Preface: Hey everyone, Mawahib here! As our newsletter grows, we want our creativity to grow. A goal for us this year for RBAC in our newsletter is to strengthen our skill sets as writers and storytellers to grow and expand. How do we have agency in our narrative? Being honest about who we are and how we show up for ourselves and each other. Below is a poem written by my colleagues Nurhaliza and Jerrell. It’s a beautiful poem about the growing pains of working towards the goals of liberation in the current state of late-stage capitalism. Check it out here.

*This rivalrous collaboration came to life through a conversation about each of our experiences with grants and contracts. As we discussed how it feels to write a grant and be denied, how it feels to engage with institutions and the people who represent them, and general nonprofit happenings, we began to see the poetry in our stories. 

At that point, we decided to get artistic with our conversation and how we would present how we feel about invoicing, grants, and contracts.  

 

Welcome to a conversation with rivals Nurhaliza and Jerrell about the lifelong learning of the NONPROFIT WORLD: 

Grants, contracts, and invoices…. 

 

The balance of our community work at RBAC : 

Being in community 

Being with the youth

Being with the land

…But we also gotta be with these numbers!?

 

All these numbers

All these funders

All these grants 

Filled with buzz words

All these outcomes

All these timelines

How much money  

down the pipeline?

 

Are these systems set up to support the hands in the ground? 

 

It takes a month to write a grant, and submit within 2 weeks, 

then they “no” us.

And even when awarded, it’s ‘reimbursed’ – 

We regret to inform you that… 

they owe us!

Do they really know us?

 

This a nonprofit, how we post 2 make revenue?

Who gon tell our story when they’re asking 4 an interview?

So, we do it ourselves – an act of self-preservation.

Lift as we climb through community engagement.

Creating safe spaces while fighting displacement,

Keeping folx accountable and covering our bases.

 

Tap into the youth, it’s the energy we need.

Listen 2 the elders, they advise and we heed. 

 

Taking back our corners, they were never not ours.

Created these bars, while youth learn 2 drive cars.

 

24 years young 

responsible 4 organizational cashflo’

Battling imposter syndrome 

and their expectations of what you don’t know.

A privilege and a challenge, 

the potential for growth. 

The beauty and the terror, 

we experience both.

 

Jessicka, Myles, Ilays, and Jar

Operations and Development, raising the bar.

Mr. Davis, Nurhaliza, Kerry, and more

All shooting their shots so everybody can score.

We apply for grants (and prefer unrestricted)

Seeking our autonomy, we gotta stay committed.

Some days it’s hard, like when payroll is coming up

Don’t wanna be driven by the money, just to sum it up.

Staff is like 30+ now, we gotta run it up

Growth Center bills – “AP” – bouta double up.

 

“Mo Money, Mo Problems”

A Lifelong Lesson. 

  • NuNu + RBF

 

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