Casey Pegg of Shalefield Organizing Committee brings his perspective and experiences of grassroots work and how funding impacts it.

1. Funding Real Solutions
Casey Pegg
Community Organizer
Shalefield Organizing Committee

2. Our Projects Funded by the
Direct Support Fund:

3. Sullivan County
Listening Project
Through in-person
interviews, we aimed to
listen and document the
experiences of Sullivan
County residents, to learn
about the potential impacts
of shale gas development
on families & communities
in the area.

4. Mailer + 5k

5. Shalefield Justice Spring Break
(not an official SOC project)

6. But, the Direct Support
Fund means more to
us than a way to get
cash...

7. Real Change Comes from the Frontlines
1. Best equipped with the knowledge and skills to find a way
forward.
2. Know their communities.
3. Intersectional.
4. Bold actions.
5. Long term cultural shifts.
6. Can do much with few resources.*
*BUT may not be easily packaged into “outcomes”.

8. Challenges

9. 1. Accessibility Problems in the
Foundation Model

10. Reasons why the Direct Support Fund is cool:
Administrators and board members are accessible...
Responsive
Transparent
Experienced with frontlines organizing
Share common goals
Recognize that we are human
Are our friends!
...and versed in the language and culture of funders.
Able to bridge the gaps.

11. “sexy”

12. Grassroots groups/campaigns must
compete for resources based on the
marketability of their issue as well as
their ability to network and navigate the
application process.

13. A democratic process based on
moral imperatives and material
realities should be used when
determining the flow of resources.
Frontlines communities should
not have to market themselves!

15. 2. Conservation vs.
Environmental Justice

16. Conservation Environmental Justice
A. Sees humans as distinct and separate
from environment.
B. Sees monetization and extraction of
natural resources by corporations and
the state as an inevitable part of
“economic progress”.
C. Seeks to slow and temporarily limit
ecological destruction.
D. Imposes solutions from the top down.
E. Works within existing power structures.
F. Concerned with mitigating effects.
A. Recognizes that human beings are part
of and wholly dependent on ecosystems.
“Environmental stewardship” = Self-preservation
B. Advocates for true prosperity, which so-
called “progress,” “growth,” and
“development” usually damages.
C. Seeks to stop and reverse ecological
destruction.
D. Respects local decisionmaking, lifts up
and takes direction from marginalized
voices.
E. Challenges illegitimate authority.
F. Concerned with unearthing root causes.

18. 3. “Gaps” in the Environmental Justice movement
1. Two (major streams of) divergent theories of change - one that
has historically been "top-down" and worked closely with the
"establishment", the other has traditionally been "bottom-up" and
accountable to the communities they are rooted in.
2. The vast resource gap, where the institutionalized race/class
trappings of philanthropy continue to perpetuate social inequities
by giving much more money to the "big", vertically-integrated
organizations, and much less to the grassroots, working class,
community-of-color led groups.

19. Next steps
Accessibility
• Funders need to make themselves available.
• More organizations able to advocate for the frontlines to funders, like MWA.
• De-marketize the resource distribution.
• Explore member-based sources of funding.
Funding the Environmental Justice Paradigm
• Lobbying and education to funders about the type of work that brings about real change.
• People working for conservation organizations willing to take risks to support more radical work.
Bridging Gaps in the Environmental Justice Movement
• Spaces to facilitate real talk about power and privilege within the movement.
• Lobbying and educating “big greens” about frontlines work and how to engage respectfully and constructively with those
doing that work.
• Creating shared analysis and principles -> Jemez
• Building relationships outside of comfort zone.

20. BEA Initiative bea4impact.org
Jemez Principles ejnet.org/ej/jemez.pdf
Shalefield Organizing Committee shalefieldorganizing.org
My email: info@shalefieldorganizing.org
My phone number: 570.204.8927