EQUITY BUDGETING CERTIFICATION

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy way to know, right away, if an organization you want to work with — or for — values economic justice, & is supporting everyone in its ecology of work practice? Wouldn’t it be great to know, as an organization, if a funder you’re submitting a grant to recognizes & values your equity budgeting model — & holds other funded projects accountable to paying cultural workers, freelancers, non-profit staff, artists, oral history narrators, & collaborating or participating community members? Yeah — us too.

We’re developing an Equity Budgeting Certification Program — inspired by the model of the W.A.G.E. (Working Artists in the Greater Economy) Certification for arts organizations & galleries — for non-profits, movement-based groups, for-profit businesses, & funders, which allows those of us committed to equity budgeting work to signal that commitment. In order to qualify for Equity Budgeting Certification, a program must:

  • Take an Equity Budgeting Workshop

  • Audit organizational, project, or program budgets to identify historically unpaid or underfunded work

  • Make an Equity Budgeting Action Plan to begin budgeting to pay everyone

  • Prepare an Equity Budgeting Statement & have it publicly available on a website or other platform

  • Submit evidence of an organizational budget or budgets for an active or approved project that confirms fair payment to everyone involved on a project — including any community participants

Equity Budgeting Certification will be renewable bi-annually; & places greater transparency around an organization’s equity budgeting process by submitting it to review — & advising — from a board of equity budgeting practitioners & the Equity Budgeting Lead Team.

Our hope is, by building a nationwide & even global network of equity budgeters, we can draw increased attention to the importance of paying everyone more; & build political, policy, & advocacy power with funders to mandate fair pay for everyone involved in the cycle of cultural work.

Join us!!! We’ll be releasing more information about the pilot year for the Equity Budgeting Certification Program in early 2022! Stay tuned … & join the Waitlist below to be the first to hear the news!