nonprofits

Over the weekend, The Bilerico Project published a fascinating interview with Ellyn Ruthstrom, a seasoned bi activist who became the first and only paid staff member at the Bisexual Resource Center in 2011. Unfortunately, BRC’s current lack of funding prevents Ruthstrom from continuing to earn a salary, but she is still deeply involved in the organization and bi activism in general. In the interview, she explains the challenges bi organizations have faced as they’ve worked to strengthen the movement.

We're thrilled to announce that just three short days after our announcement that we need to raise $40,000 by October 15th in order to print the next issue of Bitch, you've rallied together and propelled us beyond our $40,000 fundraising goal. In fact, by the time we looked up from our computers, you'd already donated $46,000! On top of that, you've spread the word far and wide, and offered powerful and inspiring words of support.

This tremendous and swift outpouring has been honoring and humbling—particularly because you've offered it during the worst days the U.S. economy has seen this year. Thank you. We're deeply grateful.

Please help us keep the momentum going and continue donating and offering your feedback and ideas. We know many of you have ideas and concerns about Bitch's future and sustainability, and we're grateful for the critical feedback and ideas you've offered so far. We're listening. And we assure you we're hard at work on a sustainable vision, based on your feedback (and we're at work on a survey to help facilitate this process).

Clearly I'm not one of those people who can keep my blog up-to-the-minute, but I want to mention two more things about my visit to Detroit, even though I'm actually two states beyond at this point.

Before I left town, I had lunch with some staff members of Labor Notes, an incredible and radical organization/magazine that provides a forum for union activists to honestly examine problems within the labor movement (i.e., not just ever-weakening labor laws and employer offensives, but problems like weak unions and union leaders not doing their job). Similar to Bitch, they're a nonprofit organization that publishes a magazine. They also publish pamphlets and books (including one of my favorites, The Troublemakers Handbook: How to fight back where you work and win) and organize a bi-annual Labor Notes conference. I highly encourage everyone to read what happened at their most recent conference in April. There's some f'd-up stuff going on in union organizing these days.

Here in Northeast Portland is a place called In Other Words Women's Books and Resources, a nonprofit bookstore founded in 1993. I've only lived in Portland for a year, so most of what I know I've learned from talking to people and reading news articles, like this.

A few nights ago I went to a screening of a short documentary called Moving In: A nonprofit feminist bookstore and the politics of place. The documentary, created by Dawn Jones (who's on the board of Bitch; photographed below), examines the bookstore's 2006 move, which resulted from being economically displaced from their original neighborhood, to a historically African-American neighborhood. The film is fantastic; you should see it if you have the opportunity.