Help Our Stateside Collective

Our stateside collective consists of CASA alumni, ex-staff, former friends of our houses in Mexico, as well as volunteers and steering committee members.

It takes a lot to run CASA. Like many small organizations, we're often doing outreach, holding events, looking for funding opportunities, arranging delegations, networking, and finding other ways to support and spread our work. We could use help with our website (SEO, PR, design, usability), as well as with realworld outreach and event organization. We're considering acquiring nonprofit status in the US or Mexico, and could use a legal expert or a nonprofit guru to advise us.

If you'd like to get involved, contact our US collective and let us know what interests you.

We're currently help with hosting our National Speaking Tour in October and November, 2008.  We will be promoting our newly published book of testimonies and photography from the 2006 Oaxacan uprising, Teaching Rebellion.  Contact Us about hosting an event in your area!

Contact our US collective if you are interested in donating your time or expertise.

Article Contribution

Although most of our articles are written by volunteers, staff and board members, we welcome articles from the public relative to social justice issues in Oaxaca and Chiapas, such as news regarding human rights violations or political prisoners. Contact us with your news or story ideas.

Contribute Funds

Note: we are changing fiscal sponsors and in the process of setting up a new process to receive donations.

CASA has come a long way since our start in late 2001. We have collectives active in Chiapas and Oaxaca, an active and diverse Board of Directors, and numerous Partner Organizations.  However, we continue to face the usual challenges of young organizations.  Even though our budget is relatively small, we are continuously fundraising just to stay afloat. Donations of any size really make a difference here in Mexico.  Where rent can be $50 a month, it doesn't take much to help us continue to place and educate volunteers, provide analysis and news in a crisis region, and support so many organizations.

Your donation helps to support intelligent activist work in Mexico and provide scholarships for volunteers and delegations, ensuring that solidarity work is open to those of all income levels.

Where your Money Goes

CASA operates on a shoestring budget of about $500 dollars per month per collective (Casa Chapulín in Oaxaca and Casa de la Paz in Chiapas), which includes the rent and bills for the collective spaces, the coordinators’ living stipends, financial aid (with an emphasis on supporting people of color, volunteers from developing nations, and low income volunteers), and supplies for collective projects. Some recent collective projects have included the construction of a composting toilet, urban agriculture workshops and the planting of a rooftop garden, and the compilation of a book of photography and testimonies of Oaxacans who have participated in the statewide social movement. A report of CASA’s annual expenses and income is available upon request.

Donate Goods

We are looking for:

• Technology, such as a laptops, networking gear, printers, digital cameras, video cameras, USB keychain drives, external DVD/CD Burners
• Books for our library (on Latin America, Mexico, Globalization, Privilege and solidarity issues, etc)
• Subscriptions to U.S. journals, such as the Economist, Foreign Affairs

Often, volunteers can help transport donated goods and thus avoid the somewhat unreliable Mexican postal system. Contact Us if you are considering donating an item.