For decades, Dolores Huerta has stood as one of the most enduring and principled voices in American social movements. As co-founder of the United Farm Workers, she helped reshape labor rights, advance gender equity, and model what it means to stay with this difficult work for a lifetime.
Now, in an act of remarkable courage, Huerta, age 95, has disclosed about the sexual abuse she experienced from Cesar Chavez, a figure deeply revered by the very movement she helped build.
Her disclosure is not just personal. It is historic.
It forces a reckoning with a complex broader truth: that even our most celebrated movements have been shaped by power imbalances that harmed women, and often demanded their silence.
The Cost of Silence in Social Change Movements
Many women in social justice movements are required to live with a deeply problematic contradiction: they must fight for justice publicly while privately absorbing harm. Speaking out has often meant risking damage to the movement itself, to relationships, and to funding.
Huerta’s decision to speak now underscores something many women know deeply: truth does not expire.
And neither does the responsibility to hear it, honor it, and make restitution for it both inside and outside of social justice movements.
Why This Matters for Philanthropy
For philanthropy, this is a profoundly instructive moment.
Funders have historically supported movements without asking hard questions about internal culture, leadership accountability, or gendered harm. As a result, behavior within social movements has often been a replication of the very inequities those movements sought to dismantle.
Huerta’s truth calls on philanthropy to evolve.
It asks:
- Are we funding leadership models that are accountable to women?
- Are we investing in organizations that prioritize safety, transparency, and equity internally, not just externally?
- Are we willing to revisit legacy narratives when they obscure harm?
If philanthropy is serious about gender equity, it must be serious about confronting harm, even when it complicates sacrosanct cultural narratives.
Honoring Dolores Huerta: A Call to Action for Donors
The most meaningful way to honor Dolores Huerta is not through words alone, but through funding decisions that reflect the lessons of her experience.
Here are concrete ways donors can act:
1. Fund Sexual Assault Prevention.
We need more foundations like the Joyful Heart Foundation — funding vehicles that are specifically dedicated to resourcing sexual assault prevention. Further, these funders need to do more to support non-profits led by those directly impacted by sexual abuse and harassment. These leaders understand both the harm and the pathways to healing and prevention.
2. Invest in Internal Culture Change.
Provide unrestricted funding for organizations to build safer workplaces. This includes leadership training and accountability structures that protect women and marginalized staff.
3. Support Feminist Leadership Pipelines.
Back initiatives that cultivate women’s leadership across movements, ensuring that power is more equitably distributed.
4. Re-examine Legacy Giving.
Take a closer look at institutions and leaders historically supported. Ask whether funding has inadvertently upheld harmful dynamics. Redirect resources where needed.
5. Fund Narrative Change.
Invest in journalism, storytelling, and research that brings forward complex truths about social movements, including the experiences of women whose voices were sidelined.
A Legacy of Courage is Still Unfolding
Dolores Huerta’s life has always been about persistence — about showing up, again and again, for justice.
Her decision to speak now is a stunning continuation of that life story.
For philanthropy, the question is whether we are willing to meet her courage with our own.
Because honoring her life’s work means more than celebrating her past.
It means funding a future where no woman in a movement for justice is asked to trade her safety for the cause.
Your message is very important. Thank you!
Thank you, Heidi! I hope there is some real pause and reset that happens in philanthropy from Dolores Huerta’s bravery.
Thank you for bringing home some of the huge questions that philanthropists of all kinds need to answer and continue bringing into their grantmaking going forward.
I’m 72 and a long-time fan of Dolores Huerta. The table grapes boycott was the first time I challenged my parents to take a social justice stand.
I want to argue for a few additions to your list of actions that must be taken.
1. Sexual abuse is a catchall term and can be understood in many different ways. I think it’s more powerful to call out its many aspects including incest, molestation, sexual harassment and human sex trafficking. Calling out misogyny that doesn’t fall under the definition of sexual abuse must also be named. These are just some of the hard-to-eradicate roots that sexual abuse springs from and they must be confronted systemically, within families, and in ways that work in various cultural contexts.
2. Hugely increased funding of prevention is important. I argue that hugely increased funding of recovery from sexual abuse of all kinds is equally important. Some of the strongest challengers to our cultures of sexual abuse are those who have been able to recover from sexual abuse victimhood.
Thank you for considering my thoughts. Please keep writing about this in honor of Dolores Huerta and all the survivors of sexual abuse who are often anonymous.
Thanks for your thoughts and additions, Nancy! I appreciate your dedication to this issue.