Each May, the NAAFA Board works hard to recruit new members to our group of Passionate Ongoing Donors. This month, our goal is 150 people either joining the POD for the first time or increasing their donation amount. If we meet that goal, Lindsey Fowler, one of our most passionate donors, will give NAAFA a $15,000 bonus to support our mission to change perceptions of fat and to end size discrimination.

There are already over 200 members of the POD. All of our board members give to NAAFA in an amount that is meaningful and accessible to them, just as we hope others in our community will do. Here, members of Team NAAFA share why they give their time and money to NAAFA.

Here’s what they had to say:

*Amanda Cooper, Board Chair*

**Being comfortable and safe in our own bodies is among our most basic of human needs.** But fat people–me and people like me–are denied this comfort and safety daily: at the doctor's office, while traveling, at work, and at school. This has to change, not just for fat people but for all of us who are tortured by diet culture and the threat and fear of life in a fat body..

*Amanda Evans, Board Member*

My whole life, I’ve always been the fattest person in the room, and always been stigmatized for my fatness. From childhood bullying to lack of appropriate healthcare to exclusion from public spaces, I have suffered deeply from the anti-fatness that permeates our society. **I know the people in my life care about me, and so they want better things for me. I give, and I ask them to give, because fat rights, fat liberation, and fat justice are a way to get there.**

Darliene Howell, Administrative Director

When I found NAAFA in my 40’s, I found not only my community but my passion: fighting fat discrimination. I also found that marginalized people in other communities are disproportionately impacted by anti-fatness because of other biases and oppression in our culture. And NAAFA has been fighting for fat rights since 1969 — through advocacy, education, anti-discrimination work, and community-building.

*Dawn Clark, Board Member*

**Now more than ever, fat liberation is so vital.** The world is trying to shrink our bodies and does not care who it destroys. They are seeking to take away our joy, our being, and our very life if they have to. Fat community has given me so much and I would like it to continue to be able to give the world more.

*Francisca Moreno, NAAFA Governance Chair*

To be visibly fat and a member of the NAAFA board in itself is a testament to the beauty of community and taking up space. I want everyone to be free from oppression and am hopeful about a world where people can live happy, fatphobia-free lives. NAAFA is doing this work both through policy changes and a community focus, and I am so proud to be a part of that.

*Julianne Wotasik, Administrative Assistant*

Fat liberation is a cause that is incredibly close to my heart. As a superfat, disabled person, I very personally know that anti-fatness is harmful and even deadly. NAAFA has been fighting since 1969 to change the perceptions of fatness and to ensure that fat people are treated equally.

*Kat Redniss, Board Member*

We’ve worked, like a coven of soft, ferocious, ample-bodied witches, to shake diet culture off of our sturdy limbs, to cast spells of acceptance and inclusion, of representation. And yet, in 2026, they’re back to wanting to burn our bodies as examples of non-compliance. **NAAFA rejects the expectation of smallness, of control and restriction as law. NAAFA is here to stay. Let’s get wild and ferocious with our generosity!**

*Pucks A’Plenty, Board Member*

NAAFA is important to me because I get to **use my voice and speak up for those who may feel like their stories don't matter.**

*Tigress Osborn, Executive Director*

I learned about NAAFA when I was 18 years old, and for years before I got involved, it always remembered meeting Carrie Hemenway and hearing about how **there was this organization of people who weren’t afraid to just say that they were fat and who were out in the world trying to make things better for fat people.** I didn’t know then that one day I’d be the one unafraid of the F-word and trying to build a better world for fat people, but here I am, 33 years later, fighting the good fight! It is an honor and a privilege to do this work.

What about you? What about NAAFA’s work means the most to you? Whatever your answer, if you’re able to help fund our important work, join the NAAFA POD by June 1!.

Click here to join the POD