Hello friends,

Fundraising for The Rest of Us isn’t about surviving within a broken system. We are reshaping the system so more of us, with all our stories, lived experiences, and communities, get to participate in building what comes next.

Yes, this work is hard. You will be rejected. You will get ghosted. You will question yourself. But you will also experience the redemptive arc: the moment someone gets it, the moment a check clears, the moment you realize you’ve built something nobody can take away from you.

That’s why you keep going. That’s why you raise. That’s why you build.

This week, I want to share something I was inspired to write while working on the book. It’s a call to action, a manifesto. For The Rest of Us.

The Rest of Us: A Manifesto

We are The Rest of Us.
The underestimated. The overlooked.
The ones the system wasn’t built for.

We are not broken.
The system is.

We take pain and turn it into progress.
We see injustice and build solutions.
We are the redemptive arc of entrepreneurship.

We don’t exist to please gatekeepers.
We don’t shrink to fit outdated molds.
We don’t wait for permission.

We build.
We lead.
We raise.

We know that checks follow relationships.
That failure teaches as much as success.
That community makes us stronger.

We care less about convincing everyone.
We care more about building what matters.

Nobody is coming to save us.
And we don’t need saving.

We are reshaping entrepreneurship.
Rewriting the rules.
Redistributing power.

We are creating companies, communities,
and futures that reflect who we are.

Go raise. Go build. Go take up space.
We need you here.

And that, my friends, is the end of the previews from Fundraising for the Rest of Us.

But this isn’t the end of the book, or this newsletter. I’ll continue sharing what’s going on behind the scenes of writing, stories of founders who have been where you are, and advice for navigating it yourself.

I’ll also share book updates here. When it’s time to get this message out to the world, I’ll need your help amplifying it!

Thank you for being part of this journey with me. Until next time.

-Allison