The Revolution Will Not Be Tax Deductible
Doing The Work
Hello Beloved Community,
The social and political systems that govern us were not meant to encourage most of us to thrive. We can get mad about it, or we can get on with it. I suppose that sometimes we have to get mad before we can get on with it so if that is your current mode, then carry on. Embrace that anger + the ways that it heats you up, tones your muscle groups towards action, and motivates you to stay engaged. If you are ready to get on with it; great. Let’s go.
First, how did we get to this broken place in philanthropy??????
During White America’s first Gilded Age, the desire of the world’s wealthiest people to legitimize their ever-growing hoards conjured quite a performance of conspicuous giving. Andrew Carnegie’s 1889 essay, “The Gospel of Wealth,” remains modern philanthropy’s most cherished founding document. The essay begins with a sweeping defense of wealth inequality. Spoiler: It doesn’t get much better from there. I don’t suspect that it is a coincidence that 20 years later Congress passed a series of laws that created the modern tax system, exempting “any corporation or association organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, or educational purposes” from taxation. And here we are.
Here in 2025, foundations needn’t have a website, a physical office, or even a phone number, nor must they reveal their donors or giving strategies. They need only file an informational IRS return, adhere to basic rules against “self-dealing” (they are seldom audited), and expend a paltry 5 percent of their assets annually—including overhead—for charitable purposes. At the end of 2019, there were roughly 103,000 private foundations in the US, largely unaccountable to the public, parked on more than $1.1 trillion in government-subsidized assets. Yep. Pretty gross.
Modern philanthropy was designed to promote, in fact to protect, financial giving of the super wealthy while doing little to address the systems that perpetuate the systemic harm that most Americans are charged with swimming through everyday. Good news, there are other ways that we can show up for folks, our fellow creatures living on earth with us, art, our climate, AND address the systemic harm that continues to keep too many in harm’s way. It’s called mutual aid. I pretty much love it.
This framework of care starts with the folks who are in need of support rather than ending with them. The culture, community, and needs of the folks seeking support are at the center of mutual aid, sort of turning philanthropy inside out. That folks doing the giving are NOT at the center of this model, that they are simply providing some resources and that’s it. Well, its kinda radical. There aren’t gold stars, tax deductions, or public applause. There is just care on the terms of the folks who are asking for it. It feels really good to give like this.
Mutual aid has taken many forms in countless countries and cultures. In Chiapas, the Mayan-based Zapatista uprising of 1994 ushered in a period of nearly 30 years of self-determination and self-government rooted in mutual aid practice. As Global Social Theory explains, “the Zapatistas have focused their efforts on living a peaceful life of decolonial, anti-capitalist, collective resistance, concentrated upon recuperating land, mutual aid, and exercising autonomy. The Zapatistas achieve this by centering their Indigenous traditions and the practice of horizontal governance, equitable gender relations, anti-systemic health care, grassroots education, and agro-ecological food sovereignty.” It shouldn’t be surprising to us that the folks who were here first, living in community with each other + nature, can teach the rest of us how to do this.
As we consider how we both as individuals and as a society move through the phase of governance that is on tap for us in 2025, there are opportunities too numerous to name for us to change the ways we give. We get to choose where + how to give our money and attention when asked by individuals and movements. Make it count.
Here are some ideas for how to move towards a giving practice rooted in equity:
When a war or disaster strikes that opens your heart, I invite you to resist donating to a large, multinational NGO and instead take an extra 2 minutes to google “mutual aid XXXX” and then give that way. For example, show a Palestinian family that you care by finding a mutual aid campaign and give your funds directly to a Gazan family through Operation Olive Branch
Pay for your media. I know, what a wild idea AND how is this connected to giving? Well, lots of media houses NEED your financial support so they can tell us the whole story. There are loads of women + BIPOC led media platforms out there that will give you solid news that you are going to NEED in the coming years. Invest in them. My faves are The 19th, Media 2070, and America Dissected. You can even support THIS newsletter if you find our offerings informative + supportive. Where we put our financial attention matters + we should invest in the people + places that both inform us and help us to find our way towards each other.
Shop with intention. Capitalism is the sea we swim in. We have to start using this tool to change the social problems plaguing us. What would happen if you deleted that pesky Amazon app? Try it, even for a month. Prioritize local businesses (for us in Texas, HEB absolutely counts) run by women + BIPOC entrepreneurs. Invest in them. Here are a few of my faves: Thread Spun, Chani, and Black Pearl Books
Invest towards legacy with integrity in your heart and mind. I don’t know much about investing so I am working hard to listen to + read + learn from experts in the investment sector who are committed to socially impactful capitalism. A few of the folks I am studying with right now are Finance Therapy, Phinance, and Financial Feminist
Care for the folks who matter to you, the activists, who are doing the work that the world needs. This can be financial and can also be about sending a thank you card, sharing your social network with them through a post or dinner party, or inviting them to do something nourishing with you. Us organizers, we love to be organized for :—)
I am trying really hard to be a small business owner who lives my values AND a capitalist who is good at business AND an ancestor worthy of my dependents’ appreciation. What “good at business” means to me now is that I pay generous, living wages to our Waking Giants team. It means that the Waking Giants team takes tender care of our clients, producing high quality work and meeting people where they are at. It means that Waking Giants gives a lot of our profit to support mutual aid actions. In 2024, our Waking Giants team led some mutual aid efforts that included paying medical school tuition for a Gazan student and contributing funds and food to local ATX groups like ATX Free Fridge. These actions are taken by Waking Giants after paying our bills and our team; mutual aid is a part of our business model.
If you want to support OUR mutual aid organizing + social impact work + our efforts to create a woman-run, for profit company rooted in a mutual aid business model that pays our team well and cares for them deeply, here is how you can do that:
Recommend our professional services to folks who might want/need them (writing, fundraising, executive coaching, event support) and send them our way OR/AND buy a ticket, or gift one to someone that you love, to a party that we throw.
I am really proud of the way we are doing the work at Waking Giants. I just wanted to tell you a little bit about it today. Thanks for reading along!
Sera Bonds, MPH
CEO, Chief Everything Officer at Waking Giants
*If you want to ready more about mutual and and the history of philanthropy, these are the two sources I pulled some of the historical info in this piece from: Mother Jones + NPO