A waiver will be available for anyone who can not afford dues and for younger members who do not have control over their own money.

Here are suggested dues:

•  $5/ a month – you keep a tight budget and have little flexible money to spend
• $15/ a month – you make a living wage or are financially comfortable
• $45/ a month – you make a high income or have access to inherited wealth
• Other: $0 (option for hub flexibility for members facing hardship ) 

WHY DUES

We are moving towards a membership and dues structure in Sunrise for a few key reasons.

• Movement accountable to membership: First, we aspire to become a powerful youth climate movement owned and funded by our membership. Thus, we are accountable to our members, not to funders and the whims of the philanthropic elite. Through our Sunrise Delegate Body, members have voice, stake, and clear decision-making power to help shape the direction of the organization and movement. 
• Organize more people into Sunrise: We believe a shift towards dues will enable us to organize more people into the movement. Not everyone is able to give an hour or three or five to hub efforts or organizing, but do have resources to support the movement. We want avenues to engage as much of the movement as possible in our efforts! If we are to build a powerful multi-racial, cross-class movement with the power to push our government to act and be bold on climate, we are going to need everyone. 
• Networks of care & solidarity: As the climate crisis looms, it is clear that we must build networks of solidarity, care, and support for each other to weather the storms ahead. Our vision is that the membership and dues drive generate the resources to build care for our society by passing the Green New Deal at every layer of government, but also care for the relationships we’re building to stay in this fight for the long haul. To do this through our member drive, this looks like using our power and resources in the movement to: 
  • Create networks during climate disasters to support our members 
  • Using hub money to provide meals at all hub meetings and events 
  • Creating directories with offerings from inside and outside the movement, including everything for free or supported housing, childcare, access to car or transit, jobs, free therapy, free meals, and other resources.
• Explicit convos about class: Finally, we believe a shift towards dues will support us to build across class by requiring members and leaders to engage in explicit and ongoing conversations about money and class. This belief was supported in the content testing process, where we saw working-class people consistently more likely to support dues.

Ultimately, through dues, we are setting up to build both people power and sustainable funding sources to power our organizing and efforts over the long haul. 

WHY DUES FOR HUBS 

• Opportunity to grow membership & people power
• Opportunity to increase resources you have access to for organizing 
• Opportunity to build out strong recruitment & onboarding systems to bring in new people
• Opportunity to develop your craft as an organizer; if you can’t ask someone to contribute their resources to the movement, how will you ask them to take increasing levels of action on behalf of addressing the climate crisis? 

DUES TIMELINE

• March 7th: Delegate vote closes on dues proposal
• March 7th – 29th: Recruit dues captain to dues & membership process training 
• March 19th: First Dues Captain training, prep dues captain to learn everything they need to roll out dues and a strong onboarding process in the hub 
• March 27th: Second Dues Captain training, prep dues captain to learn everything they need to roll out dues and a strong onboarding process in the hub 
• April 1st: Begin to launch dues in hub! 
• April 11th: Join our movement-wide dues launch + Sunrise’s biggest phonebank ever, building hype for the membership drive + supporting people to phonebank members and friends 
• Summer 2024: Membership tour 
• Late July: Dues drive officially close

ASKS

• ID your dues captain 
  • We are asking every hub to select a dues captain. Dues captains will take responsibility for organizing their hub around the membership & dues launch! Ideally, this is someone involved in outreach & onboarding, or someone excited to help build out strong onboarding & recruitment systems for the hub. 
  • Part of the expectation will be that the dues captain attends a 90-minute training, where they will learn all the skills needed to roll out and set up strong membership & dues systems for the hub or chapter)