why we haven’t been doing that up until now. And so it has been very interesting. If you ever want to do interviews with White people who tried to do racial justice work, I have had so much education on that and such an evolution in thought. And so I think there is knowledge that could be shared in that, humbling yourself and understanding the intersectionality. Again toward our goal of not necessarily becoming a racial justice organization, but becoming a true social justice organization where we understand that we haven’t been focused on those issues and understanding that we need to in order to really hold that title of a social justice organization.”

One of the barriers to expanding the number of organizations of color involved in Community Shares is that a lot of them lacked the documented historical track record, such as an audit, that prevented them from joining an umbrella organization that heavily relied on workplace giving.

“We were seeing that all of these groups we’ve been wanting to connect with, a lot of them have been, ‘Well, I’m not going to do an audit. And I only get $2,500 from you.’ And so we essentially created a change in our membership so that groups can now be members without providing that documentation. We have a more diverse focus on our issues. And so we have also gone through the process of incorporating language that is specific to racial justice and having a statement on the understanding of racial justice. When I first started, I had a focus on changing our membership levels. And the target of that was to recruit more groups doing more grassroots type stuff that don’t necessarily check all of the boxes or groups that we don’t always represent. We were trying to expand our reach more so that we can work with non-profits that match our values.”

And this approach worked.

“Some of the newer groups are Orgullo Latinx LGBT+, Aaron Perry’s barbershop group, Rebalance-Life Wellness Association, Natural Circles of Support, Positive Women for Change, Urban Triage, and Padres E Hijos en Accion — a group of Latine families advocating for kids with disabilities,” Dubiel said. “And for the past many years, we’ve had leaders of color in leadership positions on our board. Right now, our current board chair is Veronica Figueroa Velez. And our board vice-chair is Justice Castañeda. Bernie Hoes was our board chair for a number of years, most of the time that I’ve been executive director. We’ve definitely been doing our best to correct our lack of understanding.

This change has also been made possible as the sources of revenue for Community Shares has changed.

“We do workplace giving,” Dubiel said. “It’s changing. Everything is changing. The amount raised, the percentage of our overall budget, has changed significantly. Back 20 years ago when I started at Community Shares, I would say 80 percent of our revenue came from workplace giving. Now it’s probably half of that now as a percentage of our revenue.”

That decline has been made up, in part, by the expansion of the Willy Street Coop to three stores.

“We still have Community Chip,” Dubiel said. “In fact, what has changed with Community Chip is it’s completely changed on the Willy Street Coop. And it has grown significantly. Last year, 2024, was our biggest year of Community Chip. It was like $340,000. As the coop has expanded to these new locations, the Chip has just grown. It’s amazing. It’s a significant part of our budget now.”

Community Shares has also developed The Big Share, first started by Dubiel’s predecessor Crystel Anders. The Big Share is kind of an organized grassroots fundraising effort. Since it doesn’t involve workplace giving, all of its members can participate, all 68 of them, through one giving portal, www.thebigshare.org.

“The Big Share is an online giving day,” Dubiel said. “It actually kicks off on Monday, March 3^rd at 6 p.m. and goes through all of the next day up until the night. It’s lots of media, lots of social media. The communications go out to donors, creating the buzz on asking people to give, Giving Tuesday kind of thing except it’s limited to members of Community Shares. And we can keep the focus on social justice during the day. We don’t have to water down our message to try to be inclusive of other groups.”

While there is one website managed by Community Shares, each agency is responsible for developing their presence on the website and managing their giving portal.

“When you go to that site, you can search for the drop-down list and see who is all participating,” Dubiel said. “We do marketing and communications. The groups do that to their supporters, but Community Shares as the host, we do more general communication. We are telling people, ‘Go to www.thebigshare.org, inviting new people who may not be aware to come in and be a part of it.’

Through The Big Share, Community Shares becomes a tighter community seeking social justice.

“We are a collective of a lot of people coming together, lots of groups having their own separate campaigns,” Dubiel said. “And so then that creates the larger movement because we are building on the networks of all of these non-profits working together. It’s a really powerful day and it’s always really energizing.  Since we’ve been doing The Big Share, it’s really made me feel like we have a bigger connection in the community because with workplace giving, if you’re at a workplace that has workplace giving, you might have heard of us. We’re kind of in the shadow of other federations, while The Big Share is like our own thing and it has really helped us build up awareness in the community about who we are and kind of create our own niche, our own place in the community.”

For one day, Community Shares becomes an online — and in-person — community for the day.

“The other thing that we’ve been doing for 4-5 years is ‘The Big Share Live,’” Dubiel said. “It’s an in-person event and broadcast on social media like a telethon. All day long, we’re having speakers, panel discussions and entertainment. The last two years — and again this year — the night ends with The Tony Castañeda Latin Jazz Band with other musicians and performers pl;ay throughout the day. That’s a great opportunity because we are giving our microphone to our members and asking them for their expertise. The panels that we are having there are lots of innovative conversations. That is linked directly for The Big Share website. You can also find us on YouTube on that day as well.”

The beauty of The Big Share is that the proceeds go directly to the non-profit agencies And the agencies are benefiting from the experience.

“Our biggest year was 2021 during the pandemic,” Dubiel said. “We raised $750,000. Last year was the second highest that we have ever raised and that was $705,000. A lot of the staff of the member groups are the same. There is a significant portion who are getting really good at this. Now Community Shares groups are like the community experts on online giving days and how to raise money on social media.”

Join the online community and hang out with The Big Share. You never know who you’ll meet and to whom you will decide to give. It’s your portal to supporting diverse social justice initiatives.

That’s kind of cool too. We’re developing expertise. And of course, as you are raising money through social media, you’re also increasing your donor base and your supporter base. And as you get the word out, you’re also building networks as well.”