From Protest to Prosperity: What May Day Means for Today’s Changemakers
May 1st has long stood as a symbol of collective power. Globally recognized as May Day, it honors labor movements and the enduring struggle for workers' rights. This year, it also carries new weight: Charles Schwab has officially dubbed it National Investing Day—marking 50 years since financial reforms that made investing more accessible to everyday people.
At first glance, these observances may seem unrelated. But for those of us working at the intersection of social impact, workforce development, and community reinvestment, this alignment is a timely invitation to reexamine how we are building equity not just in wages, but in wealth.
From Labor Rights to Liberation Economies
May Day is rooted in radical legacy. It commemorates the 1886 Haymarket protests in Chicago—where workers demanded an eight-hour workday and were met with violence. Their sacrifice gave rise to international labor solidarity, anchoring the modern labor rights movement.
But today’s struggle is not just about fair hours. It’s about fair futures.
For Black and Brown communities in particular, the conditions that created labor exploitation haven’t disappeared—they’ve morphed. Wage gaps persist. Job access remains uneven. And the racial wealth gap has widened, not closed.
As change agents and social sector practitioners, we can’t afford to treat workforce development as separate from economic justice. Career pathways, reskilling programs, and sectoral partnerships must be designed not just for placement—but for power. That means connecting the dots between income and ownership, employment and agency.
Community Reinvestment: Not Charity, but Correction
Community reinvestment is often discussed in terms of capital projects or compliance. But at its heart, it’s about redirecting resources into historically excluded neighborhoods in ways that generate long-term security, not temporary service.
This May Day, we’re called to deepen how we understand reinvestment—not as a handout, but as a reparative act. Let’s move beyond grantmaking cycles and toward investment mindsets—where returns are measured in generational stability, not just program outputs.
That includes:
Funding workforce pipelines that lead to leadership, not just entry-level work.
Prioritizing community-owned enterprises and BIPOC-led intermediaries.
Embedding power-sharing practices in how philanthropic dollars are distributed and who decides.
Notably, recent efforts to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)—a critical policy tool meant to hold financial institutions accountable to the communities they profit from—were years in the making. But just months after long-overdue updates were confirmed, they’re already being dismantled. These reversals reinforce what many of us in the field already know: progress is never guaranteed, and equity requires more than compliance. It demands courage, organizing, and investment in solutions rooted in community power.
Centering the Care Economy: Reclaiming Value at the Intersections of Labor
The care economy is a critical—yet consistently undervalued—pillar in this conversation. Predominantly powered by women, especially women of color, care work spans everything from child care and elder care to community health and mutual aid. These roles are essential to the functioning of our economy, yet they remain low-paid, unsupported, and structurally invisible. As we talk about workforce development and reinvestment, we must center the realities of those who perform this labor, often at the intersection of gender, race, and class. Investing in the care economy isn’t just about job creation—it’s about economic justice, cultural respect, and healing the very systems that continue to extract from marginalized communities. Philanthropy has a responsibility here: to elevate care as infrastructure, not charity, and to channel funding toward models that build power and sustainability for care workers and the communities they serve.
The New Relevance of Investing
Charles Schwab’s launch of National Investing Day highlights another under-addressed equity gap: access to capital. In 1975, when fixed commission rates were abolished, the doors to investing opened wider—but they didn’t swing open for everyone.
Today, most Black and Brown households are still underinvested, not because of lack of interest—but because of structural exclusion. Predatory lending, financial redlining, and limited inheritance create barriers to wealth-building.
That’s why investment readiness must become part of our toolkit as social impact leaders.
Whether through CDFIs, donor-advised funds, or program-related investments, we must build strategies that not only redistribute money—but regenerate it. We need to:
Educate nonprofit leaders and community organizers about vehicles for long-term financial sustainability.
Integrate financial empowerment into workforce programming and leadership pipelines.
Leverage philanthropy’s balance sheets as tools for reinvestment, not just disbursement.
What This Means for Us
May Day reminds us that change is hard-won. National Investing Day reminds us that access is not equity. Together, they present a critical reframe on the tools we need to shift power—whether workforce development, investing, or philanthropy—they must be wielded intentionally.
Let this be a call to action for funders, strategists, and changemakers alike:
Are we just funding jobs—or fueling just economies?
Are we building career ladders—or perpetuating ceilings?
Are we helping communities survive—or supporting them to thrive?
The answers matter. Because when we build systems that honor labor, redistribute resources, and support investment in community ownership—we move closer to the futures we say we believe in.
P.S. — Learn More and Support the Movement
Whether you’re a die-hard organizer or a newfound community advocate inspired by the moment, in addition to the referenced links throughout this article, here is a quick resource to go deeper and explore ways you can (un)learn and support the movement.