Celebrate the Sex Worker Giving Circle

2019 marks 50 years since the Stonewall Rebellion, with movement ancestors and sex workers like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera in the lead. With no funding in sight, Marsha and Sylvia drew on sex work to support their organizing and community care work, like many organizers still do today.

Last year, to honor that legacy and resource our movements, we started the Sex Worker Giving Circle and $200,000 in grantmaking. We're coming back even stronger in 2019, with the hope of giving out $300,000+, including our first 2-year grants!

So in the spirit of Sylvia and Marsha we're calling on you, our fabulous communities, to pitch in for our movements. Will you show up for sex workers by giving big today?

We believe sex workers should make decisions about our own lives and livelihoods and reject anything about us without us. That's why this work is led by the SWGC Fellows, all current and former sex workers most impacted by oppression.

And the grantees we funded in 2018 are busy changing anti-sex worker laws, supporting Black trans women's leadership, fighting police violence, and working to heal and keep each other safe. Thanks to our powerful leaders and grantees, the SWGC is now a force to be reckoned with in philanthropy and beyond.

Join us as we grow this work to create a reality in which sex workers are trusted and resourced, and our experience and rights are affirmed and respected.

For a movement that's been so historically under-resourced, each dollar counts.

Here are three ways you can show up for sex workers today:

1. Make a monthly or one-time donation to directly support our grantmaking. Gave already? Consider leveling up from a one-time gift to a monthly donation, or add a little something extra on top!

2. Ask your friends, colleagues, lovers, or family members to give. Community backing is the only way we can keep up our giving and support the type of work that is hardest to find funding for, but which our people most need.

3. Amplify on social media! Share this campaign on your social media platforms using #SWGCpride. Every share helps spread the word, and the most successful shares include a personal statement about why you supported this project.

To request a social media toolkit or to learn ways to go even deeper with your support, email swgivingcircle@thirdwavefund.org to find out more.

To learn more about the Sex Worker Giving Circle, check out our website at http://thirdwavefund.org/sex-workers-giving-circle.html.