Blog

By Mary Delorié, Director of Individual Giving

It seems right to kick off the 40th anniversary of Headwaters Foundation for Justice (HFJ) by celebrating our unique model of donor organizing. As a people-powered foundation that centers the voices and communities intentionally excluded from power, we were founded to boldly fund the creativity, imagination, and self-determination of Minnesotans fighting for a more just future.  

Headwaters is the story of a new vision for philanthropy – initiated by a group of radical, high-wealth individuals in 1984. These forward-thinkers pooled their resources to create a community-centered giving model that supported progressive causes ahead of their time like environmental justice, safety and sanctity for LGBTQ people, and research and care for people impacted by the deadly AIDS epidemic.  

The original donors to Headwaters set up a solid bedrock for this organization, and in the subsequent years we’ve built a framework to guide the work. Headwaters aims to be upstream of the issues impacting society—not just provide direct relief or social services, but to invest in organizations that set out to change laws, minds, and systems. Our donors and volunteers are a brilliant and diverse cross-section of Minnesotans from every walk of life. That’s why we organize our donors (aka “donor organize”) to involve individuals in the practice of building power for themselves and others.  

Headwaters’ values tell us that the future of philanthropy is much bigger than the historical model of hoarded wealth and closed-door decision-making by a privileged few. We believe:  

Philanthropy is an institution founded on our nation’s racial wealth divide

Headwaters confronts harms that come from racialized capitalism. The United States was built by the genocide and stripping of lands from Indigenous people, the enslavement of African people and their descendants to build an agrarian economy, and the exploitation of Asians and Latinos who respectively toiled over the creation of cross-national freight and food systems. To this day, our systems perpetuate these unjust legacies in how we distribute wealth in this country. Our framework identifies the exploitative ways wealth has been and continues to be accumulated in this country – at the expense of the many to benefit the few.   

With this in mind, we ask our high-wealth individuals to take the time to develop a personal understanding of how they came to their class status. With the same energy, we warmly welcome those who don’t traditionally consider themselves philanthropists, whether that’s because of their class status or because they hold any of the many identities historically excluded from this field. This makes for an intentionally diverse, multiracial, cross-class set of donors to Headwaters because we believe that wealth should not be a prerequisite to wanting to invest in our communities.  

Money is an important tool for creating change 

We do not allow someone’s relationship with money to lead to shame or inaction. Instead, we offer actionable ways to use money to build power. In his book, Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva describes how money can be “used as medicine” for systematically disenfranchised communities and for people who have intentionally or unintentionally benefited from wealth concentration and exploitation in this country. At Headwaters, we focus on moving money as central to our work—and are guided by the “three R’s”: redistribute, reinvest, and reallocate.  

These approaches inspire our deeply relational approach to donor organizing. We ask individuals to do challenging emotional work to understand and develop a personal philosophy as it relates to their charitable giving. And then we ask donors to give boldly–beyond what they originally thought was possible–to make personally meaningful gifts. These gifts are ongoing commitments to building equity and justice through our shared values that fund movements for change.    

Resources should be moved to movements NOW

Throughout U.S. history, people-powered campaigns have achieved major milestones. Examples we often hear about include unions organizing for the 5-day work week, activists winning the fight for women’s suffrage, and the passage of landmark legislation including the Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, all thanks to yearslong mass mobilization and grassroots organizing. Change takes time—it is a long game. Waiting to enter the arena can often prolong the process.   

Effective movement work requires contributions on multiple fronts—community organizers are needed to set visions for shared power; funders need to give generously but refrain from setting strategy; protesters need to advocate for change on the streets; and legislators need to pass laws. In these divided times, national and local Minnesota movement campaigns continue to fight for reproductive justice, trans liberation, workers’ rights, Black liberation, justice for Indigenous, immigrants, and refugees, and more.  

We must all engage actively rather than passively hoping others do the work. And we shouldn’t be asked to choose only one issue to focus on. Supporting Headwaters means your contributions are spread across Minnesota, benefiting various Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led grassroots organizations working for justice and reaching movements you might not be aware of.  

Whether you’re already a donor to Headwaters, or you’re considering ways to be more involved, thank you for learning about Headwaters and our unique approach to donor relationships. And in the spirit of centering relationships within the fundraising process, we are always excited to hear how this experience was for you! Our inboxes are always open.   

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40 Calls to Action for 40 Years of Headwaters

As we celebrate 40 years of Headwaters, we are sharing with you all the ins and outs of how we do our work – in the past and present. We’d also like to invite you to take action in your own way. With each blog, we will be sharing a list of “calls to action” that are actionable for you whether you are new to our work, someone working in philanthropy, a passive scroller, or someone who knows our work even better than we know ourselves! We invite you to consider the following actions:  

• Reflect on how you see yourself: a donor, a philanthropist, a giver, an activist… and question your assumptions of what these roles look like! Our Donor Stories Project includes food for thought from the community.  

• Keep the reading going. One suggestion from our team is Edgar Villanueva’s book “Decolonizing Wealth: What If Money Could Heal Us?”. Here’s an online excerpt to get you started.  

• More of a video person? Check out the website of Community Centric Fundraising (CCF)! In addition to an amazing resource list, they have some videos walking through the CCF movement.  

• Talk openly about your giving with your friends, family, and community. Putting your values into action can take many forms – and there’s no rule about sticking to one! Donating can feel passive at times. Amplify that energy by involving your people and building accountability.   

• Refer a friend to a Giving Project in their state. The Giving Project has trained thousands of donor organizers across the country. And they exist in states beyond Minnesota! Take a look at this map and see if you have friends who might be interested.  

• Check-in with yourself to see what class privileges you have. We often underestimate our own class privileges and giving power. Resource Generation has a great quiz to help you get started.   

• Take the time to learn about a new organization in your community. Community organizers are hard at work in every corner of Minnesota. Our 2023 list of Grantee Partners could be a great place to start! Once you learn more about them, consider making a gift to support their work.  

• Review your personal investment portfolio. Do you know where your funds are invested? Whether it’s your kid’s college fund or the endowment where you work, there is an increasing number of ways to value align your investments to avoid systemically harmful companies. Some places to start include Resource Generation’s “Transformative Investment Principles” or the American Friends Service Committee’s “Divesting for Palestinian Rights” resource.  

• Support your favorite organization by giving them a shoutout! Maybe you’re chronically online and want to tell your friends to give this org a follow. Or maybe you haven’t touched Facebook in years and want to text your friends just to share the cool win this org just had.   

• And of course… you can give to Headwaters! When you give to Headwaters, your money is pooled with others and invested in communities across Minnesota through our various funds. Giving unrestricted gifts means that our community-led grantmaking processes have the autonomy to move money where it is needed most.