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How was Bi-Co Mutual Aid created?

Bi-Co Mutual Aid began the summer of 2020. In the midst of a resurgence of Black Lives Matter protesting, and the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, mutual aid organizations were coming together across the country to provide resources and redistribute wealth. Multiple different students who helped to create BCMA were first in the Coalition for Black and Trans Economic Liberation, and one founding organizer describes that they would have “accountability chats” where they discussed wealth redistribution as a part of this. In these chats, students would post different calls for donations and support and tag other students in the chat, asking them to donate money. These chats started multiple students thinking on where their wealth was going. Another founding organizer described that there were “conversations that were happening around anti-racism and like resistance and racial justice during that time that really like brought to the forefront what like material solidarity looks like in political work”. From these broader conversations and chats, a group chat was formed with Bi-Co students who were interested in thinking about mutual aid at Haverford and Bryn Mawr. One founding organizer describes that there was “inherent flaws to that like process in terms of the fact that, like, it was definitely just like people that [they] were friends with on some level, um, but yeah, thus began a like, long process of trial and error, basically” to work on creating Bi-Co Mutual Aid.

In August of 2020, the group started meeting and creating a Venmo, request form, and an Instagram. They published a survey asking Bi-Co students what resources they can provide, which included options for grocery store runs, gender affirming clothing donations, borrowing cars, and more. A founding organizer describes the initial thoughts on BCMA as them being “interested in having, like, more broad forms of material aid than just like dollar redistribution, and thinking about things like grocery shopping for people, or car rides and various things like that, and like, unfortunately, a lot of that didn't really pan out largely, and it did really mostly turn into a like material support in the form of dollars”. During this period, though, BCMA had a list in its drive of people who had signed up for different forms of volunteering or aid, with the idea that if someone requested non-monetary aide, an email could be sent to those who had signed up and ask for their help. 

The Bi-Co Mutual Aid Venmo began accepting funds and requests during the start of September of 2020, and organziers from that period discuss that they were still figuring out what this would mean, but they were able to raise a few thousand dollars and meet multiple requests. It was during this time, too, that the group was thinking about and brainstorming its initial policies, which a founding organizer describes that they wanted to have "genuine, intentional, like, focus and understanding of, like, anti racism and racial dynamics when it comes to, like, material distribution of wealth and like that doesn't mean and like that that can mean a lot of different things”. The group didn’t set out strict policies or rules around who could request and who could contribute, but wanted to keep this intentions in mind. 

During these first few months of BCMA, the main tactics that they relied upon were engaging with the Bi-Co community, tabling, posting events, and talking to people about the group. In the first few months, as of October 28 2020, BCMA had raised $11,251 and distributed $10,327 (Instagram post, October 2020). The main tactics to fundraise at the time were through Instagram posts on requesting funds, posting weekly updates, and information on other mutual aid and bail funds in Philadelphia. 

At the end of October and start of November in 2020, there was a student-led strike at Haverford College. This strike took place after an email from the President and Dean of Haverford, in response to the murder of Black man, Walter Wallace Jr, by Philadelphia police. This email initiated a reckoning with the long history of white supremacy and racism upheld by the administration and institution of Haverford. The organizers of the strike, which includes the Women of Color House, Black Students Refusing Further Inaction, and the Black Student League, sent out an email asking students to “disrupt the order” and stop going to classes, jobs, and extracurriculars. In this first email, they also asked students to contribute to Bi-Co Mutual Aid. Within 48 hours, BCMA had over $70,000 in its Venmo account. This was the first time most Bi-Co students were learning about BCMA, and an organizer from that time discusses that they "think a lot of people think that BCMA started at the strike, which it didn't, but it's like a totally fair kind of understanding” given how much more attention it suddenly received. Another organizer, when asked about the strike and BCMA, said that “the impact of the strike cannot be understated”. In multiple interviews with members that were there for the strike, they talked about the difficulty of having so much more money than they expected during this moment, and not knowing what to do with it. In conversations with strike organizers, they decided to set up a form for low income and BIPOC students to request compensation to fill in for the wages that they lost while participating in the strike. For the most part, though, a lot of the funds went to students for housing, medical, and tuition costs. Eventually, BCMA had to set up an additional Venmo account because of the amount of funds that they were receiving, and after a few days, asked students and supporters of the strike to direct their money to other mutual aid organizations in Philadelphia that also needed support (Instagram post, October 31). The strike officially ended on November 11 2020, but student organizers, and members of BCMA continually discussed the ongoing work that the strike necessitated. The group of BCMA organizers at the time was predominantly white, and the white organizers would sometimes meet separately to talk how their whiteness affected their space and impact on the work that BCMA was doing. In the notes from these meetings, organizers talked about different ways to understand white supremacy culture and how it shows up in their own lives in how BCMA operates, communicating to ensure that who is doing the labor of the group doesn’t have to equal who is the leader of the group. BCMA has roots in the strike and in anti-racist work that are critical to its continuing mission.

Logistically, BCMA has continually used Slack, a bank account, a Venmo account, Instagram, and its request form to operate. During its first year, they also consistently publicized “ticket tuesdays” on their Instagram which included different resources that students could “purchase” tickets for by contributing to BCMA. One example was accepting contributions for an hour-long natal reading by another Bi-Co community member. The group also tabled at different events around the school, partnered with other organizations in the Bi-Co, and made announcements at Plenary. After redistributing funds raised during the strike, BCMA started to continually have low funds. By May of 2021, the group was continually running low on funds, and posted a “bingo” card with different privileges and asked students to contribute a certain amount of money based on how many of those economic privileges applied to them. In this post, they also discuss the “contribution fatigue” that seems to be happening, as it had proven so much more difficult to get funds in the past few months. Organizers at the time discussed that they would often be very direct in asking community members for contributions. This was addressed, too, in an FAQ that former members of BCMA made, in which they ask and answer the question: “Why does BCMA guilt trip students who have money?” The written response to that question is that their “intention is not to “guilt trip” students. Guilt is an inevitable consequence of reckoning with privilege. Guilt is not in itself productive, but is also sometimes useful for an end. If you find yourself feeling guilty about the money you were born into, lean into it. Unpack the emotion and ask yourself where that comes from– and then send funds! Guilt should give way to an understanding of the way the world functions” (FAQ document).

BCMA continued to post bingos, as well as weekly updates, and reviewed and published a mission statement in the following months. In this original mission statement, which has since been revisited and updated, they defined mutual aid as Mariame Kaba and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez put it in their Mutual Aid Tool Kit, “mutual aid means that we understand our survival depends on cooperation, not competition” (Mission Statement Document). They also defined their commitment to giving funds to other organizations as of the Fall of 2021 in their mission statement. This commitment was shown in their posts tagging other organizations, as well as uplifting fundraising efforts from people outside of the Bi-Co. During this time, members of the group also created databases documenting a sample of requests and what they were requesting for, how much they requested, and how frequently. These graphs gives insight into what BCMA members were responding to at the time. The highest money requested was typically for medical bills, and then housing. Medical bills were also the most frequently requested (graphs are shown below). Multiple different databases were used during this time of BCMA, including a money transparency database that showed every contribution to BCMA and every amount that BCMA sent out. The money transparency document anonymized the contributor and requester names and personal information. 

Kane, Brisa. "How Do We Care: Mutual Aid Organizing on a College Campus". Haverford College. May, 2025. Data collected from interviews with former organizers who are anonymized.