Media
The Forge Alicia Jay, Kara Park, and Rebecca Gorena, January 23, 2026
Our Prescription for Winning: Give Organizers What They Need to Thrive
At this moment, our sector is immersed in a critical debate over what it takes to win. Faced with a political climate in which our vision for the future seems further out of reach than ever, we’ve seen numerous calls to refocus on organizing, both as a tactic and a funding priority. Frequently, this includes criticism about a perceived lack of rigor in the current state of organizing. We understand the impulse: everything we’re up against demands competency, tenacity, and dependability. The stakes are high and the urgency is real. Yet primarily scrutinizing current organizers in a rush toward correction risks getting the diagnosis wrong.
Philanthropy New York Alicia Jay and Rickke Mananzala, May 13, 2025
No Shortcuts to Power: Supporting Organizers to Stay, Lead, and Win
In this moment, community organizations and movements are understandably focused on urgent work: protecting communities, defending hard-won rights, and grappling with federal funding cuts that threaten critical programs and services. That work is essential. But in addition to supporting defense, we have an opportunity to rethink how we fund organizing and invest in what it takes to build lasting power.
Inside Philanthropy Dawn Wolfe, March 22, 2023
“While a number of funders are playing around the edges of these crises with wellness stipends and other interventions, we didn’t find a single foundation… that makes such bread-and-butter needs of the nonprofit workforce as good pay and benefits an explicit part of its grantmaking. But lately, we’ve been thinking that at least part of the problem may be due to funders not really understanding, much less embracing, their role in worker wellbeing… Staffing the Mission and All Due Respect’s Sustainable Jobs Toolkit was launched less than a month ago, and Fund the People’s own toolkit has hardly had time to become one of the philanthropshere’s household names. Additionally, both toolkits are seriously in-depth guides to nonprofit workforce funding, deservedly calling for the kind of reading, thought and planning that are going to take significant time to absorb and implement.”
Organizers Are Burned Out. New Research Shows How Funders Can Improve Labor Standards
Inside Philanthropy Kevin Simowitz and Chris Cardona, Guest Contributors | October 27, 2022
Our organizations, All Due Respect and the Ford Foundation, partnered on a recent research project about labor practices among grassroots organizing groups, based on a shared intuition — that there is something in the relationship between funders and organizations that is out of step with the needs of organizers themselves.
Fund The People Podcast
Thriving Wages for Community Organizers — with Kara Park, All Due Respect, and Gaby Hernandez, Orale
Why are so many talented community organizers burning out and leaving the field just when we need them most? What would it look like if nonprofits collectively committed to improving wages and working conditions for the people doing the most essential work in our movements? How can funders shift from perpetuating a cycle of underpayment to investing in the workforce that drives social change?
In this episode, you’ll get promising ideas from guests who are answering these questions with practical, real-world efforts on the ground. Host Rusty Stahl sits down with Kara Park from All Due Respect, and Gaby Hernandez from Órale, to explore a groundbreaking project in Southern California where 20 organizations came together to create shared labor standards for the community organizers on their teams.
The New York Times Julie Satow, April 28, 2023
“Workers, organizers, rank and file staff in nonprofits are trying to interrupt this ‘martyrdom’ syndrome, that by doing this work, your job is grueling, you work long hours and you are paid very little,” said Kevin Simowitz, the co-director of All Due Respect, which works to set new labor standards for community organizers.
In addition to improving salaries and benefits, other concerns cited by organizers include transparency, standardized pay scales and racial equity…
Money can be difficult to access at nonprofits, which rely on individual donations and institutional grants, many of which come with time limits and other constraints. “There is a scarcity mentality, and even a scarcity reality, to contend with,” said Alicia Jay, the co-director of All Due Respect, referring to nonprofit budgets, which can look quite different from those of large corporations. “It isn’t a bottomless well, like with private companies such as Amazon.”
Inside Philanthropy Dawn Wolfe, March 13, 2023
“…But where the toolkit really shines is in the page on open communication, which attempts to bridge the ever-present power imbalance between funders and grantees by offering ways for nonprofits to communicate their actual needs without fear. For instance, the toolkit suggests that grantmakers openly ask about the full cost of running the entire nonprofit, and simplify their application forms and processes. But the toolkit’s most powerful recommendation regarding communication is also its simplest to implement: Funders should put a clear statement on their websites, applications and grant award letters stating that they want to support good jobs with benefits.”
Fund the People Podcast
With every election cycle and issue campaign, we are reminded of the critical role that community organizers play in supporting the civic participation of all Americans. In this episode, you'll learn from new research on the working conditions of community organizers in social justice nonprofits. You’ll hear how organizers, their executive directors, and funders view the issue. You’ll get recommendations for change, and the next steps the All Due Respect Project is pursuing to ensure that all due respect is given to organizers!
We Must Do Better: The Role of Philanthropy in Supporting Community Organizers
A Conversation with Sarita Gupta, Ford Foundation and Kevin Simowitz, All Due Respect October 2021