Resource Organizing Project – Who We Are

Who We Are

We launched in 2021 out of a decade of collaboration with small justice and liberation organizations. We operate in deep partnership with New England movement organizations who are either engaged in basebuilding-style organizing or in solidarity economy work.

Check out some of our 90+ partner organizations in our 2022 Year-end Giving Guide. Partners guide our work by participating in and coordinating our programs. Fundraising staff and volunteers of these organizations hold stipended leadership roles and formal advisory roles.

We’re an offering of the Movement Sustainability Commons.

Dave Jenkins, Executive Director

I’m a voyaging Mainer from the North Woods committed to racial, economic and gender justice in New England and beyond. I got my organizing start in Boston’s youth justice movement where I supported youth-led campaigns against environmental racism and inequities in public education, transit, land-use, and food systems. After turning my 30th birthday cookout with Maine lobsters into an annual multi-organizational celebration and fundraiser, I got more and more excited about resourcing our movements in ways that build collaboration, community, sustainability and power. More recently, as a facilitator and coach supporting New England region organizing groups, I’ve witnessed a cross-section of the challenges that BIPOC, queer, and working-class-led organizations face in trying to fundraise for justice work. I co-founded ROP to help shift that paradigm.

Katherine Asuncion, Associate Director

I was born in the Dominican Republic and migrated to Lynn, MA in 2003. My journey began as an undocumented high school student involved in the 2010 DREAM Act fight. With a passion for migrant and racial justice, I organized and fundraised at Stories Inspiring Movement (formerly known as Student Immigrant Movement) for almost a decade, stumbling along the way but learning a ton and connecting with amazing people. I leaped into philanthropy when I joined the Grassroots International team in a donor organizing role. It was then when I got the opportunity to travel to Palestine, and deepen my understanding of the occupation and my commitment to Palestinian liberation, the liberation of all occupied and oppressed peoples and the dismantling of extractive systems. For 5 years, I led giving circles to fund Palestine, global Black movements, indigenous-led movements and climate justice work. I hope to continue resourcing movements, decolonizing my mind and celebrating the good stuff more.

Liza Behrendt, Associate Director

I grew up in Seacoast New Hampshire and have organized and fundraised in Boston for a decade. I learned to organize from Palestine liberation activists and take inspiration from movements for wealth redistribution, housing justice, queer liberation, and the Jewish left. I’ve previously worked for Jewish Voice for Peace, Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, and I’m a member of Boston Workers Circle for Jewish Culture and Social Justice, Muslim Justice League, and Resource Generation.