Welcome to Black Feminist Rants where we center conversations on Reproductive Justice and activism. I'm your host LaKia Williams and let's begin. Welcome back to another episode. This week, I have the pleasure of talking to Brandy Collins-Calhoun, and we're going to be talking about philanthropy and philanthropy's role in the Reproductive
justice movement. Now Brandy is the senior movement engagement associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. But honestly, her professional title is one of the least interesting things about her. She is constantly on social media funding abortion and talking about her experience as a feminist black mother, a black feminist mother. If you aren't following her, I definitely suggest you follow her on social media because she's always having those hard discussions. And even though she works in a white-centered industry, you can tell that she's still definitely rooted in the movement and in the community, which is something that I absolutely respect so much and which is why I want to have her on this episode. So without further ado, we're gonna jump right into the interview. So first of all, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Black Feminist Rants. I'm super excited to talk about you. I've been following you on social media for so long, so I'm excited to like just sit down and chat with you. Also, Christian Adams is like my repro mom, and she talks highly about you too. So that's another reason I'm excited to speak with you. But um, to start us off at first just introduce yourself to the audience with your name, your pronouns, the work you do and just however else you would like to bring yourself into the space.
Yeah, um, my name is Brandi Collins-Calhoun. My pronouns are they she. I'm a black queer single mother to a really dope 15 year old creative. Her name is Selah. I'm originally from Buffalo, New York, the rust belt, but Greensboro, North Carolina is where I started my family and where I consider my movement home. I'm currently the movement engagement manager for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy of Philanthropic Watchdog where I lead the work focused on reproductive access and gendered violence, organizing funders to increase philanthropic support for the frontlines. But I hold space throughout the reproductive justice movement as a doula, a writer about everything from sexual health, pleasure and pop culture. But I primarily organize to make sure that people's abortions are paid for.
Yes, I always see you sharing like mutual aid and abortion funds on social media. But of course, you do a lot of things. You touched everything. There's one thing you mentioned, you work for Philanthropic Watchdog, can you briefly describe what a watchdog is?
Yes, so we, I'm trying to think of how to name it without it sounding really crappy and, like, surveillance, but we essentially, um, plot philanthropy, the ways that funders are showing up in spaces, the way their grant-making practices are harmful, or the ways that they're ethical and great, and people need to, you know, learn from them. We record our research and data on what movements are receiving, what they're not receiving, what voids and gaps exist. And really just make sure you know, we're in a position where we're able to hold funders accountable in ways that grantees aren't. So we tend to be that bridge, that third party that shows up for movements.
That's great. I wasn't super familiar with philanthropic Philanthropic Watchdogs. But that's a very necessary, like piece of the movement, especially with how, you know, grantees don't really have as much autonomy because they're getting so much of their, you know, operating funds and whatnot from these people. So having someone else, an outside source being able to kind of be that level of accountability seems very helpful to especially smaller nonprofits. But we, I want to definitely get into more of your philanthropic work. But before we get into that, the Reproductive Justice movement has a statement that we all have a story to tell, just to remind us to center our lived experiences within the work that we're doing. And so I was wondering, to start us off if you could share a little bit of your RJ story.
Yeah, so my Reproductive Justice story, I think is similar to a lot of folks in the movement. I was doing RJ before I knew I was doing RJ. So just like for context, I got pregnant with my daughter when I was 14 years old. I had no options, I had no choice due to me finding out well into my third trimester. And so much just from, like, the moment that I found out until maybe her second birthday was honestly a blur. The one thing I do remember is like genuinely just wishing somebody would help. And not just in regards to like, I mean, I had a great support system. My family was very supportive. You know, we were sustained, we were well taken care of, but just like tools and resources for me to show up and be a mother. Because there's so much more to parenting than being able to like, afford to be a parent or being present, like being a parent requires so much more and I needed tools and I needed resources. So now that I'm 31, I realized that I'm gonna be clear when I was younger, I was like, oh, like, she got diapers. She fed, I'm good. And then when I was in college, I was maybe like a sophomore in North Carolina A & T and the local YWCA had a doula training and they were like, get trained to be a doula here and you get to work with adolescent parents in the program and I was like, Okay, this is work I should be leaning into. And I got trained as a doula. And then fast forward. I was. I was doing a number of things. I was a doula part time I was a middle school teacher, I was just like, well on to like me organizing around black liberation and being an abolitionist. And I kept finding myself being that person and like black liberation and abolition spaces. That was like, Okay, well, what about pregnant people? And what about parents, because I was bringing in like, the folks that I was working with as a doula, and, you know, my students and their parents, I was making sure they were in the room. Not that they were an afterthought. But oftentimes, as organizers, we tend to bring our own experiences in the room and then invite others in later. And I was like, Yeah, but we, these people cannot be an afterthought, like there is no black liberation without parents, without children. Like that, that like we talked about the future where liberation stands like we can't get there without reproductive freedom. And I had to take a step back for a while because it was so exhausting. And I felt like I was, I was begging people to like, pay attention to something that was so vital. And I mean, like, I became a doula when maternal mortality, black maternal mortality was really like beginning to be discussed. I was like, Hey, y'all, like, it's right here. This is what's happening. And I was like, I need to find some folks that I have, that I can share community with. And I found other black birth workers in the South. And they was like, Oh, Baby, what you're looking for is Reproductive Justice. Like, let me let me let me, let me learn something like, let me explain this framework to you. And I was like, okay, and once I got to the RJ movement, I was like, oh, like, this is my community. These are solutions. Like these are these are folks with like a similar angle, like we want to see black folks free. We want to see bodily, we know that that can't be, that can't be achieved without bodily autonomy. We know that can't be achieved without access. And honestly, the Reproductive Justice movement is where I found like feminism. It's where I found a lot of my own healing for reproductive traumas that I hadn't even realized I had been through, generational inherited traumas that I didn't even know I had been clinging to, like, the RJ movement has been that space for me. So yeah, that's my RJ story.
Thank you so much for sharing, we just have so many layers, and I love how you brought up that, I feel like I hear this so many times that people are brought into the RJ movement officially, by other black women, just seeing them and seeing the work they're doing just pulling them in. That's like a story that everyone has. And I love that. I love that, you know, you talked about mothering and parenting, but even how people who we aren't, you know, have familial relationships with also kind of provide that for us as well. So I love to hear that. So thank you for sharing your RJ story. Um, so a little bit more on the philanthropy and Reproductive Justice side. Before we dive deep into it, can you just describe what philanthropy is, in general, and then what its purpose is within movement spaces?
Yeah, so I want to ground my response in this, I'm an anti-capitalist, okay. Nobody should have access to this kind of wealth ever. But until we dismantle capitalism, it should be a collective mission that nobody hoard or gatekeep it, which is what philanthropy has done historically. With that, philanthropy at its best serves the public good. There are no private interests and employ these grant-making practices that are most effective to help movements, not just 501(c)(3)'s movements, achieve their missions, and it strengthens democracy by responding to the needs of those with the least wealth and opportunity. So essentially, its purpose is to turn its money over to folks who know how to spend it in a way that's radical and transformative, and fills the voids that the state and other systems have created.
Love that. And can you talk a little bit more about how, because I wasn't aware of this, how philanthropy funds movement and not just 501(c)(3) organizations? Because I thought you had to have some type of tax documentation in order to get these these types of funds.
Oftentimes, you do. Oftentimes, you do. Um, you have, you have folks that have to learn to get creative, that understand that 501(c)(3) that you have that status is also like a privilege that not everybody has access to. I'll say like, you'll see folks in philanthropy, there's an amazing group out of Atlanta, that launched that they will be fiscal sponsors for black or well, black folks who do not have their status. And, you know, like I said, there are plenty of intermediaries, folks that like are that middle ground in between philanthropy and nonprofits, those like low-bearing folks that folks have access to that have found ways to be more creative. I want to say that last summer, during the uprisings of 2020 behind Breanna Taylor and George Floyd is when folks realized that they needed to get creative, that they couldn't just give money to folks that were nonprofits. It's not a common practice yet, but it is something that folks are calling on philanthropy to figure out a way to maneuver primarily because like it was put in place for tax purposes like so that philanthropy can function from this privilege space and gatekeep. And a part of like decolonizing or dismantling philanthropy is removing that that requirement. So it's happening. It's in motion. But in order to be philanthropy, like in its best truest form, is to divest from that idea.
Definitely. Thank you. So what can philanthropy do? Or what has it done to help advance Reproductive Justice?
What has it done? Honestly, philanthropy has has stepped in, in ways that I think once I started doing this work even shocked me, as somebody who comes from the movement side, I just assumed that philanthropy wasn't funding it because wasn't nobody paying me to do the work. And of course, as, like, this black organizer, I was like, okay, the money's not there. Like, it's not that like, these orgs don't want to pay me. The money isn't there. And then I got to the funder side, I was like, Nah, y'all playin', like the money is here, you're just not paying me. Cool. Heard. Let me let me figure out how to maneuver this and figure out ways that like other black folks, indigenous folks, Latinx folks that are holding this work and get paid. I can tell you how it can advance it. Okay. The sector can advance Reproductive Justice by divesting from first-wave white feminism. That is, that is the best way. Philanthropy has been really committed to reproductive rights as a solution. And I want to say again, reproductive rights as the solution, because for so long, their grantees, white women, told them that the law was the only barrier. And then this grant-making essentially funded white feminism is rebranding. And within like one grant cycle, a handful of white women-led repro health and repro rights organizations became Reproductive Justice-centered. They got the funding to be RJ orgs, and RJ can't advance until funders address the harmful dynamic that they created, because they created that dynamic. White feminists didn't do this on their own, they were sustained and funded to create it. And then to truly advance it, funders need to give more money to like black, indigenous and Latinx-led work on the frontlines, like at the state and local level. So my job, you know, we pull data, we do all this research, we have tons of research right now around Reproductive Justice. Between 2015 and 2019, $1.7 billion, went to reproductive rights organizations. The top 20 recipients of that money were all national organizations. So state and local-level efforts aren't even prioritized. And you can't advance RJ through a national lens problems, you know, these issues, these systems, these obstacles are often at times local, they're often regional. You need to invest in the folks on the frontline that are doing work in their own backyard, and not the folks that are sitting six states away that think they know what these other folks need. So that's how philanthropy can advance it. I think it's, you know, it's done a great job. There are amazing black women working at foundations that are moving money. You have folks like Groundswell, you have folks at Third Wave Fund, at Libra Foundation, folks where like black spaces where black women are in leadership and are moving a lot of money to reproductive rights organizations. And they don't get a lot of attention. A lot of folks are spending a lot of time talking about the white women and what they're doing the MacKenzie Scotts of the world, the Melinda Gates of the world, and the reality is like there are phenomenal black folks, black women working in philanthropy to show up for RJ. But because they don't have the access to the same capital, or like their name isn't attached to the foundation or the gift, they're not getting the recognition. So that's another way that philanthropy can advance it, they can follow the leadership of the black woman working in philanthropy that are doing the work already.
Thank you. And you also said earlier that out of all the money that I think it was like over a billion dollars that was given to reproductive rights organizations, the top 20% went to national organizations. And I'm wondering how do we get into a space where these organizations have like millions of dollars worth of a budget, but then there's people on the ground who you mentioned earlier who are doing the work and community but they don't they don't have any access to funding. So how do we like move from a space to where philanthropy is obviously very necessary in the movement, but how do we get that money to people who are doing the most direct grassroots work and really impacting people's lives on the direct level versus these national organizations that are doing policy and other types of things?
So there's getting them in front of funders, which is, you know, there're philanthropic serving organizations like NCRP where I work. You have Funders for Reproductive Equity, Women's Funding Network, where like they work with foundations, they have members that are at the state and local level. And they support like visibility of like, who's holding that work, who these people should be funding, how these people should be funding them. I think the other way also is philanthropy listening to intermediaries, oftentimes folks like Third Wave and Groundswell, you know, they are definitely leaders in regards to these funding spaces in my eyes. But oftentimes philanthropy kind of sets them to the side and leaves it to them to do the grunt work. I mean, they intermediaries to me are the organizers of philanthropy. They oftentimes do not get the respect and the accolades that they deserve for holding the work that they do. I had mentioned that like these are folks that are a low-bearing because these are the folks that the folks at the state and local level have access to. Because these are the folks that are running the intermediaries. They're not being ran by somebody who's been in philanthropy for 40 years, who lives in Manhattan. It's being ran by the homies who live in New Orleans that they shouldn't put on the weekend. So they have access to that person. So philanthropy also moved more money to these intermediaries than you would see a big shift, because those are the folks that are chilling in the backyard and the kickbacks with the folks holding the work, because oftentimes, they're already organizers, too.
Yeah, definitely second that. As someone who's not really well versed in grant making and philanthropy, Third Wave Fund, specifically is so accessible to organizers. And they're doing such amazing work. And even just being you know, like, low requirement for entry is like one way they're super accessible, but also just making the application process accessible like, if you can't do a written application, let's hop on the phone. I think we definitely, like you said, need to give them some more accolades, because they're doing the work necessary for people to apply to like those larger, like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants, and so on and so forth. So definitely honoring the work they're doing. Thank you for that. Um, another question that I had. So on episode two of BFR, we had Loretta Ross on and she was talking about the Reproductive Justice movement. And she shared that once Sister Song was first created, they called themselves the National Women of Color Reproductive Rights Collective, rather than Reproductive Justice Collective. And that was very purposeful, so that, because they knew that they would stand out more to funders if they had reproductive rights in the name rather than Reproductive Justice, which was like a newer concept created by black feminists. So can you share as someone who has insider knowledge on how relationships with funders impacts the work that people are able to do and how that can also hold back organizations and movements because relationships are so central to getting funding?
Yeah, I mean, so a part of it is remembering that philanthropy is grounded in white supremacy. First and foremost. No matter, You know, yes, I'm working adjacent to the sector. But at the end of the day, I am fully aware that philanthropy is rooted because of capitalism and everything else, white supremacy. So oftentimes, what ends up happening, and I'll say, for organizations that are considered to be feminist issues, that hold feminist work, there's code switching. I think about the black maternal health crisis and how many doula collectives, lactation groups are having to apply under, you know, maternal health, reproductive health, whatever, and they're like, but what we're doing is birth justice. But if they said birth justice, that word right now in this moment, also, in the history of forever, is looked at as radical as something that funders, program officers feel like it's going to, you know, make their job harder. All of these things, it's code switching. Essentially, a lot of times with grant applications, code switching is helpful to get funding. And it's, it's ironic, because like I said, in maybe one or two grant cycles, you saw white women led organizations, rebrand and become Reproductive Justice, and then all of a sudden it was oh, okay, now now we can be RJ or now we can talk about RJ now we can do this. But in that moment, when Sister Song was piloted, you know, these, there wasn't this shift that we see right now in the movement. You know, I'm on calls with black folks leading organizations a good majority of my day. One because that's why I'm in community led. But two because that seems in leadership now. And I was a child, so I do not know personally, but I'm certain when Sister Song was piloted, the movement did not look this way. And, you know, folks talk about code switching in person and public and job interviews, whatever as like an act of survival. This was an act of funding and sustainability, of like, hey, like in order for us to be funded in order for us to do this work and pay our bills, and be able to show up in our communities. We got to use their language. And that's what grant applications are. That's why in the research, you read through the website, what language do they use to describe this, who's you know, who's working here what language is in their bio, like, let me make sure that my application is something that they read when I apply for this grant. And they say, You know what, because oftentimes, and philanthropy doesn't like to acknowledge this, but folks want to see themselves in their work, especially around feminist issues. When you're applying to something and, you know, some white woman as a Program Officer back then was reading it, if she couldn't see herself, or her sister or her daughter, in your work, you weren't going to be prioritized because she didn't feel prioritized. So to say something like Reproductive Justice, white women didn't see themselves in that. So that where they gotta move money to it? Likely not. Versus now where RJ is this, you know, folks have have now framed it, as, you know, created by black women, but for everyone, and it's like, ah, we gon' talk about that, but and a part of that is that rebranding, it's the rebranding that philanthropy funded. Had they not done that, I think that we'd still be in a position where like, we wouldn't be saying Reproductive Justice amongst one another, but rights in meetings. I do. And that's that power dynamics. That's what comes with that capitalism with that capital that philanthropy has, you can, and that's why, you know, constantly at NCRP, you know, you know, other folks were having that conversation that philanthropy doesn't realize how much it controls the narrative and the stigma in these movements. And that's because you, you pay for say. You, you pay for what people can and can't say. You police people with the money that you have. And that's that's just the reality.
That is so real. I've heard people say, Oh, we can touch on this issue or that issue, because that'll upset our funders, but we're supposed to be Reproductive Justice organizations. We're supposed to be moving the needle, but we can't. We have to police what we say, because we're being policed. It's interesting what you said earlier, also that, you know, the grantors, or the grant making people don't want to give money to something that sounds radical like birth justice. So they have to say maternal health, but then on the flip side, when white women say something that sounds more radical, that's accepted that it's, you know, we want that, but when it's black and brown people, Oh, that's too radical, I would think, especially with the moment we're in now, they would be seeking out the most radical work that's being done, because that's the work that's really going to move us towards liberation. But that doesn't sound like what's actually happening.
It's not. I mean, in some spaces, it is. Let me, my bad. In some spaces it is. And I mean, you know, I think about birth, doulas, I think about the fact that organizations like DONA were getting funding for ever to be the certification for birth doulas everywhere. And indigenous birth workers couldn't get nothing. And it's like, where do you think DONA, where do you think all these other white birth collectives learned anything from? They, you know, Ina May Gaskin was very transparent about what she did. [unknown name] is transparent about what she did. These white women went into indigenous indigenous communities, stole their practices, came back and got funding to implement it in their own, you know, way. And it's, and it's because, you know, you think about who these people were serving, again, who they were prioritizing, and when white women do something radical, it's looked at as, it's looked at as a selfless act. But when we do something radical, it's for us. And we make sure that it's known as like, don't get mistaken. Like, I'm serving, I'm supporting people who look like me with this radical act. But when white women do it, it's like, you know, I remember when I when I first started doing birth work in Greensboro. And there would be like white women coming in to, you know, do different, like doula programs, and I want to save black babies. And it's like, I know, you didn't just sit here and say that to me. And she's like, you know, my kids are off to college, I have all this free time, I want to I want to save black babies, and black doulas would come in and be like, I want to be in this program, so I can make sure nobody has the birthing experience that I had. I want to make sure that I can keep people who look like me safe in labor and delivery. And I can imagine if it was somebody who was a non black person sitting there and hearing that it would registered more for them to hear the white woman say I want to save black babies, than for the black person sitting there pleading and saying hey, like, I want people to not go through what I went through, be received completely differently.
And that is so interesting, because that gets to how deeply embedded white saviorism is and how they would rather have white people, keep us in a place where white people can come in and save black babies rather than empower black and brown communities to save themselves. Why are we going to continue to fund white people to save us when what makes you qualified to save us? The black and brown people who want to save their own communities, they're in communities, they know what the community needs, they've had these lived experiences. That's mind blowing to me.
And when I think about, you know, where philanthropy is currently failing RJ, it's like, you've got black lactation groups. I mean, look at the formula shortage happening right now. Breastfeeding is not the solution to that because it is not for everyone. And when you think about what lactation support looks like in these communities, there aren't a lot of- I remember, I think when I first started doing birth work in North Carolina, there were maybe three black IBCLCs at the time in the entire state, not just where I was, in the state.
I worked at a breastfeeding clinic in New Orleans, and the IBCLC person was the only one in state.
Yeah.
And we're in New Orleans, that's a, that's a populous place. That's not rural, that's not, you know, that's where people have more access. So that's the only place people can get lactation support is this one black woman in the south.
Yeah, and then when you look at the data of where funding for black breastfeeding in higher education spaces is going, it's predominantly white institutions. In North Carolina, they are to HBCUs with lactation consultant pathways on their campuses. And a majority of the money goes to UNC.
And that's specifically to support black breastfeeding?
Black breastfeeding. Not just breastfeeding, black breastfeeding. Not going to the programs where they're going to graduate lactation consultants that look like the people they're serving, that has the cultural competency to show up and serve the people there that needs that support. But to the schools that are going to graduate majority, probably I mean, they're predominantly white institutions for reason, graduate these folks and send them out to the communities for them to work with black breastfeeding. Like make it make sense, philanthropy make it make sense.
It's a lot. There's so many layers. There was one thing you said earlier that, oh, you talked about the work you do with your organization and how you are a watchdog? Um, can you talk a little bit about how like, what ways do y'all keep philanthropy accountable to the to their grantees?
Yeah, um, so I can, I can only speak for- I mean, my organization works on a number of different movements, I focus on reproductive access and gendered violence. You know, I spent a lot of time having calls with folks in different realms of philanthropy, health foundations, women's foundations. An example I can give is, you know, having calls with women's foundations that are like, Oh, we're funding abortion, and it's like, okay, who's in your portfolio? Planned Parenthood. No. Nope, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about other folks. Here's a list of Reproductive Justice, abortion-focused organizations in your state, here's who you can contact. This is the best way to work with these people. And we're gonna support you through getting there. What does it look like for us to support you in that? What do you need? Do you need us to attend a call with you? Do you need to attend a philanthropy RJ training? Do you need the tools and resources for you to understand and take back to your board and have the conversations of why y'all need to fund these people? You know, that looks like you have some foundations that have program officers that genuinely want to fund this work. But they have obstacles, they have boards of trustees that are just like, we're not going to touch abortion, we're not going to touch this, we're only going to talk about it through this, you know, this lens, and you know, they'll contact us and say, Hey, like, Can you do a training for our board of directors, so we can have a conversation around why we as this kind of foundation need to be holding this kind of work? And then the follow up is there. You know, we're, so I hold the movement engagement. I mean, I'm in, I'm definitely in conversation with philanthropy, but a good amount of my you know, communication is with movement folks. One because these are my people, but also that's what I'm accountable to at the end of the day. Philanthropy is gonna be philanthropy, but the movement is my priority at all times. And, you know, checking in with them, what has your experience been? What support do you need? What is it that y'all want to say that you feel you can't say because of the power dynamics? Is there data that would be helpful in your grant applications to get them to better understand why you need funding for this, and you need them to fund you this way?
Thank you. That's helpful. And like I said before, that's like a really important aspect to have for people who are in movement spaces to have someone else like that buffer to do the advocacy for them. So thank you for the work you do. And also, you mentioned in your story earlier that you know, you support abortion access and getting people you know, the funding they need for their abortion care. So I did want to ask, briefly, so you know, today we see a lot of black women and femmes leading the abortion movement very vocally, and we can like visibly see it. But a couple of decades ago, that wasn't really the case where we saw black people at the forefront of the abortion movement. Where do you think this change occurred?
I will say there was a shift in willingness. Like when I talked to like certain elders about this work, they had no interest in being at the table with these white women. And with some of the stories I've heard, I do not blame them. I think that in the last few decades, there's been a certain amount of trust and grace extended to white folks in this movement that has kind of put us at the table together. Now, granted, most of us have left that table. But nonetheless, we were there. And I think us exiting the tables is what put some of us at the forefront. You know, unfortunately, some of us are here, because we've been harmed, because we've been silenced, and because we're fed up, you know. Some of us have spent time working at some of these white-led organizations, and made exits that were loud exits, and put us to the forefront. I think the other part is, the ways that a lot of us have been able to kind of intersect this work with the other movements, you know, none of us we, Audre said it, we don't live single issue lives. Like that's not a thing. So, you know, you have some of us that are like I said, around my RJ story in black liberation spaces, and it's like, okay, like, there were folks who knew me from Black Liberation organizing that were like, okay, but if you need an abortion, that's who you go to. So it's also like these other movements, you know, we've kind of all moved together to the forefront, I think. I think there's also been a shift with social media around who's visible and who's not, you know, Renee, the Beyonce of abortion. And is, and is. And I was introduced to Renee through Twitter. I mean, now we're in community with one another, that's my girl. But I met her through Twitter, I was like, Who is this person? I was like, but she, um, but it's so often that so many of us, you know, we've met each other in airports, or like, we, you know, end up somewhere, and we like, are you so-and-so? Yeah, are you so-and-so? Like you said, I've been following you forever. And it's like, had we not got on this call, like, I don't know. We could have met like at Let's Talk about Sex with Sister Song in a workshop. And I'm like, you, you Black Feminist Rants? she's like, you Brandi? Like, yeah, that's usually social media, is how a lot of us end up at the forefront, we get these followers. You know, thankfully, white folks understand it's time to hand stuff over. So I guess the white folks who share my stuff, and I'm like, How did you find me? And why are you here, but also welcome. Like, I hope you stay. You might not like what I tweet next, but
Right. And I think that's really good that we're seeing, I mean, of course, it's good that we're seeing more black people and black women at the forefront of the abortion movement for many reasons, but also, specifically, because the attacks on abortion are oftentimes so like racialized and just like racist in general. So to see black people leading this movement, you can't say all these racist things about abortion and say that black people shouldn't support abortion, and then the people who are leading the movement are black people. So I think it really helps combat that. My last question is, it's kind of two part. First, what advice would you give to a black person who is seeking funding for their new collective or project? How would you advise them to go about getting funding to start supporting community?
Whoo. I would say contact an intermediary. Someone like Third Wave. Contact someone like me, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Get in touch with folks who are open to being fiscal sponsors. Those folks exist, they're doing great work. And yeah, find find your closest, honestly, black Reproductive Justice organizer. Because oftentimes, you know, if we're not doing it, we know someone you know, to tag in. That's really how like I said, once you find once you find reproductive justice, you find community. And I'm not gonna sit here and fake the funk. Like everybody has friends and singing Kumbaya, because that's not true. And, and we do look out for each other. At the end of the day, if there's resources or support, you know, like most black folks, we will find it out. Somebody got a cousin's auntie's baby father's sister who knows something, and usually that sister is me, but, you know, is other people who can do this, too y'all.
Thank you so much for being on this episode with me, Brandy. This was so much fun. I know it's nice just learning more about you. I feel like I didn't touch too much on your RJ story. But I feel like there's just so many different intersections with like, your lived experience that people can learn from so definitely might have to have you back. If you have some time, after this summer to talk more about you and like how you got involved in this work a little bit more in depthly. But thank you so much for being on this episode.
Thank you for having me. This is really dope. It's not often that I get to talk about honestly, I think this is the first time that like I've really, really talked in detail about what I do, which I'm glad I got to do because I think sometimes I forget how to explain it. I'm just kind of like, look, I pay for people's abortions, whether it's through philanthropy or mutual aid, or Twitter. Abortions is getting paid for. But no, this was really, really dope. And I can't wait to send it to my parents because they also don't know how to tell people what I do. My daddy be like, yeah, she's a teacher. I'm like, No, I am not! I haven't been a teacher for ten years. But yeah, thank you.
Thank y'all so much for listening to this episode. I will link Brandi's organization and her social media handles in the description below. Also, if you aren't a BFR member yet become a member for $2 a month on Spotify. We can get behind-the-scenes conversations about Reproductive Justice and current events and just things that I want to discuss but I don't really want to put on a public platform is going to be behind a very, very small paywall. Also subscribe to the newsletter and thank y'all so much for listening and I will talk to y'all later.
