Spring Cleaning
Welcome to 8th House! Here's a few helpful links if you're new in town:
- More about the vision behind 8th House
- Information on upcoming classes and workshops
- November subscriber newsletter on tactical optimism amidst post-election grief
- September subscriber newsletter on money, power and fundraising under capitalism
I apologize for the total lack of a March newsletter, but in my defense it's because I accidentally became an investigative journalist last month.
The story of how this all happened is recapped quite nicely here by journalist Britany Robinson of Nieman Storyboard (described as "a publication of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard [which] showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling," and if you are surprised to learn that Harvard wanted to talk to Claire Willett, I can tell you right now that you are not more surprised than I was). The short version of the story is that attempting to chase down what's been going on at the National Endowment for the Arts, which I wrote about in my last newsletter, became a way bigger project as the situation kept changing, culminating in an ACLU lawsuit which is expected to have a ruling this week. Oregon ArtsWatch, an independent arts journalism outlet I've always liked who had been keeping an eye on the story too, created a new role for me to cover the intersection of arts and philanthropy.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration's interference with arts and culture didn't end with the NEA (Americans For the Arts has a great news & updates page here that's basically "what fresh hell hath this week wrought"), and the past month has been a stark reminder that I'm only one person and I can't tackle all of this. So right now I'm pursuing a couple longer-term stories - some local, some national, all important - and trusting that people who know more than I do about museums and libraries have that side of the story handled. I'm still watching the NEA's legal challenges, and I'll share more on that when I have it.
For now, here's a buffet of links you might enjoy or find helpful!
Claire's Articles
"We have to remind people that free expression in the arts is the bellwether of whether you have a democracy or not. If we’re policing what artists can say, it’s already too late. That’s what authoritarianism looks like."
"Writer Claire Willett on how Trump upended federal grants for the arts and journalism" by Britany Robinson
"I’ve been asking the NEA repeatedly to address their silence on trans people, and I suspect part of the reason for their lack of response was the knowledge that legal action was brewing; counsel is probably telling everyone not to say anything to grant writers from Portland whose main qualification for the journalism post they’re currently holding is having also written a time travel book about Watergate heavily influenced by All the President’s Men."
"Trump’s Executive Orders and the NEA: A Detailed Timeline" by Claire Willett
"It’s unexpectedly moving to hear OAC staff repeatedly express their faith that arts organizations in the state of Oregon are already doing the best they can, with limited and dwindling resources in a time of explosive economic challenges and escalating need. They see their role as a source of support not just for the populations served by those organizations, but for the often exhausted and underpaid people who work there."
"At the Oregon Arts Commission, 'Sustaining Arts' means asking nonprofits what they need" by Claire Willett
50% off Private Workshops!
April and May are usually the time of year I begin planning for the start of the new fiscal year. This is when I research new prospects, build my clients their grant calendars, update and refresh program grant narrative, etc., so finance staff in the midst of the budgeting process can make their projections. For folks who might find themselves in the same boat, I'm running a sale through midnight on June 1 with both my private workshops available for $500 (a 50% discount!) with the code SPRING2025. These include my three-hour grantwriting master class from last year, which I've retired from my public class offerings, and my prospect research workshop to help you find new funding sources. Both include Q&A. Whether you want to run your whole staff and board through an intensive training, or you partner with a coalition of peer nonprofits who support each other with resource-sharing, these are both great opportunities to get a group together and custom-tailor a workshop to your needs.
The grantwriting class for beginners is best capped at around 40 to keep Q&As manageable, but has no real limit otherwise. For the prospect research workshop, there's no limit on number of individuals attending, but I recommend not splitting it among more than three different nonprofits to ensure that I can give everyone a good chunk of research time.
Dates to be scheduled by mutual agreement, but weekdays, weekends and evenings are all fine.
Tip of the Month
Devastated to report this one is only for Portlanders, but it's a doozy. This newly formed organization pairs skilled volunteers who are seasoned experts in the tech sector (like my dad Ken, which is how I learned about this!) with nonprofits, government entities and other grassroots community groups in need of short-term support for projects like creating new digital tools, fixing broken forms or websites, digital accessibility improvements, and other one-time projects that can be turned around in 4-8 weeks. Click here if you've got a project to submit!
For Information on Executive Orders
National Council of Nonprofits
This is a great up-to-the-minute tracker of the newest EO's coming out of the Trump administration and their specific impacts on nonprofits. It includes charts, summaries, info on current litigation, a checklist of what to do if your funding gets terminated, state-by-state contacts, and more.
For Funding Prospect Research
Funding for Social Change - free grants database
Solidarity Economy Funding Library - free grants database
If you've been in one of my prospect research workshops, you know about these two already. I also included them in my December link roundup, but I'm about to dive into them again myself so they're fresh on my mind. These two sites have large AirTable spreadsheets featuring hundreds of funding sources for progressive organizations. You can sort by type (grants, venture capital, fellowships, etc.) by region (funds nationwide, funds in Oregon and Washington, funds in New England, etc.), by social need or population served (housing insecurity, trans justice, arts & culture, BIPOC-led, etc.) and more. I've had a ton of success with these in helping folks in my South Sister cohort and in my prospect research workshops to find new grantmaking organizations neither they nor I had on our radar.
For Coping With the Horrors
- Do you live in a place where cherry blossoms are currently happening? Immediate serotonin.
- I am currently watching Mid-Century Modern and Paradise on Hulu, with Netflix' The Residence next on deck based on about 20 different people's trustworthy recommendations. Just finished reading The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty and am in the middle of Babel by R.F. Kuang, with Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Omar El Akkad's One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This on deck. I feel comfortable heartily recommending all of them, even the ones I haven't started yet.
- I am a devoted fan of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, a perfume oil emporium for witchy nerds, and this week I'm working my way through a big batch of samples trying to find my new signature fragrance. (A few early contenders: "Wilde," "Baba Yaga," "Wicked," and "Lady Macbeth.") They have a hair gloss I'm obsessed with (the first one I fell in love with was white tea and sage, but I'm currently wearing one called "Midnight Mass" from their goth Yule collection and it's great) and a full catalog of scents that donate a portion of their proceeds to awesome progressive causes: from a fragrance line inspired by California's native flora and fauna which supports LA wildfire mutual aid, to an "Abolish ICE" perfume oil whose proceeds go to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES). It goes without saying that this is not sponsored content; I just like telling people about things I like so that when they realize they like them too they will tell me how wonderful I am.
- You might also find your life improved by these Smitten Kitchen vegan cinnamon rolls which are so incredibly idiot-proof that even I - a person who had never before in my life made cinnamon rolls, nor indeed baked anything requiring yeast in about 20 years - was unable to screw them up.
Member discussion