No Charity for Cops rally (part 2!)

The Seattle Foundation has contributed $870,000 to the Seattle Police Foundation in the past 20 years through community grants and donor-advised funds. Since August, Divest SPD has been pushing for them to divest from police, make amends for the harm done, and invest more in the community. On Tuesday, March 30, we’ll be delivering a sign on letter with hundreds (thousands?) of signatures to their offices and holding a rally to show them that there’s a growing number of people watching them that agree there should be NO CHARITY FOR COPS! This is a critical moment in our campaign and we’re counting on you to be there and invite folks you know to this event!

* Unfortunately, our ASL interpreters cancelled at the last minute. We are very sorry that we can not make this event accessible in this way as we’d previously advertised. *

Details:

• This is a SOCIALLY DISTANCED + MASKED EVENT. We’ll have masks and hand sanitizer on hand.
• Letter delivery will take place at 3:30pm, rally starts at 4pm.
• This is a CELEBRATION! Bring noisemakers / party hats / etc.! We’ll bring the food + drinks.

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More information about where the Seattle Foundation’s money is going:

• Donations given to the Seattle Police Foundation (the nonprofit arm of the Seattle Police Department) cover costs like police dogs, riot gear, and training in violent crowd control techniques used to suppress recent demonstrations for Black lives.
• In the past two years, only an average of 6% of community grants and less than 2% of donor-advised grants went to Black-led organizations.
• The Seattle Foundation has appointed a committee to help them revise their policies around racial equity, but have not committed to any specific actions yet — a broad show of support is needed right now to make sure these demands are met. The demands listed in this letter are aligned with both community calls to stop funding violent policing as well as demands from leaders in the nonprofit sector to increase investments into BIPOC community-based organizations.
• Organizations, donors, and community members, please SIGN ON TO THIS LETTER and join us in our call to the Seattle Foundation to immediately divest from police, make amends for the harm done, and invest more in the community!