As we strive to continue to organize in philanthropy to support movement during this time of repression and carcerality, it is perhaps most important to return to thinking about the world we want to see. In our efforts to remain in solidarity with BIPOC community organizing towards justice, funders must remain committed to our own ongoing learning. Amidst crises competing for our attention, let’s revisit foundational political education in deeper ways - building understanding and systemic analysis in order to provide greater clarity in how we can think about and sustain social change as new challenges continue to arise. While state violence continues to repress voices for liberation and disappear people into cages, abolition reminds us that surveillance, policing, and imprisonment are still not true solutions to economic, social, and political problems, and its principles can be applied to all of the issues we face. US militarism is, in many ways, the global extension and resource engine of the carceral state. At $997 billion in military spending in 2024, the US has remained by far the largest military spender in the world. We live in a war economy that is consistently making profits off of both domestic policing and global occupation, at the expense of real public resources for our communities. How can we divest from systems of violence and continue to be in solidarity with communities that bear the brunt of state violence? Join us to learn more about these systems, how community organizers are resisting, and the ways we can build something different.