Donating to The Sameer Project is the least we can do
One of the reasons I am sharing my writing more frequently is because my fundraising efforts are being donated to The Sameer Project. You can become a paid subscriber or you can donate directly. Zionists are working hard to discredit this widely supported fundraising effort. The Sameer Project posted this today on Twitter. Please read and also check out their linktree.
Yesterday, one of our biggest donors and trusted fundraising partners approached us to address allegations of “misappropriated funds” that had been brought to their attention by someone. We cannot stress how seriously we are taking this; at a time when we are running out of money, we cannot afford to lose donors. But it is extremely important to us that our community trusts us, so while we have always centered Gaza and its people and avoided using our platform to engage in petty social media feuds, we feel we have to address this issue.
Every penny we spend is accounted for. We maintain detailed spreadsheets and provide daily / weekly updates on our fundraising platforms. If you would like any information on our spending, please feel free to DM us. The entire team outside of Gaza does not use your donations to pay ourselves. We do pay salaries to our team on the ground, but they are risking their lives during a genocide and have families and communities of their own to take care of, so we refuse to let them work without compensation, also providing them agency. We have received a few grants from foundations that were specifically donated to pay an administrative assistant and other operational costs so that we could focus on the actual work at hand. We have been transparent about all of this.
But there is one account, under the [twitter[] handle @thelastturtle_ , that has been messaging donors telling them not to give to us. Without a shred of evidence, without once coming to us for a conversation about his accusations, he's been spreading lies about our team and our finances. In the process, he has displayed an incredible amount of deep-rooted misogyny, narcissism, and islamophobia. You can check out our Instagram story highlight about this issue to see some of the things he's said to people under the guise of 'doing the most for Gaza' (his words about himself). We've provided just a few of the screenshots of his messages to us and others there.
Let us be clear: it is extremely important to call out people who are profiting off a genocide and to bring attention to disingenuous and harmful behaviour by those claiming to stand with our community. At the same time, it is extremely dangerous to bring petty feuds and personal vendettas into this space and jeopardise the work we all do. We feed thousands of people each day. We've provided millions of liters of fresh water, life saving medical care, cash aid, tents, and much more to tens of thousands of people. Every dollar Yahya wants us to lose by making his baseless allegations is a dollar that could mean the difference between life and death to someone in Gaza.
We aren't bringing this up to get into a childish social media feud. We don't have any more time to waste. This thread and our stories on this topic on Instagram are for two purposes:
1. To reassure you, our community, of our transparency. We invite all of you (and Yahya) to dive as deep into our finances as you need in order to feel comfortable donating to us. We are here to answer your questions, with receipts.
2. To serve as a reminder that the most important thing right now is to center our people in Gaza, and to uplift organisations and groups that are doing their best to provide some form of relief to them. We suggest Yahya focus on the impactful mutual aid work he's done rather than on trying to block lifesaving aid.
We were waiting until the details are finalised to announce this, but we are in the final stages of setting up a partnership with Social Change Nest to continue our fundraising. By joining the 600+ other organisations that work with them, we gain registered status and access to grants and cheaper, more direct methods of distributing funds. There is a rigorous vetting process involved, and only organisations with transparent and organised finances are approved. This also means that moving forward, The Sameer Project will have a professional, registered organisation managing our finances.