Hookers could change the world with $20M
A commentary on the recent folding of a nonprofit after a $20M gift from Mackenzie Scott
Yesterday I wake up to an alert from the Chronicle of Philanthropy about a newly published article entitled, “Why $20 Million from Mackenzie Scott couldn’t save this AI nonprofit,” by Sara Herschander — and I was GAGGED reading the piece.
To give context to the $20M, In sectors, like technology, AI, and computing, $20M is a drop in the bucket. That is not the case in sex worker organizing.
According to Human Rights Funding Network’s 2019 report, the total giving to sex worker-related organizations globally by foundations is less than $9M! This is less than half of that single gift given to Benefits Data Trust just before they folded.
Do you know what I could do with $20 Million?
What sex workers could do with $20 Million?
We could change the world.
In our segment of the nonprofit advocacy world, we (sex workers or other marginalized folks running community orgs) aren’t allowed to fail or innovate at the scale we actually need to make the changes we envision. I am continually flabbergasted by the amount of wealth that is poured into organizations that are already well-positioned and allowed to fail without the rest of the (in this case AI) movement to completely fail.
Here’s what we could do with a large gift (say, $20 Million):
Build a national coalition that convenes and strategizes on local, regional, and national advocacy for the human rights of people in the sex trade
Invest in our C4 vehicle to build efforts that move decrim forward
Deploy large amounts of long term funding to ensure visibility, longevity, and unity within the movement; and to invest in the capacity development of leaders in the space to carry on the work
Leverage investments in gender justice projects that bring feminist funders across spectra together
And literally so much more. We’d be set for a very long time, and we have big goals. (more on that soon).
My urge to philanthropy: let us fail, get better, fail again, and continue to build our vision together until we get it right. I guarantee it will not take us $20M to get there.
To talk with me about investment opportunities, please reach out to contact@newmoonfund.org