As I mentioned in parts one and two of this series, there’s power in funding your own movement and in having a broad base of support. When we support our own projects, we get to decide what we work on and our continued existence becomes less dependent on any single source.

As part of walking the walk here, we’re now accepting blogads in the sidebar of the YP4 Blog. We’re screening them for congruence with our values. Nonprofits, progressive blogs and socially responsible businesses? Absolutely. Soulless corporations? Not so much.

We intend blog advertising to become another intentional way to build our network and strengthen our partnerships.

As I mentioned in part 1, providing financial support for our own movements is key to their sustainability. In the words of Andrea del Moral, it can “keep us true to our visions, flexible in our goals, and relevant to the people who yearn and strive for justice.”

Sounds good, right? So how do we do it? Read on, friends, read on.

I recently read The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, published in 2007 by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. One of the book’s arguments is that the ubiquity of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit model limits the political left’s imagination and “threatens to permanently eclipse autonomous grassroots-movement building in the arena of social justice.”

Hey guys.

I'm currently involved in a leadership prorgam at school, that prepares young leaders who want to serve their communities and enact change.

As a freshman, our first year in the program revolves around a yearlong service project. I was placed in a group with six other students, addressing the issue of immigration. With such a broad topic, it took us forever to figure out what we wanted to do.

We decided to partner with a local community-based organization in need. Newcomer Community Service Center, or NCSC is " "a minority-based non-profit organization that helps refugees and immigrants from all countries achieve self-sufficiency and become participating members of American society."