Stimpunks Foundation

Mutual Aid and Human-Centered Learning for Neurodivergent and Disabled People

Stimpunks Fundraising Manifesto

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▶ Table of Contents

  1. 1. We Reject the Charity Model
  2. 2. We Fund Infrastructure, Not Worth
  3. 3. We Center Interdependence
  4. 4. We Practice Consent-Based Fundraising
  5. 5. We Pay Disabled and Neurodivergent People
  6. 6. We Value Stability Over Scarcity
  7. 7. We Name Power and Money Honestly
  8. 8. We Keep Access Central
  9. 9. We Build With, Not For
  10. 10. We Are Still Building
  11. Closing

This fundraising manifesto grows directly out of the Stimpunks Manifesto.

The same principles apply here: access is a right, care is infrastructure, complexity is the baseline, and nothing about us happens without us. How we raise money must reflect how we understand power, dignity, and interdependence.

Fundraising is not separate from our values. It is one of the places those values are most tested.

We fund care like it matters.

Fundraising is not a side task. It is part of how we practice disability justice, access, and interdependence. How money moves shapes whose lives are valued, whose labor is visible, and whose needs are met.

This manifesto names how Stimpunks raises funds—and what we refuse to become in the process.

1. We Reject the Charity Model

Charity is hierarchical.
Charity positions disabled people as problems to be solved.
Charity turns human needs into favors.

We refuse pity, saviorism, and inspiration porn.
We refuse urgency theater.
We refuse narratives that require our suffering to be believable.

We are not here to be rescued.
We are here to build.

2. We Fund Infrastructure, Not Worth

We do not fundraise to prove our value.
We fundraise to sustain work.

Money goes to:

  • Disabled and neurodivergent labor
  • Access work
  • Care work
  • Time to think, rest, and design well

This is not overhead.
This is infrastructure.

3. We Center Interdependence

We reject the myth of independence.
We reject the idea that needing support is failure.

Stimpunks exists because people support each other.
Funding is one way that support flows.

Giving is participation, not rescue.
Receiving is not shameful.

No guilt.
No pressure.
No moral ranking of donors.

If you can give, welcome.
If you cannot, you still belong here.

Money is never the price of access.

5. We Pay Disabled and Neurodivergent People

Passion is not compensation.
Exposure is not payment.

Disabled and neurodivergent people deserve to be paid for their labor—especially when that labor creates access for others.

Funding makes this possible.

6. We Value Stability Over Scarcity

We do not build on crisis cycles.
We do not normalize burnout.

Recurring support creates:

  • Predictability
  • Nervous-system safety
  • Sustainable access

Stability is a form of care.

7. We Name Power and Money Honestly

Money is not neutral.
Funding shapes outcomes.

We commit to:

  • Transparency in human terms
  • Clear values and red lines
  • Refusing funding that demands silence, compliance, or erasure

No money is worth losing our voice.

8. We Keep Access Central

Fundraising must be accessible.
Design matters.
Language matters.

No pop-ups.
No dark patterns.
No manufactured urgency.

Accessibility applies to money too.

9. We Build With, Not For

Nothing about us without us applies to funding.

Those most impacted should benefit first.
Those doing the work should shape how it is funded.

Fundraising is collective governance.

10. We Are Still Building

This manifesto is not finished.
Our needs will change.
Our strategies will evolve.

What will not change:

  • Our commitment to dignity
  • Our refusal of charity logic
  • Our belief that care is infrastructure

Closing

We are building access as shared infrastructure.

If this work supports you—or people you love—help sustain it.

No saviors.
No compliance.
Just shared care.