Our Mission
Guiding Principles
We’re here to set new labor standards and make sure that community organizers get a fair wage and a fair shake—because supporting social justice means supporting the people on the frontlines.
Success for us means securing a future in which organizers—especially organizers of color, women, LGBTQ+, those with disabilities, rural, and/or undocumented organizers—are valued and supported as the foundation and the future of the progressive movement. The people who are working day in and day out to build power and win big fights should be paid a living wage, receive good benefits, and work in a culture that supports their livelihoods. Organizers shouldn’t be burning out after a few years, and they shouldn’t have to make impossible choices about their futures and their families because they can’t support themselves.
That’s why All Due Respect is working with donors, managers, and organizers to improve working conditions and set new movement standards. We believe that respect, security, and transparency are fundamental to organizing for social change and that all organizers—no matter their race, gender, or geography—deserve it.
ADR is a fiscally-sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, a registered 501(c)3 non-profit.
Centering organizers: Organizers are at the center of all of our work. We partner with foundations, organizational leaders, and organizers with the ultimate goal of improving the conditions in which organizers do their jobs. We believe it will take all three of these groups working together to affect lasting change.
Our work seeks to impact all organizers, but especially those who are working in local and state-based organizations that typically have less access to resources than those groups at the national level. And while the labor standards that we’re pursuing would improve conditions for all organizers, we believe it is marginalized organizers (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, rural, undocumented, disabled, and more) who are bearing the brunt of poor working conditions. We know that organizing isn’t for everyone; our focus is on ensuring those who want to remain and grow in the role have the support, pathways and ability to do so.
Funder accountability: We believe in trust-based philanthropy that centers grantees as the experts of their own needs and the needs of their communities. We also believe that funders–given their positional power in the sector–are accountable for the working conditions at the organizations they support. We believe funders have a responsibility to allocate resources for the sustainability of grantee staff. ADR demonstrates how to do that through accessible resources and active partnerships.
All Due Respect sits at the intersection of organizers, directors, and funders, with the unique ability to catalyze new ways of working across all audiences. We think of our projects as medium-term: balancing the need to move quickly with the goal of creating long-term shifts within the grantee-grantmaker relationship. We also believe in the need to hold complexity, and that rarely is there one single prescription for the challenges we face as a movement.
Keep resources locally rooted: All Due Respect is a nationally-based organization with partners and projects in different regions across the country. We are clear that our role is to be a bridge, relationship builder, and advocate for organizers who have been working, and will continue to work, in their communities after we have exited. We aim to create interventions that catalyze updated standards and practices that remain and can be held by those rooted locally.
We will never divert money that is dedicated to the direct support of organizers, nor do we compete for resources within the ecosystems in which we work. Additionally, projects only move forward if funding is dedicated to providing stipends for participating organizations.
Small team, big dreams: We are a small team of staff who focus on projects where we’re well-suited to make an impact. These tend to be projects that last over a year, bring together funders and organizations to co-create interventions, speak to change on a sectoral level, and where the organizing ecosystem can own ongoing work. While our team is small, our partnerships with local groups and organizers expand our reach and scale.
Standing on shoulders: We are not the first people, and won’t be the last, to work on these issues. Among others, the National Organizers Alliance laid the groundwork for much of the language and strategies that we employ today. We are part of a small but growing cadre of efforts focused on improving organizational health and worker sustainability, and we consider those peers to be our co-conspirators. We are building upon the lessons of those before us and aim to leave the field with more information and lasting change than when we started. And, if we think another organization might be better positioned to meet the needs of an organization or funder, we will be the first to say so.