Professional Documents
Culture Documents
NEC 2015 Report
NEC 2015 Report
The New Economy Coalition is helping deepen relationships between organizations and
providing the broader alignment we need. We
appreciate NECs leadership role in bringing
organizations across the movement together.
JACOB SWENSON-LENGYEL
PEOPLES ACTION
OUR
MISSION
The New Economy Coalition (NEC)
is a network of organizations imagining and building a future where people,
communities, and ecosystems thrive.
Together, we are creating deep change
in our economy and politicsplacing
power in the hands of people and
uprooting legacies of harmso that
a fundamentally new system can
take root.
Our network advances change in three
main ways:
1. We convene and connect leaders to
tackle common challenges in their
work to build a new economy.
2. We amplify stories, tools, and
analysis, weaving a collective new
economy narrative that can build
shared identity, shift culture and
policy, and promote a clear vision
of the next system.
3. We lift up the work of communities
on the frontlines of interrelated
economic and ecological crises who
are organizing for transformative
change, through right relationships
and direct support.
OUR
VISION
At the New Economy Coalition,
were driven by a belief that all our
strugglesfor racial, economic, and
climate justice; for true democratic
governance and community
ownership; for prosperity rooted
in interdependence with the
earths natural systemsare deeply
interconnected. Rising to the
challenge of building a better world
demands that we fundamentally
transform our economic and
political systems.
We must imagine and create a
future where capital (wealth and the
means of creating it) is a tool of the
people, not the other way around.
What we need is a new systema
new economythat meets human
needs, enhances the quality of life,
and allows us to live in balance with
nature. Far from a dream, this new
economy is bursting forth through
the cracks of the current system
as people experiment with new
forms of business, governance, and
culture that give life to the claim that
another world is possible.
Jonathan Rosenthal
Executive Director
People are stuck in the realm of tactics, fire fighting in their day jobs.
People rarely have time to think about movement infrastructure,
developing the skills around framing and most importantly the
community. NEC is very well positioned to do this.
DANIEL VOCKINS, NEON
1WORKER1VOTE.ORG
CROATAN INSTITUTE
350.ORG
DEMAND PROGRESS
AYNAH
DEMOS
BEAUTIFUL TROUBLE
B LAB
BOARD OF CHANGE
EARTHACTION
BOTTOM UP ECONOMY
EQUAL EXCHANGE
CAPITAL INSTITUTE
FOOD FIRST
GRAND ASPIRATIONS
CITYSEED
GREEN AMERICA
CLASS ACTION
CODEPINK
GREENWAVE
GROUNDSWELL
HOURWORLD COOPERATIVE
COMMUNITY VENTURES
COMPRESSION INSTITUTE
INTELLIGENT MISCHIEF
CO-OP POWER
NECs visionary members are key to achieving our shared goals. Our membership includes an exciting
range of groups from across the US and Canada that are engaged in every facet of building the new economy:
from theorizing to organizing to building community wealth. Were grateful for our members continued
engagement and look forward to deeper collaboration going forward.
LIFEBRIDGE FOUNDATION
RETHINKING ECONOMICS
LINC FOODS
RETHINKING PROSPERITY
SHAREABLE
LOCAL FUTURES/ISEC
SLOW MONEY
SOLIDARITY ECONOMY DC
SOLIDARITYNYC
SOSTENICA
If people are talking climate action or urban poverty there needs to be a second beat
of what an alternative looks like. NEC can be a switchboard, can make space to connect those two halves. Its important to have space where people who are doing this
work can check in with each other, and thats something NEC has done well. Its a
space where people can see themselves as part of a larger movement. Its concrete
and creates a framework for thinking about collaboration and alignment.
JOHN DUDA,
ANNUAL MEETING
In May 2015 representatives from more than 50 of NECs member
organizations convened for our second Annual Members Meeting
in Philadelphia. It was a high-energy gathering that offered
members a chance to meet our new Executive Director, connect
with one another, share strategies, explore opportunities for
collaboration, elect new NEC board members, and co-create plans
for moving forward together. Members offered invaluable insights
on communications and narrative strategy, collaborative fundraising,
and new infrastructure to support sustained dialogue. Their guidance
shaped the organization of New Economy Week as well as NECs
second international CommonBound conference (to be held July
2016 in Buffalo) and NECs overall strategic plan, which we began
developing in fall 2015 and completed in spring 2016.
NEW MEMBERS
In 2015 NEC welcomed dozens of new member organizations
representing key elements of the movement toward a new economy.
Some of our new members are:
Local and regional hubs of action, including People United For
and GreenWave.
Youth and student leaders, like the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student
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REGRANTING
In 2015, NECs Youth and Frontline Regranting
Program supported 18 organizations and new
economy initiatives, ranging from Gulf South
Risings 10th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
to the Boston Solidarity Economy Initiative to
Enlaces Prison Divestment Convergence. All of
these powerful projects are lifting up the leadership
of youth and frontline organizers in building
community-centered economies.
We also hosted our first Grantee Gathering on May 14
in Philadelphia. Philadelphia has been a site of major
youth organizing in the fight for public education as
well as the establishment of a city-wide land bank.
Youth organizers involved in local work welcomed
grantees from across the country for a day of skillsharing, relationship-building, and storytelling.
2015 GRANTEES
350.org
Black Youth Project 100*
Center for Economic Democracy
Divestment Student Network*
Dream Defenders*
E X AM P LE S O F G R ANTE E WO R K
Enlace
Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy
Intelligent Mischief
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth*
LeftRoots*
Maroon Project*
Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment*
Raised in the Revolution: Millennial Conference
SolidarityNYC
USA Cooperative Youth Council
US Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN)
Wildfire Project
Working World
*Grasping at the Root travel scholarship recipient
11
REINVESTMENT
NEC organizers have remained an anchor in
the growing Reinvest in Our Power Network,
a collaboration of student campaigners and
grassroots organizations to divest university
holdings in the fossil fuel industry and reinvest
the money in a community-governed financial
cooperative. This program is aimed at building
a new energy economy and is centered on the
self-determination of communities historically at the frontlines of poverty and pollution.
Rather than allowing people to be a tool of
finance, we are making finance a tool of
the people.
WHATS NEXT
In July 2016 were holding our second CommonBound
conference. The conference will take place in Buffalo,
New York, a city that is itself an important piece of the new
economy story. Faced with the same disinvestment that has
carved out countless towns and cities along Americas Rust
Belt, Buffalo residents working in groups like PUSH Buffalo
have been at the forefront of visionary organizing and
institution-building that puts people and the planet ahead
of profits.
Inspired by the Allied Media Conference, CommonBound
has been organized in a collaborative, decentralized way.
Ninety volunteer coordinators and a local host committee
are involved on the ground-floor, shaping the conference
programming so that it reflects the organizations and
communities leading the movement. In a small way,
CommonBound is aiming to mirror the democratic world
we are working toward.
CommonBound will bring together people with powerful
visions for the future: a cross-section of community
leaders, thinkers, and practitioners from around the
world, including NECs 140+ member organizations from
throughout the US and Canada. Participants will share
strategies and stories, build relationships, highlight
achievements, and chart a shared path toward a society
that puts people and planet first.
The conference will feature 17 workshop tracks and 16
day-long gatherings exploring a range of topics, including:
Democratizing energy systems in the face of accelerating
climate change
Racial justice and building an economy where black lives matter
Using policy and state power to achieve structural change
Developing local economies without displacing people
Building multi-racial, cross-class movements with visionary
demands
Worker cooperatives and community enterprise as vehicles for
shifting the economic system
...and much more!
12
AARON TANAKA
ALLISON BASILE
DAVID M. ABROMOWITZ
Coordinator of Cooperation DC
(a project of Organizing Neighborhood Equity [ONE] DC), which
supports the development of worker
and community owned businesses.
GUS SPETH
HILDEGARDE HANNUM
IVY BRASHEAR
LEAH HUNT-HENDRIX
NEVA GOODWIN
SARAH STRANAHAN
13
DEIRDRE SMITH
ED WHITFIELD
GAR ALPEROVITZ
JESSICA BRACKMAN
JOHN CAVANAGH
JOHN FULLERTON
STACY MITCHELL
STEWART WALLIS
WILL RAAP
14
2015 FINANCIALS
Foundations
$ 861,000
83%
$ 98,517
9%
Individual Supporters
$ 34,075
3%
$ 46,134
4%
Major Gifts
TOTAL
$1,039,726
15
Programs
20%
Communications
$ 439,019
$ 180,310
Administration
$ 174,924
13%
Fundraising
$ 114,099
TOTAL
$908,352
16
OUR SUPPORTERS
The New Economy Coalition gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the individuals
and foundations and other organizations who made our work possible in 2015. Contributions
of $250 or more are listed here. We deeply appreciate our donors at all levels.
INDIVIDUAL DONORS
Andrew Rosenthal
Bonnie Rukin
Brendan Martin
Compression Institute
David Ludlow
Germeshausen Foundation
David Roswell
Lifebridge Foundation
Dirk Wiggins
Eli Schmitt
Farhad Ebrahimi
NoVo Foundation
Overbrook Foundation
Gus Speth
Hildegarde Hannum
Hunter Hannum
Jason Franklin
Jeff Clements
Threshold Foundation
Jennifer Corriggio
Communications Manager
S H AVAU N E VA NS ,
ELI FEGHALI,
JA M I E F R A N K ,
A R A Z H AC H A D OURIAN,
E M I LY H A R DT,
Operations Manager
TO R I KU P E R ,
REN PREZ,
R AC H E L P L AT T U S ,
E M M A P U KA- B EALS ,
Development Associate
J O N AT H A N R OS E NTH AL,
M I K E SA N D M E L,
Executive Director
A L I SM A R T,
AS H T R U L L ,
DESIGN
Ciano Design