(PHOTO: Tanisha Arena, Executive Director of Arise for Social Justice, poses with WAM Producing Artistic Director, Kristen van Ginhoven, and Managing Director, Molly Merrihew, at a performance of CADILLAC CREW.)
Each year since the inception of WAM Theatre in 2010, as part of our arts and activism mission, WAM has chosen an organization(s) to donate a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales from its main stage production. Even at the height of the pandemic when productions moved online we remained committed to fulfilling this key element of our mission.
Over the years WAM has connected with 23 organizations and donated over $85,000. We’ve focused primarily on supporting Berkshires-based organizations, but when the fit with the play is right have also partnered with national and even international organizations — such as the Mother of Peace Orphanage in South Africa and Edna Adan Hospital in Somaliland. Each year this commitment to giving back grows stronger and evolves.
In the beginning of 2021 as part of WAM’s ongoing accountability work, we began to examine our motivation for donating money to organizations. How was WAM centering itself? What could WAM do to build a deeper relationship with the organizations it was donating to. Did WAM’s language and actions reflect WAM’s values? Who were the voices in the process?
These were areas that we, as WAM’s newly formed Philanthropy Committee, identified as requiring change. Over the course of 2020 and 2021, we held inquiry sessions together, where we unpacked WAM’s philanthropic process and identified areas that may need adjusting in order to increase our accountability, humility and equity.
Some examples:
- the vocabulary we used around our giving (beneficiary vs recipient)
- the public nature of our giving (check presentations following our closing performance)
- the requirements and expectations placed on the organizations receiving our donation (PR quotes and events, participation in a talkback)
- the application process in terms of how we choose and who gets to choose (RFP process created and overseen by a primarily white set of WAM constituents)
Some of the questions we asked ourselves during this inquiry phase were:
- What are the assumptions that we’ve been making? (i.e. money must be given to an organization rather than individuals, money must be given all at once, money given is a percentage of ticket sales)
- What does it mean to “give”?
- What part of this is “giving,” what part is exchange/relational, and what part is “reparative returns”?
We reminded ourselves that the original purpose of WAM’s philanthropic mission was to:
- To make change in the world
- To be in service to women and girls
- To give back
- To be an activist organization
After diving deep, through resource sharing, feedback sessions, research into philanthropic activism and trust-based philanthropy and examination of past models used, we were able to solidify that the connection to the themes of the play still felt important, and most importantly, that we wanted to try to focus our giving around relationship, repair and reparation. We also acknowledged that our process would continue to evolve as we continued to learn more and evolve ourselves.
Therefore, in the spirit of adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, for 2022, the Philanthropy Committee decided to experiment with the following process:
- Asking the staff and board for the names of organizations or individuals doing work either locally or nationally that addressed the themes of the play. The themes identified by the director of CADILLAC CREW, our fall play, taneisha duggan, were: black Feminism, civil rights, power and legacy of ancestors, hidden figures, and history – how it is told and shared.
- Reviewing the 20 organizations that were suggested and narrowing down the list to five organizations.
- Presenting this slate to the board followed by a vote on two questions: Who were their top two choices and did they want to give to one or two organizations?
- Arise for Social Justice in Springfield, MA and Fair Fight in Georgia resulted as the choices of the staff and board.
2022 Recipients:
About Arise
Arise for Social Justice was founded 30 years ago in Springfield MA by women on welfare. Arise is a member-led community organization dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of poor people. Arise has worked on issues such as housing, homelessness, criminal justice, environmental justice, and public health. For more info visit arisespringfield.org.
About Fair Fight
Fair Fight promotes fair elections around the country, encourage voter participation in elections, and educate voters about elections and their voting rights. Fair Fight Action brings awareness to the public on election reform, advocates for election reform at all levels, and engages in other voter education programs and communications. For more information visit fairfight.com.
Those two organizations will both receive a portion of the box office proceeds of CADILLAC CREW.
We look forward to continuing to be curious about this process and reporting back as we continue to evolve.
WAM’s philanthropy committee is made up of Carolyn Butler and Megan Sandberg-Zakian from the board and Kristen van Ginhoven and Molly Merrihew from the staff.
WAM Theatre is a professional theatre company based on the ancestral homeland of the Mohican Tribe colonially known as Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, USA, that operates at the intersection of arts and activism. WAM creates theatre for gender equity, focusing on people who identify as women and girls, and has a vision of theatre as philanthropy.