How to Beat a Bully: Ten Timely Lessons of Perseverance and Triumph After 10 Million Dollars Granted

Lessons from courageous people and nonprofits who have taken on Goliath - and won!

Amy Daniewicz, Impact Fund Grant Program Director

Welcome to the new sad chapter of our nation’s history. The storm that has been looming ominously on the horizon for so long is now swirling overhead. 

I hear you. I feel you. The idealism I felt as a child, reciting the pledge of allegiance with my hand on my heart, feels a long way off right now. But we’ve got to regroup. After you’ve binged a show or two, now is the time to drag yourself off the couch, pour yourself a cuppa, sort out your ergonomic situation, and roll up your sleeves. It’s time to get to work.  

You may be wondering: How should we respond? Where do we even start? After all, we’re a bunch of Davids trying to avoid being squashed by Goliath and his real-life Bond-villain cronies. Is there any hope, honestly? 

$10 MILLION GRANTED 

At the Impact Fund, we may not have been exactly here before, but we’ve witnessed an epic fight or two in our 33 years supporting impact litigation. In fact, we just passed a momentous milestone: $10 million granted to nonprofits, community groups, and public interest law firms taking on David v. Goliath struggles for the social good.  

Although the issues we support are diverse and wide-ranging, our grants all have one thing in common: we fund the underdog. These are people who are out-numbered, out-funded, out-everythinged… and still they find the courage to stand up for what they believe is right.  

So who better to listen to now, to turn to for inspiration and guidance, than the very people who have taken on powerful interests to fight for their freedoms — and actually figured out a way to beat the bully?  

Below are ten key lessons I’ve picked up from our brave and strategic grantees over the years. I hope you find these lessons helpful, whether you are organizing to challenge an injustice close to home, are involved in impact litigation yourself, or are simply in need of some inspiration in these trying times.  

1. Arm yourself with facts. 

Some Black Lives Matter protestors have been subjected to the same excessively violent treatment by police that they were protesting against.

As the underdog, the burden is on you to prove that you are right. The more you can back up your point of view with solid evidence, the harder it will be for others to disregard your perspective. Several of our grantees have used overwhelming evidence to successfully push back after unequal and unfair treatment by police toward Black Lives Matter protesters. These grantees include the National Lawyers Guild - Detroit and Michigan Chapter, Beldock Levine & Hoffman in New York, the Civil Liberties Defense Center in Oregon, Most & Associates in Louisiana, Disability Law United in Colorado, and the Law Offices of Rachel Lederman in California.  

In these examples, videos, social media posts, and other testimony have helped convince juries, judges, and members of the public that the system needs to change. The cases that have concluded so far have resulted in close to $20 million for the plaintiffs, including one $13 million settlement that is the largest amount ever awarded to protesters in a class action in the nation's history. 

2. Tell your story. Then tell it again. 

Winning hearts and minds in the court of public opinion can be the final push that tips you over to victory. One of our grantees, Our Children’s Trust, does a masterful job of working with the media to amplify the voices of young people fighting climate change through litigation. Their stories have appeared in media outlets ranging from The New York Times and TIME Magazine to Rolling Stone and Vogue, and they even have a documentary on Netflix. Even the scientific research Our Children’s Trust produces tells a gripping — albeit sobering — story of the dangers we will face if we do not take action to decrease carbon emissions soon.  

These stories, along with novel legal arguments and extensive scientific evidence, have helped Our Children’s Trust successfully convince judges and politicians about the importance of acting now to take on climate change. Their groundbreaking work has led to a historic victory in Montana and a landmark settlement in Hawaiʻi. 

The 2023 ruling enshrined into law science-based protections for children’s fundamental climate rights in Montana.

3. Root your work in community. Center the voices of those most affected. 

Many of the environmental justice organizations we support could teach a master class on this subject. Our grantees Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability in Central California and WaterLegacy in Minnesota are leaders in community-led litigation and advocacy. They work closely with the communities most affected by the injustices at hand, involving these communities at every step. They listen intently to fully understand the problem, then use what they learned to craft the solutions they seek.  

This process isn’t always easy; it requires the humility of someone who knows they don’t have all the answers and the patience to allow time for all voices to be heard. In the end, however, the effort pays off, as it ensures that the solutions achieved are solutions that actually work.  

4. Have the strength to look where others won’t. 

Sometimes, the Goliaths of the world use their money and power to keep their bad deeds hidden. Other times, they don’t need to go to such lengths because many people would rather look away; too often, we don’t want to see, as we are too busy with our own problems. But inhumane actions can occur when power imbalances become too great and insufficient oversight exists. It takes strength of moral character to look at these painful realities.  

Advocates for prisoners' rights have made live-saving gains.

Our grantees protecting the rights of foster children and challenging widespread abuses in prisons and immigration detention centers exemplify this strength. Their essential work often takes a great personal toll on the attorneys and advocates involved, but they are able to achieve life-saving gains for people in very vulnerable situations. Some of the many grantees we have supported in these areas include Children’s Rights, A Better Childhood, Florida Legal Services, the Worker Justice Center of New York, Mountain State Justice in West Virginia, the Transgender Law Center in Colorado, the Uptown People’s Law Center in Illinois, and the Promise of Justice Initiative in Louisiana.  

5. Think creatively. 

In a landmark ruling in federal court, a judge found that cow manure can harm public health.

Sometimes what has come before just won’t cut it, and you have to invent something new to achieve your goals. More than a decade ago, our grantee Public Justice had the creativity and pluck to argue that the concentrated levels of manure produced by giant factory farms in Yakima Valley, Washington, should be treated by law as toxic waste. While animal waste might seem like nothing more than a smelly nuisance, in high concentrations it becomes downright dangerous — contaminating drinking water, polluting the air, and harming the health of farmworkers and nearby communities.  

In a landmark decision, a judge agreed, and in the years since, grantees Center for Food Safety and Snake River Waterkeeper have built upon this ruling to challenge similarly dangerous manure contamination in Hawaiʻi and Idaho. 

6. Build new coalitions, and look for allies everywhere. 

We are stronger together. Going it alone is not always the strategic, or even feasible, solution. Many of our grantees have proven that pooling expertise and resources leads to a greater chance of success. In fact, most of our grantees come to us as part of a team. In some cases, national nonprofits partner with local community groups to pair deep issue-specific expertise with on-the-ground, real-time knowledge of the issue at hand. In other cases, nonprofits partner with firms that have class action experience, augmenting the nonprofits’ expertise with the class action knowledge needed to navigate the long legal battle ahead.  

Keep in mind that allies can pop up in surprising places — including the other side of the negotiating table. Even when you disagree with your opponent, you might share common ground (if only a sliver). It can help to try to see the current dilemma from the perspective of your opponent. Knowing both the wishes and the very real constraints of your opponent can put you both in the best possible position to find that elusive win-win solution. 

7. Dream big. 

In 2016, our grantee New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty represented workers who won a landmark court decision that found their exclusion from workers’ compensation was discriminatory and violated the state constitution.

With Goliath towering over you, it can be hard to dream big. But sometimes dreaming big is just what is needed — especially when you have righteous truth on your side. Two of our grantees, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Fair Work Center in Washington, did just that when they challenged unfair laws treating entire groups of workers differently from the rest. In New Mexico, farmworkers who were injured on the job couldn’t rely on workers’ compensation to pay for their medical bills, as other workers could. And even today, in Washington, live-in caregivers who work long hours are not entitled to overtime pay, rest breaks, or even minimum wage, as other workers are.  

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty won its case in a historic victory after the case was appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court, resulting in a sea change for the rights of farmworkers in the state. The Fair Work Center’s case is still ongoing but has had an early positive ruling: the judge found that live-in caregivers should receive the same protections from wage-and-hour laws as other workers in the state. Next, attorneys from the Fair Work Center will defend this win in front of the Washington Supreme Court.  

8. Persist in the face of overwhelming odds. 

If there ever was a case that embodied the David v. Goliath archetype, it would be the legal battle royale that ensued more than a decade ago over genetically modified corn in Mexico. To the Mexican nonprofits, farmers, Indigenous people, scientists, and beekeepers who came together to oppose global corporations Monsanto/Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, and DuPont, the issue was about more than food science. They were defending their right to plant the crops they wanted to plant, to maintain their cultural and Indigenous traditions, and to protect their communities from harmful toxic chemicals. 

“Preserving [corn] requires judicial action so that our next generations can enjoy their rights to food, health, and a healthy environment.” - Raúl Hernández Garciadiego

With the support and backing of our grantee Alternativas y Procesos de Participación Social, the collective held their own against the corporations’ massive legal teams. Amazingly, the collective’s efforts led to a nationwide ban on genetically modified corn. In 2023, the collective won the 2023 Pax Natura Award in recognition of their work; previous prizewinner Jane Goodall gave a speech to thank them for their perseverance.  

Today, the dispute continues, with a ruling from a trade-dispute panel that could end the ban, and in response, a vow by the Mexican president to pass a law that would make planting GM corn illegal in Mexico. Watch this space. 

9. Draw strength from your principles and values. 

The Indigenous communities we have funded — the Haida Nation, Heiltsuk Tribal Council, Wet’suwet’en First Nation, and Gitxaala Nation in British Columbia; the Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario; and the Chumash Peoples in California — show us the importance of grounding our work in our principles and values.  

The Impact Fund made a grant to the Council of the Haida Nation to support a case seeking Aboriginal rights and title claims over the islands of Haida Gwaii off the coast of British Columbia, Canada (pictured).

These groups have taken on uphill battles to gain the right to control and care for their land in accordance with their own values. Their efforts have resulted in substantial wins at both the California and British Columbia Supreme Courts, demonstrating that our inner convictions can serve as an endless source of fortitude to help us persevere to the very end. 

10. Never give up hope. 

A few of the cases we’ve supported represent the life’s work of the people involved. Massive cases that span decades, these epic battles show us what human determination and tenacity can produce. The attorneys and plaintiffs in these cases take up the mantle for issues much larger than themselves, and they never give up hope. (Well, I imagine that their hope falters from time to time, but they continue to show up the next day, and the day after that.)  

Two grantees that personify this commitment are the Brady Center and EarthRights International. In an ongoing lawsuit that began more than two decades ago, the Brady Center has been working year after year to confront the gun industry on behalf of Gary, Indiana, a city devastated by gun violence. This case is just one of many examples of the organization’s 50-year commitment to working for change on behalf of families hurt by gun violence. And recently, EarthRights International celebrated a historic victory for Colombian families whose relatives were killed by paramilitary death squads funded by the banana company Chiquita in the 1990s and early 2000s. After more than 17 years of litigation, a jury awarded more than $38 million to the families of the victims, the first time an American jury has held a major U.S. corporation responsible for serious human rights abuses in another country. Next, EarthRights will defend this victory on appeal.  

The perseverance and determination demonstrated by the attorneys and plaintiffs in these cases show us what people with conviction, grit, and hope can accomplish, despite having fewer resources. 

WEATHERING THE STORM TO ONE DAY REBUILD 

As the storm clouds gather around us, many questions hang heavily in the air. We wonder: What will become of the systems we have come to rely upon? How will my life change? We can’t shake the question that haunts us the most: What will happen to the least powerful among us, who already bear so much?  

The nonprofits, public interest attorneys, community groups, and plaintiffs from the examples above have much to teach us as we navigate this phase in our country's history. They all dug deep to find the courage and strength to speak truth to power. They thought creatively and strategically to achieve their goals. They stood arm in arm with their fellow community members and allies to become stronger than any one person or entity. And they did all this because they were playing the long game: dreaming big to take on deep-seated injustices and rebuild broken systems.  

While we respond to the challenges that are upon us, it helps to remember that humans have faced such mighty forces and persevered in the past. Today we must focus on keeping ourselves and those we love safe during the storm. When the day comes that the storm clouds recede, we can rebuild our systems to be better and more secure than they were before. In the meantime, may we look to this rich community of people and organizations as inspiration for how to stand strong when facing a bully — and triumph to tell the tale.