Since its founding nine years ago, Resource Generation (RG) has
grown into the leading political organization for affluent young people. Through
monthly dinners held across the country, workshops, conferences and two books to
date—Classified: How to Stop Hiding
Your Privilege and
Use It for Social Change
and Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy—RG urges young wealth holders to use their resources to further
progressive causes. The group’s two full-time staffers, executive director Taij
Kumarie Moteelall (right), 31, and program coordinator Elspeth Gilmore, 28,
spoke with features editor Emily DeNitto at RG’s New York headquarters about
family dynamics and Paris Hilton.  Tell me about Resource Generation’s founding.
Moteelall: It started in
1998 as a conference. In the beginning, several groups were involved—More Than
Money, the Black and Brown Fund, the Peace Development Fund—organizations in the
New England area that looked at how to use wealth and privilege for social
change and organizing leadership. It was a culmination of these groups coming
together that led to the creation of the conference. RG started off as a space where young people with wealth came
together and had dinners on a monthly basis. It was a way for them to break out
of their isolation, to be able to say, "I’m a young person with wealth," and to
feel comfortable and to explore the issues that come up with that. Just saying that was hard? Moteelall: Yes. We’ve found that there’s a lot of silencing, because, growing up,
their families tell them, "Don’t talk about money. If you let other young people
know you have money, they might want it or it might be dangerous." Just to come
out and say, "I have money," is helpful. Gilmore: I come from
inherited wealth and I became involved with RG during the past two and a half
years as a constituent. When you bring in people already involved with
progressive causes, there’s a lot of judgment in those circles about what money
is, and, to some extent, capitalism and the way money negatively affects
communities—stereotypes about rich people. A lot of that’s internalized from
families. You’re trying to create a different world, but if you identify
yourself as part of the problem, it gets difficult. How do you find other people
you can talk to about some of the emotional things that come up? How do you define progressive causes? Moteelall: The
issue that gets a lot of people involved is environmental justice. So does
economic justice. Reforming the criminal justice system is another cause.
Recently, we’ve seen a lot of action around post-Katrina organizing. Electoral
politics is another big area. It really runs the gamut. The organization doesn’t
push an agenda and it doesn’t push issues. We help people develop their own
giving plan and clarify what issues they’re connected to, based on their
experiences and passion for social change. How many members do you have? Moteelall: The
database has more than 1,000 members. Our active constituency is roughly 300.
Constituents can be 15 to 35 years old; the largest group is in the mid-20s. Membership rose 25 percent last year. Why? Moteelall: We use an
organizing model, so we encourage anyone who comes in to organize within his or
her community. Word of mouth drives a large part of our growth. The release of
our first book also brought in new people. We’ve seen social-change philanthropy pick up speed. I think
people look at RG as the preeminent social-change youth organization. We’re at
the Council of Foundations, the Family Philanthropy Conference. We’re pretty
much at all the conferences, so people know us and they contact us.
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