributed have been for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community members that are facing some sort of emergency. These requests have come through BIPOC racial justice organizers, leaders, and/or groups.

We are constantly working to continuously evolve and grow our processes of accountability in moving money from predominantly white communities to communities of colour.

Beyond directly raising funds for BIPOC-led organizations and the community emergency fund (in the past), SURJ Toronto also raises money to support our own organizing to build a movement of white people working for racial justice. Because we are committed to supporting existing and emerging BIPOC-led racial and social justice organizations, we use an at-least-three-to-one ratio when raising funds for our internal organizing costs. This means that for every one dollar SURJ spends on its own internal work/organizing, we move at least three dollars to BIPOC-led organizations and BIPOC community members. In practice this ratio is much higher; for example in 2017 we spent almost ten times the internal SURJ budget supporting BIPOC-led organizations.

Moreover, the majority of SURJ’s internal organizing costs go towards website costs, Zoom webinar costs, and ASL interpretation for meetings or trainings with BIPOC organizers. Other SURJ organizing costs (pre-COVID) include any room bookings, food, and materials for meetings and actions. Whenever possible, we choose to support BIPOC-owned businesses or organizations when purchasing these types of services/supplies/etc.