Dear Supporters, 

As we enter the final days of this year’s Global Solidarity Challenge, we - the GSC Committee - wanted to send you a message to express our thankfulness, excitement, and admiration for you as a member of our community 💚. 

Our staff team at VIDEA is extremely diverse and, as the people planning this fundraiser, we represent this diversity. We also represent many teams working across VIDEA’s programming, including climate change, decolonization, gender justice, international development, wellness, youth international internships, public engagement, anti-racism and more! While the work we do at VIDEA differs, each of us decided to plan the GSC for a similar reason: we wanted to give back to an organization that stands out from the rest for its bold, innovative, effective, and sustainable contributions to our local and global community. We also happen to really enjoy the GSC - it’s a fun, creative and thoughtful community-based activity that we really enjoy participating in.

VIDEA has been there for each of us at pivotal moments in our lives. They’ve championed us, supported us (professionally and personally), and given us incredible opportunities to make a difference.

We bet that’s the case for many of you, too. 

Whatever your experience with VIDEA, you’re an important part of this community and we hope that you have felt valued and supported like we have. The GSC is an opportunity to support an organization doing work that is absolutely critical right now. As one supporter put it “VIDEA is exactly where it should be considering recent events.” Our work is important and the way we do it stands out, we are different from other organizations in this sector. 

Please consider supporting this work by giving today

Our goal this year is to raise $20,000, which would give VIDEA the unrestricted funds necessary to support our social justice, climate change, gender justice and reconciliation-focused programming in ways that other funding streams can’t.

As we reach the end of the week, we wanted to connect with our fab newsletter readership to ask you if you will support this campaign with a donation. 

With that ask, we also want to send our immense appreciation to each and every one of you. Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for being a subscriber to this newsletter, a follower on social media, a past intern, volunteer or staff, a community activist; whoever you are, thank you for showing your support to VIDEA, however you show it.

Through this fundraiser, we’ve asked our community to do three things: participate, donate, and reflect on what solidarity means to you.

We’ve done the first two ourselves rather publicly - that is, we’ve participated, donated and asked others to donate - and we’d like to finish off this letter by taking a moment to do the third thing more publicly, too.

To us, solidarity means working together in community towards a common goal. It means listening to and looking out for each other. Solidarity means giving everyone a voice, empowering everyone, and integrating different ways of being, knowing, and thinking into our decision-making. It means honouring people for their lived experience. 

Once again, thank you so much for being part of this community, and for supporting this very special organization.