No Shortcuts to Power: Supporting Organizers to Stay, Lead, and Win
By: Alicia Jay, Executive Director, All Due Respect, and Rickke Mananzala, President, New York Foundation
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. This means making intentional, forward-looking investments that strengthen the people and organizations driving change. If we want movements to win, we must support the conditions now for organizers to stay in the work and secure the transformative change communities need and deserve.
Organizing has always been how change takes root and grows. Yet too often, we fail to invest fully in the people who make that possible. Organizers face low pay, burnout, and turnover, which weakens campaigns and forces movements to repeatedly rebuild. In short, we keep bailing water out of the boat without fixing the leak. All Due Respect is focused on addressing that leak. Our research and experimentation focus on improving working conditions for community organizers who knock doors, bring people together, build trust, and help communities tap into and activate their collective power.
Our latest resource, Compensation and Beyond: Enhancing Support for Community Organizers in New York City, was built with and for organizers who do this work every day in one of the most challenging cities in the country. In the face of a housing crisis, rising criminalization, and deep economic and racial inequities, NYC’s organizers continue to bring marginalized communities into collective action to build voice, power, and meet essential needs.
With support from the New York Foundation, Robert Sterling Clark Foundation, and the NYC Capacity Building Collaborative, this guide shares essential data on what organizers are paid, how it affects their ability to stay in the work, and the action steps that can help improve these conditions. The New York Foundation supported Compensation and Beyond to provide clear data and solutions that help organizers stay and lead, and to invite philanthropy to recognize the real costs of organizing and help create the conditions for long-term community power.
The findings make the challenges clear. Non-managerial organizers in NYC make, on average, $56,933, which is well below the cost of living, especially for those with dependents. These conditions make it difficult for organizers to remain in the work long enough to lead campaigns, strengthen community relationships, and secure lasting wins. When they leave, communities and movements lose hard-earned trust and momentum.
Compensation and Beyond offers a way forward. It gives organizers, directors, and funders a shared understanding of what it takes to make organizing a sustainable career, which in turn strengthens organizations and movements. Directors can’t address these challenges alone. Funders play a crucial role by covering the real costs of organizing through larger, multi-year general support grants. But support must go further to meet the complex realities that organizing groups face.
- Fund the full cost of staffing and operations
Cover salaries, benefits, cost-of-living adjustments, and core infrastructure such as HR and professional development. People and organizational capacity are essential to sustained impact. - Promote honest conversations and flexibility
Create space for directors to share staffing and workload challenges without fear of losing funding. Encourage realistic plans and allow groups to scale back when necessary to avoid burnout and turnover. - Coordinate with peers to close funding gaps
Organize fellow funders to better understand the staffing crisis and align investments. Collective action can stabilize support and reduce pressure on individual groups.
When funders take these steps to meet the real costs of organizing, organizers can move beyond staying afloat and focus on turning campaigns into victories and vision into reality.
The road ahead will not be easy, but it offers a chance to rethink and strengthen how we support organizing. By aligning funding with what organizers and community groups need, we can help them stay in the work, lead effectively, and win for their communities. Funders ready to invest for the long haul are invited to join us for Supporting the People Who Power Change - Hosted by NYC Capacity-Building Collaborative, a virtual briefing on June 17 at 1 p.m. ET. When we invest in organizers, we invest in the future of our communities and in the power to meet the challenges ahead.