MOVEMENT BUILDING

 

Effective social movements have brought about the most significant structural changes in the United States. From the labor movement to the civil rights movement to the women’s movement, it was the actions of people most impacted by social injustice that changed our nation’s legal, political and economic structures.

 

Social movements are defined by their ability to move large numbers of people to action to achieve structural and cultural transformation on a national or global scale. Engaging a diverse range of communities and approaches simultaneously, social movements unite people through shared strategy, shared principles and shared goals.

 

It is a common misconception that movements occur spontaneously. Though they usually require one or more spark event to emerge into the public eye, movements are always the result of decades of conscious and persistent grassroots movement building. Long before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that Montgomery bus, African Americans were mobilizing in communities throughout the South, and institutions like the Highlander Folk School were training a generation of organizers who would go on to provide crucial leadership in the civil rights movement.

 

It is easy to see the impacts that social movements have made on society, but the nuts and bolts of how movements are built are harder to see and often go unrecognized. At the Movement Strategy Center, we have developed a blueprint for building the progressive social justice movement by increasing the capacity of individuals, organizations, alliances and sectors to be more strategic, collaborative and sustainable.

 

MSC recognizes that a range of different strategies operating simultaneously is key to successful movement building. Our role is to work alongside base-building organizations to help align concurrent approaches with the power of shared strategy and vision. Our movement-building framework can be summarized by four key approaches:

 

  • At the individual level, we are developing a national leadership pipeline to train a new generation of alliance builders. MSC helps these individuals gain the skills to successfully bring organizations together to accomplish shared goals.

 

  • At the organizational level, we are strengthening the capacity of key social justice groups to increase their sustainability, organizing impact and ability to lead and participate in winning multi-racial coalitions.

 

  • At the sector level, we are building successful alliances within and between the justice sectors. These alliances will strengthen, consolidate and expand the efforts of existing fields and provide leadership for the larger progressive movement.

 

  • At the movement level, we are expanding the field of resources committed to social justice work by creating alignment between organizations and foundations around a shared movement building approach.

 

We believe that movements grow exponentially when organizations realize the limitations of what they can accomplish alone and begin to build deep partnerships with others to make meaningful impact. Please review our program areas to see a more detailed account of how the Movement Strategy Center is helping build the progressive movement.