Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

Posted by on September 5, 2003

Incite! Women of Color Against Violence presents
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

April 30-May 1, 2004 University of California-Santa Barbara

Social justice organizations within the U.S. largely operate the 501(c)3 non-profit model. This conference will address the impact of the non-profit industrial complex on social justice movements, including anti-violence organizing. Activists often have difficulty conceiving of developing organizing structures outside this model. Yet we know that social justice movements in other countries often reject this model as counterproductive toward creating real social change.

This conference will explore the following issues.
* What is the history of how the non-profit model developed, and what reasons did it develop? How did it impact the direction of social justice
organizing?

* How has funding from foundations impacted the course of social justice movements?

* How does 501(c)3 status impact social justice organizations’ relationship to the state? How does non-profit status allow the state to co-opt our movements?

* Are there ways the non-profit model can be used subversively to support more radical visions for social change?

* What are the alternatives for building viable social justice movements? How do we fund the movement outside the non-profit structure?

* What models for organizing outside the NGO/non-profit model exist outside the U.S. that may help us?

This conference will bring together activists to both assess the impact of non-profit industrial complex on social justice movements, and consider alternative possibilities for social justice organizing.

Social justice organizations across the country are critically re-thinking their investment in the 501c3 system. Particularly with funding cuts from foundations as result of the current economic crisis, as well as increased surveillance on social justice groups through “homeland security,” social justice organizations are assessing if there are other possibilities for funding social change that do not so heavily rely upon state structures. This conference will provide a space for us to address these issues and envision new possibilities and models for future organizing.

If you are interested in receiving a conference registration form, call 734-231-1845 or email incite_national@yahoo.com You can also write to Andrea Smith, Program in American Culture, 3700 Haven Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor MI 48109.

Conference brochures/registration forms with full list of speakers and schedule will be sent out on October 15.