Solidarity Not Charity-Crisis Fund

The Solidarity not Charity Fund (SNC Fund) is a crisis fund operated by the Solidarity Collective on principles of mutual aid, that provides financial support to people experiencing crisis as a result of poverty or economic oppression.

How to contribute?
If you would like to support people in crisis via the Solidarity not Charity Fund, you can make an occasional payment, or set up a monthly standing order for whatever you can afford. Monthly donations are really useful for helping us understand the capacity of the fund. No contribution is too small to count, even a couple of £ a month will mount up with the donations from other people.

DONATE TO THE CRISIS FUND:

We welcome regular or one off donations to the following bank account:
Name: East Sussex Credit Union Ltd.
Account Number: 67007952
Sort Code: 08 92 50
*IMPORTANT* Please use this reference: 11824 Solidarity Collective
[Note that this is a credit union account, so the name is the name of the credit union and the reference is our account number within that]

Why the fund?
We see that social movements that are working for radical social and political change have enormous class differences within them, and this is often not discussed. Economic hardship and poverty have material consequences on people‘s bodies and their self worth, confidence and mental health. A person’s level of support and access to resources, and the way a crisis unfolds, affects the outcome and their future. Our understanding of this is based on an intersectional understanding of class – meaning how the opportunities and potential we are presented with due to our class background works in relation to our gender, race and racism, ability and disability, and so on.

We understand that the vastly disproportionate access to wealth and resources in our communities is an expression of violence. In the long term, people with access to wealth and resources can begin to find ways of redistributing financial capital while we all work together to build a world without the violence of the racist, patriarchal and heteronormative class system. The Solidarity not Charity Fund is one small part in the process of wealth redistribution in our communities.

As of May 2022, the SNC Fund has supported 25 crisis situations and has redistributed over £16,000 since summer 2019. It has kept people out of prison, kept bailiffs away from doors, kept people off the streets and supported people experiencing physical and mental health crises. Most of the people requesting funds are experiencing trauma and crisis relating to intersecting racialised, classed and gendered forms of oppression, and almost all are coming from poor working class and/or migrant and diaspora backgrounds. 

Who the fund is for
We have three basic criteria for people to receive funds:
1) It is a crisis
2) There is no other means to get the money
3) The funds will make a difference
The fund is primarily intended for people who have no other access to financial support, such as owning property, the possibility to get a well paid job, or a social network they can ask for a loan. We understand how awkward and difficult it might be to ask friends and family for help in a crisis, but when this is an option for some people we want them to try this first. The Solidarity not Charity Fund is for people who do not have these options available to them.

Further reading about the fund