Implement Paid / Compensated Roles / People

This is a topic to track the implementation of Make Organizing Financially Accessible, Sustainable, and Joyful

Phase 1: Research

Todos

Check current hours
Understand consulting requirements
Ask existing organizers about their financial experience: knowledge and skills, current sources of resources, decision-making process, philosophies
Get insights from other organizations (see notes at Make Organizing Financially Accessible, Sustainable, and Joyful)

Phase 2: Plan

Propose compensation plan to Mission Circle and General Circle
Hire a consultant for implementation support
Apply to New York Foundation Capacity Building Grants

Phase 3: Implementation

Hire an accountant
Secure insurance

Time Tracking

We’re tracking time spent by general circle members at Time Tracker - Compensation.

Consultant

Ask Community Resource Exchange, Sustainable Economy Laws Center, and MVVN for potential leads.

Project Goals

  • We’re able to pay staff members equitably!
  • We have the resources and system needed to do this sustainably

Requirements

  • Implementation, not just research and design
  • Alignment with our principles

Work Products
Whether directly created or sourced from other organizations/resources.

  • Time tracking, payroll, and accounting system
  • Legal agreements
  • Insurance
  • Training

Leads for Consultants
Future Incubator
MVVN
Peer Defense Project
Sustainable Economies Law Center
Community Resource Exchange
Vega Mala Consulting


Peer Defense Project
The Peer Defense Project Proposal. They’ve also shared that they outsource HR (Gusto), Accounting (Jitasa), and Legal Compliance (Lawyer’s Alliance).

MEVVN
The MEVVN Proposal.

Future Coalition
They’ve offered support but we haven’t connected yet. I’ll recommend that MEVVN follows up!

Survey of Financial Experience

Search “Survey of Financial Experience” in our Shared Google Drive (Keep Private)

Questions we’re currently asking:

What’s your age? What are things about your specific situation that are relevant to an understanding of your financial situation?

What is your current financial situation?
current income, current net worth, access to resources
expenses

How sustainable is your current financial situation? What’s your definition of sustainable? Would you say you have excess, you’re thriving, you’re just making it, or you’re struggling?

What are your philosophies around money?

What do you know about money? What do you need to learn?

How does money influence where you decide to invest your time?

We’re implementing paid staff members at Youth Power Coalition: what ideas do you have about how we do this?

What else do you want to share that you haven’t had an opportunity to share yet?

What, if anything, should we change about these questions?

Proposal

Apply for Capacity Building Grant

New York Foundation has $7500 available for consulting support.

Grant Application Link

Grant Application Questions

Grant Amount Requested: $7500

Share briefly how you intend to use this small grant:*
(A simple bullet list will suffice.)
Our question is “How might we make organizing for youth-led collective impact financially accessible?” We’re requesting this grant to put the first part of our support for financial accessibility into place! We will use the grant to hire consultants to guide us through implementing an equitable compensation policy. The project includes: interviewing other youth-led organizations to glean lessons from how they’ve implemented consultation, finalizing compensation policy, purchasing HR software, creating HR employment documents, training organizers on budgeting, redistribution, finances, racialized capitalism, and documentation of the process so we can share it with the wider community and have a base for improving on it in future.

If working with a consultant, please share their contact information:
We will be working with MEVVN consulting and Peer Defense Project

Peer Defense Project
Website: Using the Legal System to Build School Integration — IntegrateNYC

MEVVN
Website: https://www.mevvn.com/

Hire an Accountant

Leads for Accountants
A Bookkeeping Cooperative
Jitasa
Ask Open Collective Fiscal Sponsors for leads

Considerations

  • What is our budget?
  • What services are included?
  • How aligned are they to our values?
  • How flexible are they with our Beyond Budgeting and Participatory Budgeting process?
  • How much ownership will they take for improving our systems?