"You will never make as much money as you will in a crisis."

These words were a reflection by Ezra Berkley Nepon, fundraiser extraordinaire who led a drive in the summer of 2000 to quickly raise bail and legal defense funds for more than four hundred activists who were arrested, overcharged, and many of whom in that moment were being abused in jail.

Nepon and others raised $200,000 in total, most of which happened during the “crisis” of people being abused in jail and held on bails as high as $1 million, unprecedented at the time for political protest arrests.

Now you can find out how Nepon and others did it!

A new article written by Nepon and myself, which appears in the latest issue of Interface, a journal for and about social movements, explains how such large amounts of money were raised before the advent of Facebook and online “crowdfunding” tools.

Nepon and I wrote Fundraising for direct action and legal defense: a case study of the 2000 RNC protests to shed greater light on the lessons learned from that experience – with both inspiring and difficult moments that are normally overlooked or undervalued – in order to inform the activists of today.

This article is also a prelude to the publication of my book, Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000, which is available for pre-order now and will be published by PM Press in July.

Enjoy and stay tuned!