Resolution: Membership Oversight of UAWD Donations

This resolution was passed at the October 2024 Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom on October 13, 2024.

Resolution: Membership Oversight of UAWD Donations

Introduced by: Jessie Kelly (Local 160) and Andrew Bergman (Local 22)

Whereas:

• • Transparency and accountability are fundamental principles of UAWD, highlighted in our UAWD Platform under “Transparency in Finances;”
  • Access to donation records can enhance members’ understanding of the organization’s financial health and the impact of their contributions;
  • Providing UAWD members with access to donation records aligns with the principles of democratic governance and fosters trust and engagement within the membership;
  • To be able to democratically govern our organization, acknowledging that donors may have motivations or values that do not align with our organization, our membership needs to be able to directly determine which major sources of funding we will accept.
  • UAWD accepted a $100,000 donation through our 501(c)(3) educational fund, and we do not yet have a policy for how to handle large donations, which can substantially alter the course of a democratic organization. 

Be it resolved that:

1. UAWD shall only accept individual donations of $10,000 or above, within a 12-month period, with the approval of the UAWD membership at a membership meeting:
   1. This shall be done for all donations made to any fund, including our 501(c)(5) and our 501(c)(3), also known as the UAWD Mutual Aid Fund.
   2. The Steering Committee shall be responsible for providing the UAWD membership all relevant information about the potential donor at least one week in advance of the motion to approve the donation.
   3. The Steering Committee shall notify the potential donor of this process prior to the process beginning.
   4. For donors who wish to establish an ongoing relationship with UAWD (individual or organization) the Steering Committee shall be permitted to ask that a donor be designated as “pre-approved” for donations. The pre-approval must be done at a membership meeting. The Steering Committee should make available to the caucus relevant information about the donor and past history of how they relate to the rank-and-file movement at least one week in advance of the motion for donor pre-approval status. The Steering Committee shall be permitted to accept any donations made by a pre-approved donor once said donor has been approved. All UAWD members will be “pre-approved”. 
2. The UAWD website and all donation portals shall include a note that says “Financial contributions to UAWD do not give the donor any rights or privileges to control the designation of funds or any other aspect of UAWD. All UAWD funds are democratically controlled and overseen by the UAWD membership and our elected Steering Committee.” The Steering Committee shall ensure this note is communicated to all donors.
3. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption, and will not be retroactive to past donations.