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.
4. We Practice Consent-Based Fundraising
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.
Donate
One in seven persons in the world has a disability. Yet, grants for persons with disabilities constitute just 2% of all human rights funding.
Human Rights Funders Network – Reversing the trend: The time is now to fund disability rights
Why donate to us? The nonprofit professionals who consult us tell us we’re unique. They tell us we’re tearing down walls in philanthropy…
1. Your money goes directly to people, not bureaucracy
Stimpunks practices mutual aid, not charity theater. Donations are moved quickly and with low barriers to neurodivergent and disabled people who need relief now—for rent, food, care, survival. This prevents crises before they become emergencies, which is both more humane and more effective than downstream interventions.
Impact: Immediate stabilization, reduced stress, fewer crisis escalations.
2. Stimpunks fixes conditions, not people
Most systems are built around compliance: behave correctly, mask well, suffer quietly, and maybe you’ll get help. Stimpunks rejects that model entirely. It invests in access, psychological safety, and autonomy, which research and lived experience both show lead to better long-term outcomes.
Your donation supports:
- Communication access
- Sensory and space access
- Education and healthcare access
- Environments where people don’t have to erase themselves to survive
3. It’s led by the people most affected
Stimpunks is neurodivergent- and disabled-led. That means:
- No guessing what people need
- No extractive storytelling
- No top-down “solutions” that create harm
Lived experience isn’t a side note here—it’s the operating system.
Result: Higher relevance, higher trust, higher impact per dollar.
4. It prevents harm instead of managing fallout
Compliance-based therapies, inaccessible systems, and deficit narratives cost people their health, education, jobs, and lives. Stimpunks intervenes upstream by:
- Publishing open, neuroaffirming learning pathways
- Challenging harmful practices
- Giving families, educators, and professionals better tools
Prevention is cheaper, kinder, and more effective than repair.
5. Your donation creates compounding impact
Stimpunks doesn’t just help individuals—it builds shared infrastructure:
- Free learning resources used globally
- Language and frameworks that change how people think and act
- Community knowledge that outlives any single grant
One donation helps one person and strengthens the ecosystem that supports thousands more.
6. This is accountability without gatekeeping
Stimpunks operates with transparency, low overhead, and a clear ethical spine. There’s no pressure to sanitize stories or soften the truth to appease funders. Donations support honest work rooted in dignity, not optics.
7. Because people shouldn’t have to mask to deserve care
At the deepest level, donating to Stimpunks is a values decision.
It says:
- People are not broken
- Difference is not a defect
- Care should never be conditional on conformity
Authenticity is our purest freedom—and freedom requires resources.
Bottom line
If you want your money to:
- Reach people fast
- Reduce harm instead of rebranding it
- Support work led by those who live it
- Build something real, not polite
Donate to Stimpunks.org.
Your donations help us serve our loved people so we can keep on living through the onslaught.
Double your impact. Many employers match donations through Benevity and similar platforms.
Accountability Is Care
We don’t do mystery charity. We work in public, publish our policies, and show where the money goes — because trust is part of access.
- Accountability & Transparency Hub
- Where the Money Went (2025)
- Program/Admin/Fundraising Expense Policy
- Annual Reports
- Donor Privacy Policy
- Frequently Requested Information
Donate if you can. Share if you can’t. Either way, thank you for building access with us.
