Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, our partners have been quick to adapt to their communities’ shifting needs, and we’ve been doing our best to share tools and resources to help navigate these uncertain times. Our development team led a virtual roundtable to help folks strategize around fundraising and our capacity building team led a supervision training where folks from 19 organizations from across the region came together to learn remote supervision tools to effectively support their staff.
It was clear from these virtual gatherings that despite all the challenges we’re facing, our communities are still out there doing what they do best — compassionately and intentionally showing up for one another.
In this month’s newsletter, we share some insights into the GiveBig season for RVC and our partner organizations, and we have some wise words from our super awesome founder and former Executive Director, Vu Le.
Check out the timely and important recent RVC blog post by one of our Community Impact Fellows, Tracey Wong, on ways to support our AAPI community in these challenging times, and stay tuned early next week for a blog piece by our Interim Executive Director, Ananda Valenzuela, on the importance of funding community-based organizations.
Save the Date! GiveBIG/GivingTuesdayNow is on May 5-6
Support RVC and our vibrant community-based organizations during GiveBIG and GivingTuesdayNow.
View RVC GiveBIG profile and donate by clicking on this link
As some of you might know, our amazing founder and former Executive Director Vu Le is off doing great things and passed the torch to a growing number of leaders at RVC who are committed to continuing his sector-transforming work and taking our organization to the next level. While we miss Vu on the day-to-day, we are grateful for his continued commitment to RVC and lucky to have him in our community. (And on speed dial.) In a recent article from his blog Nonprofit AF, he shared:
“If you like this blog (Nonprofit AF), please consider making a donation to my former nonprofit, RVC, which I just left. It supports dozens of organizations led by and serving communities of color, while training cohorts of strong leaders of color. Even though I’m no longer the ED there, it’s still my baby and I strongly believe in it and I drop by from time to time to steal snacks.”
Thanks for the shoutout, Vu! We know many of you, like us, are inspired by Vu’s transformation of our sector. And although Vu is not physically in the building with us — with the exception of his snack thievery — we believe you still want to be in the community with us and help continue the awesome things Vu started at RVC. The quickest way to do that? Support RVC via GiveBig 2020!
RVC will will use 100% of funds raised during GiveBIG towards our ongoing efforts to support our partner organizations’ evolving COVID-19 response needs. Our goal is to increase our capacity to support our partners during these difficult times by providing tangible tools and online support so they can continue their vital work.
Support RVC partner organizations this GiveBIG!
We are channeling Vu and practicing RVC’s core values of community and collectivity when we say this: No Nonprofit Hunger Games, please. We win when we uplift, share, and care for one another — that is how we will all thrive.
Some RVC partner organizations are participating in GivingTuesdayNow and GiveBIG this year, and we are focusing on highlighting partner organizations led by people of color. Below are their profiles.
All Girl Everything. East African Community Services Powerful Voices. Seattle Music Partners Somali Family Safety Task Force. Somali Parents Education Board. Totem Star. Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition Got Green Families of Color Seattle Renton Innovation Zone Partnership WA-BLOC. Atlantic Street Center. El Centro de la Raza. HopeCentral. Iraqi Community Center of Washington. Open Arms Perinatal Services. Somali Health Board. Voices of Tomorrow
RVC Partner Updates
RVC strengthens the power of communities of color in order to create a more equitable society through capacity-building, leadership development, and operations support. We accomplish this through our core programs and services as well as through leading partnerships with community members and organizations of color. These members and organizations provide support services tailored to the strengths and needs of the communities they serve.
Below are this month’s highlights of some of our partners’ amazing work.
Got Green establishes emergency justice demands in response to COVID-19
South Seattle-based grassroots organization Got Green promotes environmental, racial, and economic justice and is led by people of color and low-income folx. RVC is proud to be in partnership with Got Green for our Green Pathways Fellowship Program, which creates pathways for leaders of color and low-income leaders to living wage, entry-level positions in the environmental justice movement.
According to their Facebook Page, as an organization that works in local low-income and working-class communities, Got Green has active organizing calls to elected officials in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The requests include more just and equitable access to basic needs, adequate support for frontline workers, and decarceration of vulnerable populations.
Got Green notes that their mission-driven appeals were inspired by the work of the following organizations and individuals: “People’s Action, Working WA, Detention Watch Network, La Resistencia NW, COVID-19 Mutual Aid, Council Members Tammy Morales & Kshama Sawant, and more.”
Thanks for your timely efforts, Got Green. Great work! Read Got Green’s full petition for Emergency Justice in Response to COVID-19 at the following link: https://bit.ly/3bVQt74
Powerful Voices raises all staff salaries to living wage
Powerful Voices is an RVC partner organization that creates equitable spaces for girls* of color in Seattle (*people who identify as girls or who are socialized as girls). According to Interim Executive Director Rebecca LaszLo, one of her first tasks starting in February was to match staff salaries to the fair market value of their skills.
“In the non-profit industrial complex, staff of color too often do this hard, heart work even with low salaries,” said Rebecca and Powerful Voices Communications Manager Jordan Faralan. Powerful Voices’ staff leaders and Board of Directors, committed to practicing their social justice mission at the organizational level, researched several options to improve their wage structure, consulting with sister organizations, You Grow Girl! and Young Women Empowered (Y-WE), as well as with RVC’s Director of Capacity Building April Nishimura, among others. All staff received significant salary raises equating to Seattle-area living wages and commensurate with the skills they bring to Powerful Voices.
Congrats, Powerful Voices! We are so proud to call you a partner.
Leaders at Powerful Voices are at work creating meaningful ways to virtually engage young people they work with and they shared, “If you know a girl* of color, Powerful Voices is sending out Powerful Packets to cope through these times.”
Powerful Voices also has several work opportunities currently. Check them out in the jobs section of this newsletter.
Seattle Music Partners celebrates 20th Anniversary — Notes of Spring Virtual Fundraiser
Seattle Music Partners, a partner organization of RVC, provides young people with access to quality music education and one-on-one mentoring, as a response to addressing the inequities in music education.
SMP has been cultivating a vibrant music community in Seattle’s Central District for over 20 years. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, SMP’s virtual event “Notes of Spring” is happening now on their website. SMP pledges, “From the comfort of your home, Notes of Spring will take you on a week-long journey of fun interviews, beautiful tunes, and a call for support. This event will raise critical funds to support music education at Bailey Gatzert, Leschi, Lowell, and Madrona Elementary Schools, as well as the growth of our Middle School Music Project.”
Check out SMP’s Virtual Fundraiser at the link below and show your love and support for this awesome music-making, community-based organization: www.seattlemusicpartners.org
Be a Changemaker
RVC Changemakers are folks who believe that leadership development and capacity building in communities of color should be spearheaded by the individuals working within these communities. By committing to giving $80 or more a month, you will be making a pivotal impact in communities of color in the Greater Seattle area.
Changemakers will get a shoutout in our annual report, be invited to our special events, be invited to further engage in other ways, such as through volunteering, lunch and learns, or maybe even mentoring. Our Changemakers will also just be lavished with so much appreciation for their commitment to social justice at the grassroots level!
Job Opportunities In Our Network
Big Brothers Big Sisters Puget Sound is hiring a Senior Program Coordinator.
Casa Latina is hiring a Director of Development.
Casa Latina is hiring a Director of Development.
Child Care Resources is hiring an Accounting Specialist.
Children’s Alliance is hiring an Executive Director.
Forterra is hiring for multiple positions.
Fuse Washington is hiring a Multimedia Designer
Global Perinatal Services is hiring an Office Administrator
Philanthropy Northwest is partnering with Bezos Family Foundation and hiring a Program Associate
Powerful Voices is hiring a Development Manager
Rainier Beach Action Coalition is hiring for multiple positions.
Solid Ground is hiring for multiple positions.
Stolte Family Foundation is hiring an Education Program Officer.
Voices of Tomorrow is hiring for multiple positions.
Washington Nonprofits is hiring a Director of Policy and Communications.
Washington Trails Association is hiring a Development Director.
Community Events & Important Dates
April 25 through May 2 Seattle Music Partner’s Virtual Fundraiser Celebrating their 20th Anniversary
*Communities Rise is offering COVID-19 Small Business and Nonprofit Legal Clinic
WA-BLOC’s Feed the Beach campaign continues. WA-BLOC is leading this campaign in partnership with other local organizations and restaurants to provide free to-go meals for students and families in the Rainier Beach community. Check out WA-BLOC’s Facebook page for event schedule and updates
RVC Stuff To Read
How do we support ourselves and our communities during COVID-19?, written by Tracey Wong, 2019-2021 RVC Community Impact Fellow
RVC Fellow has renewed sense to build and connect communities through music education after enduring hardship, written by RVC
Reflections on dismantling racism in Seattle Works, a nonprofit organization, written by Ben Reuler, Executive Director of Seattle Works
Update! RVC is in the middle of a leadership transition AND an organizational transition, written by Ananda Valenzuela, Interim Executive Director of RVC
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!f you have job postings or events that you would like mentioned in our newsletter, please email the details to Saida. We do our best to fit everything in, but we may not always be able to.
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