Convening of cohort organizations in February 2024

Read the report back from our focus groups with community organizers in Southern California:

"I'm worried about being priced out of my apartment. I'm worried about being elderly and homeless on the street. And when I think about my skill set, I have the skill set to make a lot more money, and I don't even like talking about that. But when things get more expensive . . . I can't help but think about that and think about, what's my long term plan to avoid the very outcomes I'm organizing against?" - Community organizer

All Due Respect is currently conducting a regional project in Southern California focused on improving working conditions for organizers, in partnership with the Weingart Foundation, the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the James Irvine Foundation, along with a set of local base-building organizations. Throughout the course of the project, All Due Respect has engaged organizers, organizational directors and funders to create new regional compensation and benefits standards, informed both by research and leaders’ direct experience.

The seeds of this project emerged through a series of conversations in the first half of 2023, as All Due Respect interviewed 19 organizational directors and funders to assess current challenges and opportunities related to organizer recruitment and retention in Southern California. Through those conversations, it became clear that rising costs of living, years of underinvestment in organizing and a sector-wide normalization of low pay for organizers has created ongoing challenges related to compensation that contribute to organizers leaving their jobs, or in some cases, the field altogether. While addressing organizer pay is not a standalone solution, and goes hand in hand with an understanding of the systemic shifts required to alleviate the economic strain communities are facing, it is a direct opportunity to tackle broader dynamics, including organization and funder relationships, organizational transparency and how to fully value and invest in the roles organizers play in our movements. Moreover, as we spoke with practitioners and funders invested in tackling these challenges, we heard a hunger for a space to navigate these questions collectively.

In response, throughout 2024, All Due Respect has:

• Produced an organizer-specific compensation study across the 10-county Southern California region, representing 50 organizations and 413 organizer job positions, which highlighted what organizers are currently being paid along with broader trends and takeaways;

• Conducted a series of organizer focus groups to learn how their pay, benefits and role in organizational decision-making around compensation is impacting their decision-making around remaining in their roles and in the field of organizing;

• Convened a cohort of 20 power-building organizations to co-create a set of compensation and benefits standards that provide a benchmark of both sustainable and aspirational practices for organizations to reference going forward;

• Supported a subset of 7 power-building organizations to begin implementation of the compensation and benefits standards, learn together, and uplift challenges and takeaways.

In early 2025, All Due Respect will begin to share the standards publicly, alongside a set of tools and materials that support their discussion and implementation. Through additional opportunities throughout spring 2025, All Due Respect will continue to bring together stakeholders—including participating organizations and funders—to discuss how to support ecosystem-wide implementation of these standards, alongside a broader long-term commitment to investing in organizing and power-building work.

To learn more, please reach out to Kara Park at kara@allduerespectproject.org.

This project is overseen by a Steering Committee of local leaders, currently made up of Hector Sanchez, Sabrina Smith, Felicia Jones, Maricela Morales, Vera deVera and Anthony Ng (former member: Aurea Montes-Rodriguez).

Organizational Cohort:

Ahri Center

California Black Power Network

Chispa

Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement

Dignity and Power Now

Future Leaders of America

Homies Unidos, Inc

Read the final set of Organizer Compensation and Benefits Standards created by twenty Southern California powerbuilding organizations to outline what it will take to improve working conditions for all staff, starting with organizers. When organizing jobs allow people to make ends meet, take care of themselves and their loved ones, and maintain a pace of work that ensures they don’t burn out, organizations are stronger, more durable and better equipped to win.

As one organizer reflected, “I promise you would see way less turnover if these were actually instituted with fidelity . . . I believe this would have a huge impact on the field.”

Lea el conjunto final de Normas de Compensación y Beneficios para Organizadores, creado por veinte organizaciones de construcción de poder en el sur de California, que describe lo necesario para mejorar las condiciones laborales de todo el personal, comenzando con los organizadores. Cuando los trabajos de organización permiten a las personas cubrir sus necesidades básicas, cuidar de sí mismas y de sus seres queridos, y mantener un ritmo de trabajo que evite el agotamiento, las organizaciones son más fuertes, más duraderas y están mejor preparadas para ganar.

Como reflexionó un organizador: “Le prometo que habría mucha menos rotación si esto se implementara con fidelidad... creo que tendría un impacto enorme en el sector”.