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Over the past six years, there has been a rapid increase in the political repression and prosecutions of protesters and movement organizers advocating for their safety and bodily autonomy. This is currently playing out in Atlanta as the Stop Cop City protests are underway. The Stop Cop City movement was formed in reaction to a proposal to destroy Weelaunee forest to build a privately operated law enforcement training facility. Elected officials and law enforcement have responded with legislation and politically motivated prosecutions with the goal of eroding public and philanthropic trust in social movements.

This is a critical moment for philanthropy to stand up for and protect democracy. The time is now for the philanthropic sector to exercise its power and make its resources more accessible to protesters and organizers on the ground fighting for climate justice, racial justice and land justice.

All Eyes Are on Atlanta

The Atlanta City Council voted to spend between $30 and $50 million this week on “Cop City.” Over 200 people testified during the vote over 14 hours to stop the council from funding Cop City. According to the public comment tally, they voted against what a little over 98 percent of the public commenters asked them to do. The number of people who came out against Cop City was record-breaking for the city council. If this doesn’t ring the alarm for funders, it’s hard to know what else will.

According to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law, since January 2017, 45 state legislatures have introduced 268 bills that restrict the right to protest.

As a response to the protests that have made national headlines these past few months, police, prosecutors, and lawmakers are using new and existing laws to increase surveillance of grassroots movements and organizations, increase pretrial detention, extend protracted legal fights, and establish harsher punishment.

Over the past six months, the Stop Cop City movement—an intersectional, multiracial coalition of protesters and movement organizations—stood up against the developments to clear land and fund the police training compound. As a result, the movement has been targeted in the courts by Governor Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr who brought domestic terrorism charges and courtroom allegations of racketeering, fraud, and conspiracy.

Then just last week Wednesday on May 31, Attorney General Carr ordered the Atlanta Police Department to raid the Atlanta Solidarity Fund—a volunteer-run bail fund that has operated since 2016 to help people who have been arrested for involvement in protests and movements. Police arrested three leaders of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on charges of money laundering and charity fraud for organizing legal support and bail funds for protesters and activists.

As these movements build power, they are met with increasing force. According to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law, since January 2017, 45 state legislatures have introduced 268 bills that restrict the right to protest.

Taken in combination, these acts of repression are not just a threat to movements for social justice, but to our collective vision of a multiracial democracy as well.

For example, nine states along the Mississippi River watershed have enacted 23 new laws that expand the criminalization and punishment of water protectors who protest oil and gas pipeline construction on tribal lands. In Arizona, county prosecutors and city officers created a fictional gang organization named “ACAB” to arrest a group of Black Lives Matter protesters and add them to their gang database. In Colorado, protesters speaking out against the death of Elijah McClain were hit with kidnapping charges that attorneys claimed were politically motivated and intended to stop free speech. The charges were ultimately dropped.

Taken in combination, these acts of repression are not just a threat to movements for social justice, but to our collective vision of a multiracial democracy, as they work to silence dissenting voices and eliminate checks and balances among branches of government.

History has taught us that these attacks on protest movements pushing for democracy are not isolated. During the Civil Rights Movement, we saw countless violent attempts to silence the movement. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, and the Mississippi Freedom Summer murders were attempts to rob us of a generation of movement organizers, eliminate thought leaders, and scare ordinary citizens from taking to the streets to demand change. Earlier this year, the violent killing by Georgia state troopers of Weelaunee forest defender and Stop Cop City protester Tortuguita was reminiscent of this time period.

The eyes of the nation are on Atlanta as that familiar pattern is building momentum today, as other states across the South and United States are starting to use the same tactics happening now in Atlanta to stop similar protest movements in their communities.

Defending Liberated Futures

This is the time for philanthropy to stand up and support against these unprecedented attacks on social movements, bail funds, and legal support organizations.

Borealis Philanthropy recently developed a toolkit to help educate peer philanthropic organizations on how they can support protesters experiencing violence. Currently, they are planning a site visit to bring fellow funders to Atlanta this month to show them the grassroots mobilization on the ground. The goal is to give funders strategies and ideas about where to direct resources and emergency support for those on the front lines, and challenge the criminalization of grassroots mobilizing that elected officials are trying to bolster in Atlanta.

The Communities Transforming Policing Fund, Democratizing Justice Initiative, Piper Fund, CS Fund, and Funders for Justice are calling on fellow funders and affinity groups to fully support the rights and defend the abilities of communities to protest oppressive government and corporate structures.

The Stop Cop City movement is presenting philanthropy with an opportunity to help over-policed communities who have experienced divestment get much-needed justice and resources.

We ask our fellow funders to stand with communities and employ three critical strategies:

1) Don’t act out of fear of reactionary narratives. Philanthropic strategies must be shaped by our grantee partners and movement leaders who are using organizing and direct action as a powerful tool in their work and are closest to the solutions. Many in philanthropy have echoed far right-wing tropes against movements, rooted in hate for marginalized communities, and advanced antidemocratic narratives.  These narratives are then used as “justification” for not funding social movements—particularly those led by people of color or LGBTQIA+ folks. This is doing our opposition’s work for them. It undermines the effort of social movements working for collective liberation.

2) Resource the safety, security, and legal support of movements. In order to confront a violent and well-resourced opposition, funders need to support the real safety, security, and legal costs associated with movement work. This looks like providing rapid response support to groups who are experiencing digital and physical attacks. This also means resourcing the political and legal defense infrastructure necessary to support these groups when they are confronted with the “political prosecution playbook” (including criminalization, surveillance, pretrial detention, high or no bail, RICO charges, domestic terrorism charges). To make it plain: if funders do not start investing in safety, security, and legal support infrastructure ahead of time, there will be no one to answer the call when the attack comes.

3) Be the trusted partner your grantee needs. Build relationships so that groups on the ground are willing to tell you of threats on the horizon, or when an attack has occurred. Furthermore, believe grantee partners when they describe being targeted or assaulted by police forces while exercising their First Amendment rights. Then go into action: raise the alarm by empowering your institution and other funders to keep the resources flowing.

Through their protests for justice and equality, communities of color and LGBTQIA+ communities have been and remain the perfecters of our democracy. This work might go underfunded by philanthropy, but it does not go unnoticed or unchallenged by authoritarian ideologues or fascist movements. Therefore, it is up to funders to respond with newfound courage and urgency to this growing storm.

This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.

It’s taken years of drought and intense wildfires for California officials to recognize that the state’s current water management system is underprepared to meet the needs of its changing climate. For many wetland conservationists, water managers, and especially California Indigenous water protectors, one solution has always been at hand—bring in the beavers.

New state funding is boosting a restoration program to help relocate beavers to areas in need of wetland conservation. This is one of the many efforts legislators and state departments are now focusing on to advance climate resilience—and will reveal how beavers are beneficial, not detrimental, to California’s waters and lands.

Beavers are. . .critical in helping coho and Chinook salmon reach their spawning streams by keeping their habitats intact. These fish are an essential food source for Winnemem Wintu, Karuk, Hoopa Valley, and Yurok“They are the best engineers that we could possibly hire in order to help us with watershed management, and we need them, for many reasons,” says Sherri Norris, the executive director of the California Indian Environmental Alliance, a nonprofit coordinating 34 California tribes working toward environmental action and justice. “[Beavers] are a part of the natural landscape, they align with the governor’s 30×30 plan, and they are a part of nature-based solutions.”

California’s Beaver Beginnings

Beavers, or castor canadensis, have been a part of the California environment for at least as long as the land has had people. Beavers have long been recognized as native to the San Joaquin watershed and the High Sierra, but recent studies also show their range has also historically included coastal areas. These semiaquatic rodents build dams that flood areas that might have dried up otherwise—making them essential to many watersheds and wetlands.

Beavers are also critical in helping coho and Chinook salmon reach their spawning streams by keeping their habitats intact. These fish are an essential food source for Winnemem Wintu, Karuk, Hoopa Valley, and Yurok tribes.

After a significant decline in population in the 19th century due to unregulated, rampant fur trapping and habitat loss, beaver numbers remained low in the state until the early 20th century, when their population grew from 1,300 to 20,000, in part due to successful relocation.

The Push to Bring Beavers Back

The push to bring beavers back is long overdue, as these animals naturally help fight climate change with their engineering expertise.

Community-based efforts have been advocating for beaver relocation for over a decade. For example, in 2009, the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center in partnership with the WATER Institute launched the Bring Back the Beaver campaign in Sonoma County. The campaign partners with California tribes and other stakeholders to promote and implement beaver habitat restoration. For some tribes—such as the Tule River Indian tribe in Tulare County and the Maidu Summit Consortium near Lake Almanor in northeastern California—beavers, and beaver mimicry, are necessary parts of holistic land restoration.

A coalition of organizations, including the WATER Institute and CIEA, successfully advocated for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to start a beaver restoration program. State funding is now going to over 30 agencies and nonprofit organizations with overlapping goals of rebalancing the waterways for healthier fish populations and wetland regeneration.

For the 2023-2024 fiscal year, CDFW was approved to receive $1.4 million from the state budget to hire several scientists to work on a comprehensive approach to beaver management as part of the restoration program, explains Jason Holley, CDFW Beaver Restoration Program Manager. Scientists plan to collaborate with partners to relocate beavers into watersheds where their dams can have positive environmental impacts, such as helping to restore hydrologic connectivity, creating and improving habitat for other species, increasing groundwater recharge, and promoting resilience to climate change and wildfire.

Additional regulatory efforts are aimed at making it easier for beavers to have a chance at successful relocation. In 2019, the state outlawed recreational and commercial trapping of fur-bearing animals. In addition, it is illegal for citizens to possess or transport a beaver, unless authorized by CDFW. However, current California law allows killing beavers if found on private property. Part of the new CDFW program will assess the current laws to understand if and where revisions need to be made to protect beavers relocated back to the area.

These laws point to one reason beavers may not thrive in an area: conflict with humans. The increased funding for CDFW supports collaboration between property owners and beaver restoration program staff and other partners to explore new and improved coexistence techniques. These techniques include preventing competition for beavers by moving cattle and other livestock, actively reinforcing beaver dams, or enhancing the habitats they’ve started building.

When coexistence fails, relocation becomes the next option. Currently, there are many opportunities to move beavers to parts of the state where they had been previously wiped out, or where they could support other efforts. For example, the CIEA works with a salmon restoration group in the Sacramento and San Joaquin regions that catalog the areas in need of salmon restoration. “[Relocating] beaver [in those areas] is one of those strategies we are recommending,” she says.

Beaver Plans and Beaver Dams

“We have been pushing California to embrace beavers for 10 years now and asked them specifically to build a beaver management plan, but there hasn’t been the will or the capacity,” says Lundquist. So, what changed to establish this new program under CDFW?

Education at the higher levels of government. After years of and direct political advocacy and studies showing how climate-change related drought and fire events impacted diverse habitats across the state, politicians and legislators began to understand the necessity of using nature-based solutions to combat desertification—beavers included.

In 2019, the WATER Institute, along with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Protection Information Center, petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to amend the code on beaver depredation to require land owners to exhaust all nonlethal methods before killing beavers. They also petitioned to take into consideration any listed species that might be harmed by beaver removal if a depredation permit is issued.

The possibility to amend the codes is now folded into the larger beaver restoration plans with the department. Reviewing the codes will coincide with piloting the beaver relocation plan.

The groups involved in these projects remain hopeful, especially with ongoing funding of state programs. According to Holley, a 2019 project with the Scott River Watershed Council in Siskiyou County is evaluating the effects of beaver dam analogues and if they influence the growth and survival of salmon.

The CDFW is embracing the paradigm shift around beavers and is working to bring together collective knowledge for a comprehensive approach to beaver management and restoration efforts, he says.

“Scientists are confident that beaver restoration has the potential to be a nature-based solution that can aid in reducing wildfire risk, mitigating drought, and combating climate change,” explains Holley. This is another piece in the puzzle as CDFW works to implement solutions to some of California’s greatest environmental challenges.

This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.

A fight for a space in San Francisco is not uncommon. This time a small plot of land is in legal limbo within the city’s Mission District—a fast-changing neighborhood with Latinx roots. Ownership of the small plot came into contention when an activist group, Mission Greenway, took over the plot of land to create a community garden in 2022. Parcel 36, a 2,245-square-foot lot, has the potential to be a green space in this highly dense part of the city. However, activists now face an uphill battle to make the plot of land into a garden.

How It All Started

The fight began when Mission Greenway and Vimeo cofounder Zach Klein decided to “reclaim” the unclaimed lot. “There’s a 26,000-square-foot lot in SF with no known owner. This weekend some neighbors and I opened the fence,” Klein wrote on his social media in October 2022. The thread has since been deleted.

“We want to turn [Parcel 36] into a publicly accessible greenway because this block has gotten increasingly dense.”It’s easy to miss Parcel 36 as it sits within a city-block-long alleyway between 22nd and 23rd street. More specifically, it lies between three apartment complexes, a daycare, and the internet service provider, Monkey Brains, and is across the street from a city-owned park. Closer to 23rd street, the parcel is partly paved with old railroad tracks where a shipping container and a Bobcat skid-steer excavator sit idle.

The members from Mission Greenway contend that Parcel 36 is abandoned as a former piece of land from Southern Pacific Railway, with questionable ownership. This status has left the parcel up for grabs, and Mission Greenway has been attempting to secure it for the community. According to Lara Hanna, a member of Mission Greenway, tax bills for Parcel 36 were sent to people who died several years ago. Mission Greenway was alerted through a neighborhood contact and green-space activist Tree Rubenstein, who leased the parcel from Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1980s, placing it in “legal limbo.”

“This [neighborhood building] is brand new, while this parcel is still stuck in the industrial age where surrounding businesses claim that they have some right to keep using this even though they don’t own it,” Hanna said. “We want to turn it into a publicly accessible greenway because this block has gotten increasingly dense.”

Arturo Mendez, a representative for Mission Arts Performance Project—a community-centered project that activates spaces around the Mission—believes this effort is critical to the community’s health. “This space in the Mission has been historically a place where there are almost no green spaces for people, for families, [and] for a lot of working-class families,” said Mendez during a community event at Parcel 36 in April.

Mendez explains there are long-term “Missionites”—Mission District residents and organizations—that have been participating in the fight for additional green space.

While not a part of Mission Greenway, MAPP has served the Mission District for over 20 years.

Because gentrification has ravaged the greater Bay Area over the past decade, the fight for a small plot of land is unsurprising. The battle for Parcel 36 appears more about who can take over spaces and for what purpose, leading to the question: “What does the community want for the space?”

Unfortunately, that muddles the issue as well.

Mission Kids preschool, which shares the space, issued a statement to the Mission Local newspaper stating that it supports “broad community input into future use of Parcel 36” and their priority is for the safety of the children of the school. Despite this show of public support, some allege that preschool staff are responsible for changing the gate locks, hindering community members’ access to the space.

Parcel 36’s Legal Limbo

“This can be an incredible green oasis that can be part vegetable garden, part native garden—there’s so much possible here.”

In November 2022, some neighbors, including Mission Kids preschool, retained legal counsel, and sent a letter to members of Mission Greenway requesting they vacate. The letter, signed by Stephen G. Preonas, claimed ownership of the parcel by “right of way.” That same month, Mission Greenway introduced their Instagram page, featuring a photo of their name on a wooden sign on the plot of land they had partly turned into a community garden.

The community garden has roughly 10 planters and the vegetables and herbs grown on the parcel are given away at a neighborhood farm stand. “We believe, especially with this changing block of [a] changing neighborhood, a better purpose for this parcel would be to serve the community rather than keep serving as a free private parking lot for just a few businesses,” said Hanna.

“This can be an incredible green oasis that can be part vegetable garden, part native garden—there’s so much possible here,” said Hanna. She says this potential is thwarted because of “the legal vacuum that it’s in,” as there have been multiple attempts to bully people out of the legally unclaimed space.

In January of this year, the Mission Local reported that the garden was vandalized by agitators allegedly hired by state realtor Louis Cornejo. Then in March, Monkey Brains applied to San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspections for repairs to the chain link fence, citing that it was “damaged.” Mission Greenway asserts this was an attempt to claim ownership.

An appeal filed by Mission Greenway with the City and County of San Francisco requests that future permit applications for this parcel will not be granted once legal ownership is established. It also demands that all subsequent appeals be denied until ownership issues can be resolved.”

Monkey Brains filed a rebuttal to the appeal asserting that the space is needed for the operations and growth of their business, citing “prescriptive easement” to claim parcel ownership. Prescriptive easement is a version of eminent domain between private parties—or in schoolyard terms, “finders keepers.”

On April 26th, in a four-hour-long meeting, the appeals board members voted unanimously to grant the appeal to revoke Monkey Brains’ permit for repairs—a small win for Mission Greenway. However, the appeals board explained in the hearing it had limited capacity for resolution of the ownership issue. Board members explained that they could only resolve the permitting issue but drafted a letter to city officials to resolve the matter.

Until the City and County of San Francisco respond, it remains inconclusive who owns and can access Parcel 36. Board members commended the parties’ efforts to bring the issue to the forefront but also reminded both parties to “get along with one another” as the issue remains unresolved.

It’s important to know who is trying to create these spaces notes Mendez, of MAPP, before the hearing. “It is people who are seeking community, who are not seeking profit out of it, coming together and who ultimately are revitalizing this abandoned space.”  For now, Mission Greenway is continuing to make Parcel 36 a space that is accessible and directly serves the community.

This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.

Worldwide, civil society—from NGOs to grassroots activist groups to social movements to unions—is being undermined by global conflict, suppressive governments, the erosion of democratic institutions, and the spread of disinformation. 

Far from being exempt from these trends, the US has, in some cases, exacerbated them. Not only has this country seen continuing attacks on its own democratic institutions, but it has also supported regressive, anti-rights agendas worldwide by setting examples domestically. 

“Much of civil society’s radical energy is coming from outside the NGO universe: from small, informal grassroots groups, often formed and led by women, young people and indigenous people.”

That’s according to a new report by the NGO Civicus, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, which paints a bleak picture of the current state of global civil society, defined broadly as including “non-governmental organizations, activists, civil society coalitions and networks, protest and social movements, voluntary bodies, campaigning organisations, charities, faith-based groups, trade unions and philanthropic foundations.”

Those institutions, the report says, are under attack and being eroded amid significant global conflict, increasing economic anxieties, a rise of authoritarian and far-right movements, and a new age of disinformation—globally, and here in the US.

“There is a need for transnational, rights-based solidarity.”

To respond to these threats, civil society must take a greater leadership role in the world—filling a vacuum left by failed international governance—and build a transnational movement that can stand up for civil rights and democratic institutions across the globe. 

And such a movement must, the report finds, include nontraditional or nonestablishment actors, as “much of civil society’s radical energy is coming from outside the NGO universe: from small, informal grassroots groups, often formed and led by women, young people and indigenous people” (10). 

“There is a need for transnational, rights-based solidarity, and that means in the first place civil society standing up for civil society,” says Inés M. Pousadela, a senior research specialist for Civicus and one of the authors of the report. “And it’s more difficult than it sounds.”

Conflict and Protest

International and intranational conflicts worldwide are causing suffering for millions and serve as the catalyst for attacks on civil society, the report says. “States affected by conflicts and crises often see civil society as a source of counterpower and counternarratives and a competitor for resources, and move to suppress it accordingly” (5).  We see as examples the detention of journalists by the Ethiopian government to control the flow of information about the civil war that only recently ended there, or the prosecution by the Italian government of groups supplying aid to migrants at sea. 

“Lack of recognition of its crucial roles and stigmatizing narratives are major challenges civil society faces around the world, not least because they enable violations of civic space and hamper its ability to do its vital work” (5). 

These attacks on civil society are bolstered by what the report describes as “catastrophic global governance failures,” including inaction and ineffectiveness on the part of the United Nations, whose Security Council has been “hamstrung” by Russia’s veto power. 

Civil society, says Pousadela, suffers from a lack of direct access to global governance institutions like the UN. “If you look at the access civil society has in the most important climate-related conference at the UN, the COP (Conference of the Parties), fossil fuel companies have much more access than civil society when climate is being discussed.”

Meanwhile, the right to protest “is under attack, even in longstanding democracies” (6). 

The report states: 

Although international human rights law makes clear people have a right to peaceful protest—and the vast majority of protests throughout the year were indeed peaceful—many governments are deploying a wide range of tactics to crack down on peaceful protests and using the occasional violent protest event as an excuse to restrict all protests (7).

Over the last year, many protests around the world (more than 10,000, according to a count by Civicus) have erupted in response to rising prices and cost of living and inadequate or “tone deaf” responses by the government, a claim that is backed up by a 2022 report by Democracy Without Borders, which also found that “rising costs of fuel and food are global protest triggers.” 

Civil society groups, the Civicus report says, are key in defending the right to protest—but the closing of protest spaces also undermines civil society itself, “particularly in the many contexts where taking to the streets is the only means of expressing dissent” (8). 

The right to protest, says researcher Pousadela, “is a right that’s basically a tool to achieve other rights. Most of the rights that we enjoy have been conquered through protest. When you don’t complain and you don’t mobilize and you don’t make demands, you don’t get anything, right?”

“And the problem is, [the right to protest] is really under attack. We’re seeing it even in democratic states,” Pousadela continues. “Even democratic states that claim to be climate leaders like European states, like the Netherlands and Germany, they are repressing climate protesters, they are curtailing the right to protest.” 

Disinformation, Extremism, and the Erosion of Democracy

Democratic institutions are being eroded around the globe. The report states: 

Economic strife and insecurity are providing fertile ground for the emergence of authoritarian leaders fostering polarization and attacking rights . . . In countries where genuine elections were held, one distinct trend was a further embrace of far-right-extremism (8).

Pousadela went on to note, “Some things that happened in the US in the past couple of years were things that you had we would have never expected to see in the US. Like an attempted coup, for example,” 

Even beyond events like the January 6 insurrection, the US has served as a base of operations for far-right interest groups exporting anti-LGBTQI+ and other anti-rights agendas. 

“The US can be a force for democracy, but it can also be a regressive force, and not just the US as a state,” says Pousadela. “The impact that US funding is having on regression on LGBTQ rights in Africa, which is huge, it’s not the US government that’s sending that money. It’s very powerful conservative foundations that are sending money, sending their experts. They write these template laws that they reproduce in country after country.” 

Complicating the picture is the role of disinformation, which played a “huge role” in elections around the world last year, the report says, noting that such disinformation is often employed specifically to undermine civil society and its institutions, especially when it comes to historically excluded groups. 

The Civicus report states: 

Civil society is often the target of disinformation and hate speech, particularly when activists come from or stand for the rights of excluded groups . . . Disinformation is pervasive in the pushback against women’s and LGBTQI+ people’s rights: it’s deployed in culture wars waged by well-resourced and influential global networks of ultraconservative, nationalist and white supremacist groups—including those that attack women’s rights in the name of what they characterize as the rights of the unborn while attacking trans people’s rights in the name of women’s rights” (9).

The report urges civil society organizations and institutions to play a more active role in combatting disinformation worldwide:

The challenge remains of forging a joined-up, multi-faceted global effort to counter disinformation—which must include better regulation of the social media and tech industry, developed through participatory processes and including safeguards for freedom of expression (9).

In a recent panel, NPQ explored the ways that global disinformation has worked to undermine and disempower movements challenging racial, economic, and gendered oppression. Guests addressed the question: How can social movements succeed against the rise of fictional narratives, propaganda, disinformation, and misinformation in the media and our daily lives?

Ideas for Action

The report lists 10 “Ideas for Action,” ranging from broad calls for increased vigilance by civil society groups to more specific strategies to counter “regressive” trends in society worldwide. 

Among the key takeaways: 

Right to Protest: “Greater emphasis is needed by civil society and supportive states on protecting freedom of peaceful assembly, including by developing preventative actions, advocating for law enforcement reforms and ensuring perpetrators of violence against protesters are held to account” (11).

Address Inequality at Scale: “Civil society should critique the structural flaws in the current global economic model that benefits a few while leaving many vulnerable to crisis. Areas for advocacy could include progressive taxation, such as windfall and wealth taxes, social protection floors, universal basic incomes, union recognition and more effective business regulation” (33).

Disinformation: “Civil society should play a leading role in developing anti-disinformation strategies, including fact-checking, enhancement of media literacy and, crucially, advocacy for higher regulatory standards for social media companies, consistent with respect for freedom of expression” (11).

Protecting Democracy: “Free and fair elections are a vital component of democracy. To ensure elections accurately reflect voters’ wishes, national and international civil society groups should work together to monitor elections and expose any wrongdoing…. When progressive political changes happen, civil society must help hold political leaders accountable for their promises, while guarding against the prospect of regressive backlash” (47).

Building Global Movements: “Transnational solidarity is vital in struggles to resist regression. Civil society should work to strengthen and enhance the membership and reach of transnational civil society networks, and enable the rapid deployment of solidarity and support when rights come under attack” (11).

Partnering with Media: “Media engagement is crucial for raising public awareness of issues such as climate change and gender equality, and winning support for action. Civil society should develop media partnerships as part of its advocacy and campaigning strategies” (11).

This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.

Meet Saphia, a young bell hooks fanatic trying desperately to build a good life in New York City. Constantly immersed in the latest idea she has discovered while reading hooks, Saphia is determined to figure out how to apply these liberatory ideals to her own life. But the one thing she doesn’t account for is a little surprise encouragement from the legend herself. 

Click here to learn more about this new series from Edge studios, and follow @npquarterly and @offthehookshorts on social to see episodes of “Off the Hook” as they are released.

(Flashback to episode 4.) 

SAPHIA: So I guess this means I don’t have to worry. I can just chill. 

BELL HOOKS: Hello, Saphia. I’m afraid it’s not that simple. Keep reading. 

(Flashback scene swirls and fades into a swirling cosmos. Saphia and bell hooks float around a cosmic background, both represented by their cartoon versions.) 

SAPHIA: Whoa… where am I? 

BELL HOOKS: Here. 

SAPHIA: Where’s here? 

(No answer.) 

SAPHIA: Hello? 

BELL HOOKS: Yes, dear. I’m here. 

SAPHIA: WHERE?! Who are you?! 

BELL HOOKS: You know who I am. 

SAPHIA: Absolutely impossible. Nope, nuh-uh. I’m outta here. 

(Saphia floats to the right-hand edge of the screen, only to reappear again on the left-hand edge.) 

SAPHIA: What’s wrong with this place?! 

BELL HOOKS: Nothing. It’s HERE. It’s the only place you can be. Here. 

SAPHIA: I’m gonna be honest, miss hooks— 

BELL HOOKS:—bell. Call me bell. 

SAPHIA: …bell. This is all… a little too much for me. 

BELL HOOKS: Really? Huh. How disappointing. I thought you were ready. 

SAPHIA: Ready for what? 

BELL HOOKS: To integrate. All you’ve learned. 

SAPHIA: Integrate? How? 

BELL HOOKS: Well that’s where I come in. It’s not easy, taking what you’ve learned and trying to live your life by those principles. Many people don’t even try. But you… you tried. 

SAPHIA: Tried? I haven’t stopped trying. 

BELL HOOKS: Haven’t you? You’re not a gentrifier anymore, at least according to you, so you “don’t have to worry,” right? You can just… “chill”? 

SAPHIA: …I didn’t really mean that. I’ll keep trying, I will.  

(beat. Silence from bell hooks.) 

SAPHIA: I’ll keep trying to… live more in line with my values, I guess? Question the complacency of modern life? Your books are a good guide. 

BELL HOOKS: Thank you. I really hope you will. Because you’re still only at the beginning. There’s so much yet to come. So much left to do. 

(bell hooks disappears.)  

SAPHIA: Hello? Hello?!!! What does that mean?! bell?? What do I do now? 

(beat) 

SAPHIA: Damn. What a classic adventure plot. What a fairy godmother trope.  

(beat) 

SAPHIA: And here I am, the protagonist, made acutely aware that I cannot escape my destiny.  

(“My Destiny” by Alton McClain & Destiny plays. Fade to outro.) 

This article originally appeared in the Nonprofit Quarterly. See the original article here.