Help Me Stay and Organize My City
Donation protected
My name is Matthew Bruce, I am from the Eastside of Des Moines, and I have been organizing in the #BlackLivesMatter movement for 6 years.
Watching my brothers, sisters, friends and community members struggle to fight through police violence, scattered riots, and ideological divisions was just too painful for me to bear. This inspired me to come home from Chicago, where I was protesting, to help lead organization efforts in Des Moines and offer whatever value I could as far as my experience in and understanding of this movement.
I only planned to be here for a weekend -- but after two protests, many other freedom fighters and freedom organizers have continued to express gratitude for my presence and that they’d love for me to stay and help lead the movement for Black Lives in the Des Moines for the time being.
This is important to me.
I am currently in online school. I was an “essential worker” before this. I now have an opportunity to use my passion for Black civil and human rights movements in a way that I have already seen reverberate throughout Des Moines. However, we live in a capitalist society and that takes money to stay alive, so I am asking for your help in making an extended stay here possible for me.
I want to be held accountable, so here is my agreement: I will take $1500 a month from this fund (which is slightly less than I was making per-covid) for ALL living expenses. The rest of the money will be pooled and donated to Minneapolis where my activist friends on the ground are literally rebuilding a community from the ground up.
I hope you can help by sharing and/or donating to this gofundme.
Thank you, God Bless you and Power to the People!
Watching my brothers, sisters, friends and community members struggle to fight through police violence, scattered riots, and ideological divisions was just too painful for me to bear. This inspired me to come home from Chicago, where I was protesting, to help lead organization efforts in Des Moines and offer whatever value I could as far as my experience in and understanding of this movement.
I only planned to be here for a weekend -- but after two protests, many other freedom fighters and freedom organizers have continued to express gratitude for my presence and that they’d love for me to stay and help lead the movement for Black Lives in the Des Moines for the time being.
This is important to me.
I am currently in online school. I was an “essential worker” before this. I now have an opportunity to use my passion for Black civil and human rights movements in a way that I have already seen reverberate throughout Des Moines. However, we live in a capitalist society and that takes money to stay alive, so I am asking for your help in making an extended stay here possible for me.
I want to be held accountable, so here is my agreement: I will take $1500 a month from this fund (which is slightly less than I was making per-covid) for ALL living expenses. The rest of the money will be pooled and donated to Minneapolis where my activist friends on the ground are literally rebuilding a community from the ground up.
I hope you can help by sharing and/or donating to this gofundme.
Thank you, God Bless you and Power to the People!
Organizer
Matthew Bruce
Organizer
Des Moines, IA