Allied Media Projects Gift Acceptance Policy

Purpose

The purpose of AMP’s Gift Acceptance Policy is to articulate what our organizational values are in the context of fundraising and soliciting gifts and to support our work of cultivating media for liberation. This policy delineates which types of gifts we can accept and our guidelines, policies, and criteria for reviewing and receiving those gifts in ways that align with those organizational values. The guidelines pertain to donations that are meant to support AMP’s core organizational programs and operations, and do not apply to gifts designated to support our fiscally sponsored projects or affiliated entities such as the LOVE Building or Allied Media Action Fund (AMAF). Sponsored projects may have their own gift acceptance policies, which AMP will honor for donations pertaining specifically to their work.

Our approach: Fundraising and movements for liberation

Allied Media Projects works to cultivate media for liberation. For 25 years, we have worked as a convener, helping to bring together visionary artists and media makers who are visioning and building the world that we need. Our legacy of fostering critical connections between people and movements is reflected in our approach to fundraising. Fund development is deeply relational work, and involves bringing together people, resources, networks, and practices, which we convene towards dismantling the oppressive structures that we work within while building new models for resource mobilization, wealth redistribution, and liberation.

As an organization, we envision and attempt to model a world in which we: care for ourselves, each other, other species, and the planet; dismantle supremacist systems as they operate upon and within us; assume responsibility for creating new liberatory ways of being; and cultivate life affirming joy. AMP aims to approach fundraising in ways that center and put into practice this organizational vision and our values and network principles.

Culture of care

AMP conceives of our work in Fund Development as resource organizing and wealth reclamation. Movement partner and AMP sponsored project WRAP defines wealth reclamation as “the process of rehabilitating extracted and privately controlled wealth to restore and nurture community health and vitality.” By working to reclaim funds that have been violently extracted from our communities, we aim to build solidarity economies and “living resource systems” to help fund our movements for liberation and justice. For us, fundraising work is an act of reparation and care for our communities.

Dismantling supremacist systems

We recognize that the economic and philanthropic systems that we must operate within are built on extractive and inequitable practices. By engaging in the care work of resource organizing and wealth distribution, we aim to minimize the harm of philanthropy by diverting as much wealth as possible to communities working to fundamentally transform systemic inequity wherever it exists, including in philanthropy. Part of what it means to dismantle supremacist systems is centering and prioritizing long-term relationships, and to mobilize resources is deeply relational work. Building trust with donors allows us to have hard conversations and brings us into deep partnership around shared goals of harm reduction and systemic transformation.

Assuming responsibility

AMP views our work in fund development as speculative nonfiction: We speculate about how we might shape the future and create detailed plans that allow us to secure the resources we need to actualize the futures we desire. We understand that as the recipients of philanthropic gifts, we are partners and participants in these systems as much as we are subjected to them. This means that we have both the power and the responsibility to affect change within these systems wherever we can. We work with our funding partners to push for transformational rather than transactional fundraising practices, including enactment of the 12 Recommendations for Detroit Funders. We are guided also by Just Transition frameworks (which move us from an extractive towards a regenerative economy) as articulated by our friends at the Movement Generation, WRAP, and others.

Cultivating joy

We know that by helping to dismantle and transform systemic inequities in philanthropy and fundraising, we can work together towards abundance so that our movements and communities can thrive. We are excited to partner and build deep relationships with values-aligned donors in working together to build the world we need!

Ways To Give

Individual Donations & Sustaining Gifts

AMP accepts donations from individuals, but also recognizes that individuals can represent other political or corporate interests. All gifts over $5000 from individuals will be subject to review to ensure that the gift is not perceived as trying to influence AMP’s values, practices, programs, or campaigns. Gifts received as part of an employer matching program (via platforms such as Benevity) are treated as individual donations.

Individual donations to AMP can be made using our online donation form, or by mailing a check made out to Allied Media Projects to:

4731 Grand River Avenue, Suite 400

Detroit, MI 48208

Grants & Donor Advised Funds

AMP accepts gifts and grants from most private foundations and government entities. We ally with and build long-term trusting relationships with individual donors, program officers, and staff within foundations who share our goals of harm reduction and systemic transformation.

We recognize that we won’t always share all of the same values and goals with every one of our funders, but we prioritize uplifting our common ground, provided that our differences do not compromise AMP’s vision, values, or negatively impact our ability to do our work. While we work together with our funders on our shared priorities, the interests of our funders do not guide our programs, activities, statements, or goals; our community, staff, and board do. AMP reserves the right to decline a gift if we find that there are conditions attached to the gift that would compromise our work, act against our values, or could be perceived as whitewashing non-values-aligned practices or behaviors.

When receiving gifts from Donor Advised Funds, AMP will consider both our guidelines for accepting gifts from Foundations and our Individual Donor guidelines.

Stocks

AMP accepts donations from individuals’ securities. AMP’s policy is to immediately turn stock into cash upon receipt of the stock contribution. In keeping with IRS regulations, a tax letter will be sent for stock gifts that reflects the stock number and quantity rather than a cash value.

For inquiries related to making stock gifts, please email development@alliedmedia.org.

Corporate Giving & Sponsorships

AMP accepts corporate gifts and sponsorships on a case-by-case basis to ensure deep and meaningful alignment with AMP’s values, mission, and vision. AMP reviews potential corporate donors and sponsors thoroughly, and will not accept corporate gifts or sponsorships from entities who could be perceived as engaging in activities that are contrary to AMP’s values, or from entities that seek to or could be perceived as seeking to influence AMP’s programs, activities, statements, or goals.

For inquiries on corporate gifts and sponsorship, please email sponsorship@alliedmedia.org

Community Fundraisers

AMP welcomes grassroots community fundraisers for the organization. We request that you contact development@alliedmedia.org after the conclusion of your fundraiser.

Funds raised can be donated using our online donation form, or by mailing a check made out to Allied Media Projects to:

4731 Grand River Avenue, Suite 400

Detroit, MI 48208

In-Kind Donations

AMP accepts in-kind donations made by individuals if they are relevant to or benefit AMP’s work and mission. AMP reserves the right to decline in-kind gifts and/or to send donations that are not relevant to our work, along with donor contact information, to another charitable organization. In-kind donations with a possible valuation of $5000 or more will be accepted with staff and board review/approval. If seeking tax exemption, the donation must be accompanied by a qualified appraisal carried out by a third party and IRS form 8283. AMP will provide tax letters at the end of the year for in-kind donations. The letters will not contain the value of the gift. Please speak to your tax advisor for more information.

No gift of real estate will be accepted without prior approval of the staff and board, and based on advice from AMP’s legal counsel and a qualified independent appraisal.

For information on in-kind donations, please email development@alliedmedia.org.

Acknowledgement of Support Guidelines

We reserve ownership over our name, logo, and imagery. We reserve the right to choose to lend these assets to those donors who are strong values-aligned partners in our work of dismantling systems of oppression and building a more just and equitable world. Furthermore, giving to AMP, one of our sponsored projects, or affiliated entities does not grant the donor the right to influence our programs, messaging, statements, etc.

AMP may amend this policy occasionally at our discretion.