As we bid farewell to the winter chill and embrace the vibrant spirit of spring, we find ourselves at the threshold of new beginnings. Spring is not just the blossoming and greening of the world outside our windows but the rejuvenation of our own spirits. It’s a time for growth, renewal, and the promise of brighter days ahead. However, amidst this season of hope, we must acknowledge the challenges that continue to shape our world in communities worldwide, including those in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo.

As a movement intermediary support organization dedicated to equitable services, we play a vital role in channeling resources to frontline communities. Our deep commitment to driving meaningful change is central to our mission, and we are proud to showcase the innovative methods our partners use to challenge and reshape the status quo. Over the course of the winter months, the MSC ecosystem has been abuzz with exciting events and achievements. Read on for some highlights. Stay informed with our newsletter and connect with us on social media so you don’t miss a moment of inspiration. 

 

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After Incarceration Goes to Selma
Jose Pineda, and the collective of emerging leaders at After Incarceration, recently undertook an inspiring journey from New York to Selma, AL. There, they delved into a five-day Kingian Nonviolence Training with Dr. Bernard Lafayette at the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation. Their journey stands as a powerful testament to their commitment to shaping a world where nonviolence lights the way to unity, justice, and mass liberation.

MSN Members Create Art for Palestine
Beloved Communities Network and Wakanda Dream Lab cohosted Solidarity for Palestine, an art activism event, along with the Palestinian Feminist Collective in Oakland, CA. Interactive gallery art from Wakanda Dream Lab and Palestinian artists provided inspiration for poster-making as an act of solidarity.

Brown Boi Project Creates Change in the Big Easy 
Brown Boi Project co-hosted a caucus space at Creating Change in New Orleans, LA. Together with Gender Justice LA, they held space for masculine BIPOC organizers, artists, activists, cultural workers, and community builders. These supportive spaces allow for critical dialogue about gender and leadership development where transformation occurs. 

Vision | Power | Solutions is Back
Facilitating Power, alongside NACRP, hosted and curated another session of the VISION | POWER | SOLUTIONS — an online workshop series focusing on building our collective capacity for community-driven planning and solutions for racial and climate justice. The second workshop of the 2023-24 run featured presentations from Colin Miller and Marybelle Tobias from Environmental / Justice Solutions and discussed community-driven planning in action. 

Focus on the Farm Bill
HEAL Food Alliance launched their Farm Bill blog series, where they dive into how the Farm Bill can prioritize communities over corporations. The series is also key to understanding how the Farm Bill impacts us all, whether or not we work in food or farming.

SheStories Sizes Up 
BIG We Foundation expanded their SheStories grant program, and selected six grantees from an overwhelming 400 applicants, in order to support projects by Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Multiracial, and femme-identifying womxn in storytelling for social change. The overwhelming response led to two additional $15,000 grants, funded by Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates Company.

 

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LREP Retreats to the Dominican Republic 
Latinx Racial Equity Project (LREP) recently held its annual staff retreat in the Dominican Republic, where they encountered the femme deities of Santa Marta and Anacaona — powerful symbols for Black and Indigenous people within Latinidad. They also evaluated their 2023 accomplishments, learned from local organizers, and planned to support grassroots allies on the island and across Latin America. Energized, they now aim to engage in narrative change work and expand training offerings, inviting the Latine community to join them in considering shared responsibilities and pathways towards solidarity.

New Leadership at PWN
Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN) welcomed two new co-directors, Marnina Miller and Keiva Lei Cadena. Miller, a highly accomplished human rights activist, has been part of PWN’s Greater Houston chapter and served on their Board of Directors since 2018. Cadena, a nationally recognized activist, and a Native Hawaiian cultural practitioner, is a graduate and faculty member of PWN’s R.I.S.E. (Resist, Inspire, Sustain through Education) Gender Justice Training Academy. We are confident they will lead PWN into a future filled with unwavering support for women living with HIV. 

New Ways to Engage
Resonance Network has been blending community engagement with fundraising, hosting memorable in person events such as a trivia night that brought diverse groups together for an evening of camaraderie and knowledge. Continuing this creative streak, they’re now gearing up for a unique pilates fundraiser in Washington D.C. These events support Resonance Network’s commitment to building community and fostering inclusive support through imaginative and engaging activities. 

A Monthly Reminder Rooted in Love
Thrive Network launched Rooted in Love, a monthly membership community of practice. The forward thinking program is aimed at fostering a sense of belonging and prosperity with monthly resources and insights from distinguished visionaries plus both in-person and virtual community gatherings for members. 

Congrats Nicole Lee and UPM
Nicole Lee from Urban Peace Movement (UPM) has recently been recognized with the prestigious 2024 O2 Sabbatical Award. This well-deserved accolade celebrates her dedication over the last quarter century to the racial justice movement in Oakland, CA. Lee remarked on the importance of this sabbatical to her — “I currently live on the edge of burnout and have done so for over two decades.” Congratulations on this period of rest and reflection.

And Right Here at MSC

A Woman of the Year Among Us 
Sending a wave of congratulations to Jacqui Patternson, MSC board member and co-founder of the Sandbranch Revitalization Fund, and founder of the Chisholm Legacy Project. She has been recognized by Time Magazine as one of their Women of the Year and Earth Award recipient.

Welcome to Our Newest FSPs and Board Member
We welcomed three new fiscally sponsored projects, Art.coop, Justice Capital, and Proximate. And Errika Moore, project director at STEM Funders Network, joined our board, representing the interests of MSC’s FSPs.

New Landing Page Alert
We launched our new website landing page! It offers a richer experience for our visitors and a gateway to thoroughly explore the MSC ecosystem. To read a bit about the process, visit the Move Blog.

What the DAF?
We also launched a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), read a bit more about what a DAF is and why ours is so unique on the blog.  

Year in Review
Don’t miss MSC’s 2022–2023 annual report.

Want your happening or achievement included in the next Community Chronicles, in our newsletter, across our social media channels, or in a feature blog? Shoot us an email!

In late 2023, MSC launched the Movement Strategy Center Donor Advised Fund (DAF) program, allowing individuals, families, companies, private foundations, trusts, and other entities to invest their assets toward building community wealth and power for leaders on the frontlines of racial, gender, and environmental justice movements.

For those who don’t know, a DAF is a charitable investment giving vehicle that allows donors to fund their accounts by making charitable contributions, receive an immediate U.S. income tax deduction, and recommend grants over time. In 2022, DAF assets were valued at $228.89B, with contributions increasing by 9% over the previous year, and $52.16B disbursed in grants from DAFs. Traditionally, these are mostly commercial DAFs that compound wealth within corporate institutions where DAF advisers are incentivized to increase the value of assets rather than rapidly disbursing cash to communities in need. And therein lies the problem — these charitable funds “have been used as a vehicle for wealth hoarding and virtue signaling while retaining all control over decisions about where philanthropic dollars go.”

But MSC’s program upends everything you think you know about Donor Advised Funds. MSC has envisioned a radical new approach that unleashes the true potential of DAFs and honors intent and partnership between donors and the causes they support. MSC’s DAF model supports more equitable and inclusive giving to historically excluded communities, and moves short and intermediate term catalytic capital investments directly to the grassroots. Crucially, members of the MSC DAF community commit to a minimum distribution from their DAFs of 25% annually in recommended grants while being encouraged to use their full fund for giving and investing, thereby guaranteeing a high level of deployment and mobilization for impact.

MSC’s DAF program was launched amid feedback from supporters like Chad Dyer, an aspiring capital activist and longtime supporter and partner of MSC. Dyer likens an MSC DAF to an “easy button” that allows donors to leverage their money and advance change without having to figure out “some new thing that nobody ever thought of; it’s not about starting another foundation.”

He acknowledges “there are smart people who’ve been doing this much longer than me … [MSC] has experience, they’ve been doing this a long time, they’re also very welcoming and open and not using their expertise as a way to exclude people.” In other words — as an organization with a history that spans nearly a quarter century, MSC has the credibility, tools, and partnerships in place to help get this critical funding to communities and organizations that are working, every day, to support a more equitable society.

Having made a commitment to the Good Life Pledge together with his wife, Dyer underscores that MSC has “an opinionated view of what transformation looks like, and if this view of a just world resonates with you, then [they] can help you support it. This goes across birth justice and racial justice and economic justice and climate justice; MSC will help you accelerate a Just Transition.”

In contrast to traditional DAFs, MSC’s program presents a number of solutions to some of the challenges that philanthropists and impact investors encounter when looking for deeper impact and more meaningful engagement. Traditional commercial DAFs leave the responsibility of figuring out how best to fund transformative change to donors — which can be overwhelming. MSC, however, brings years of social transformation experience, perspective, insight, and community accountability to the equation and applies a justice lens to our DAF investment policy, disbursals, and operations that actively mitigate barriers to those who have historically limited access to philanthropy.

Additionally, donors can feel limited in their impact if their cash sits in a traditional DAF account. MSC encourages DAF donors to advise distributions in a way that rapidly moves funds out to organizations and movements that address and combat societal inequities. To facilitate such movement of funds, MSC applies a 25% minimum annual distribution requirement to all DAFs, and encourages donors to advise annual distributions beyond the applicable minimum. This 25% threshold is inline with grant payout rates among DAFs at other single-issue charities comparable to MSC — according to National Philanthropic Trust’s 2023 DAF Report, such average grant payout rates between 2018 and 2022 were 31.4%.

Meanwhile, the fees charged by typical DAFs can often feel misaligned, supporting financial institutions rather than a Just Transition. Not at MSC, where DAF fees amplify our transformative work as a trusted, BIPOC-led, community-accountable steward of the progressive movement ecosystem. All fees are fully aligned with the change donors are working to catalyze by supporting innovation and infrastructure for our activist partners.

Finally, and most significantly, donors can feel their experiences of traditional DAFs can be transactional and unfulfilling. At MSC, DAF donors will have relational access with movement leaders, ecosystem stewards, other capital stewards, community stewards, and communities. And, to better support donors in achieving their philanthropic goals, MSC and our capital partners will provide programming for DAF donors that will shed light on equitable grantmaking strategies and provide updates from MSC grantees. MSC will truly allow donors to be a part of the impact journey.

Whereas MSC is not a registered investment advisor, asset manager, or tax advisor, we are delivering cutting edge solutions by forging powerful capital partnerships with leading organizations that are committed to investing in justice and building community wealth. Partnerships with Full Spectrum Advisors and Adasina Social Capital help us steward both public and private market investments within our DAF ecosystem, enabling donors to advance a full spectrum capital approach — aligned with their passions and investment goals — to drive impact through grants, recoverable grants, loans, guarantees, and equity investments.

Simone Champagnie, a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) who joined MSC in early 2024 as our first ever Director of Individual Giving, calls the MSC DAF an “opportunity for philanthropists who desire to move from bystander to activist.” She continues, “in making the decision to open an MSC DAF account, donors are choosing and trusting MSC, our ecosystem, and our partners to be part of their own social justice philanthropy journeys.” Agreeing with Dyer, Champagnie acknowledges “MSC’s commitment to a radical shift in philanthropy” will help donors “realize their vision, activate their resources, and together make impact.”

At the end of the day, the MSC DAF offers a new way of being for capital stewards and community stewards. It allows donors access to a vetted ecosystem of movers and movements, unique programming and educational opportunities, and a way to catalyze change that is bigger than writing a check — it’s a way for donors to be a part of their own impact investing story. As Dyer tells it, the MSC DAF program is “about getting into community with other capital stewards who are on similar paths and getting into relationships with communities in a way that is very reciprocal — shared liberation versus the hierarchical aspects of traditional philanthropy.” For him, being a part of MSC’s DAF “can solve this almost spiritual problem facing capital stewards.”

At Movement Strategy Center, our dedication to language as a transformative tool recently inspired a significant update to our Glossary and Terms to Avoid webpage — an in depth resource for definitions and terms to avoid within the Transformative Movement Building space.

This inspiration came from an insightful email from Edward Strickler — retired from the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, and a proud resident of rural Virginia. He highlighted a critical gap in the first version of this resource — the underrepresentation and misunderstanding of terms relating to rural America. He pointed out the issue of “structural urbanism” and how that can colonize and overshadow rural communities, “both culturally and economically.” He explained that this erasure — whether implicit or explicit — is yet another symptom of “extractive capitalism.”

His feedback set us on a path of thoughtful reflection and revision. We aimed to broaden our language to encompass a wider array of perspectives, integrating the principles of a Just Transition as a values filter. One suggestion from Strickler was to include derogatory terms that unfairly categorize rural residents without acknowledging the diversity of their occupations and locations to foster a more inclusive and respectful dialogue. 

Strickler also challenged us to rethink our approach to discussing the economy and poverty.  Inspired by his insights, we revised our glossary to avoid oversimplified terms. We replaced “Income Gap” with “Income Inequality,” “Wage Inequality,” “Racial Income Inequality,” and “CEO/Worker Pay Gap” for a clearer depiction of financial inequities. Though not exhaustive, our goal was to ensure our glossary not only promotes economic, racial, and social equity but also honors diversity.

Our updates were a significant undertaking. We examined and re-evaluated each term for its impact and alignment with our values. We sought inspiration from resources such as the Center for Community Organizations’ guide on White supremacy culture in organizations and the National Center on Disability and Journalism, which offers a comprehensive disability language style guide. These sources were instrumental in helping us create a glossary that is more than just words and definitions. We feel it is a dynamic, evolving tool that mirrors our ongoing journey of understanding and adapting to the changing dynamics of the world we inhabit.

We also explored our greater ecosystem, uplifting key terms, definitions, and context that resonate with our values. This exercise involved breaking down complex concepts into accessible language and is reflective of diversity within our community.

When it came to updating the design of the glossary, we started with how users navigate and experience the page, evolving the design to deliver more clarity and accessibility. Visual dividers and clear titles separate each section making the page more readable, digestible, and searchable. This redesign coincides nicely with our brand new Why MSC? website landing page, where similar grids were used to increase functionality and clarity (you can read more about the design process of Why MSC? here.) 

Our glossary update is a big step in our mission as a values filter, helping to connect funders and movement leaders in the pursuit of a Just Transition. This shift towards more inclusive language and a more accessible design, inspired by Strickler’s observation that “small changes … Can lead to larger changes, more broadly,” truly hits home. It’s about more than words or design; it’s about creating a shared understanding that bridges different perspectives. We see this effort as a key part of our ongoing journey — one where we constantly strive for deeper understanding and equity, always remembering that every voice is important, and every word has the power to bring us closer together. 

Back in 2022, Carla Dartis, MSC’s Executive Director, asked us to consider adding a DEI page to MSC’s website. Honestly, we — MSC’s small Communications Team — were taken aback by the request. DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, “encompasses the symbiotic relationship, philosophy and culture of acknowledging, embracing, supporting, and accepting those of all racial, sexual, gender, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds, among other differentiators,” per InclusionHub. Yes, DEI within organizations is crucial — but MSC, in a way, is DEI. 

As defined by our Mission, MSC is an equitable movement support organization that provides infrastructure and thought partnership “for BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ movement leaders, activists, and communities challenging intersectional issues of systemic racism, rampant environmental destruction, and crippling economic exploitation.” And our Vision conjures “a world of interdependence, liberation, and resilience — where the many govern for the benefit of all.”

Behind the flowery language, our small staff is a DEI stock photo of race, sexuality, geography, and background led by an all women of color senior leadership team. Likewise, the leadership and staff of the many organizations we work with are the picture of diversity. And all of us — from our core staff to our extended ecosystem of partners — are working, in different ways, in support of social justice, racial equity, movement building, and a Just Transition. DEI is embedded in our ethos; we can’t relate to some heteropatriarchal organization that forces its human resources teams to invent a front-facing DEI program to create a virtue signaling veneer for fed up employees and idealistic jobseekers.  

All that said, what would a DEI-focused page on MSC’s website even look like? Or contain? 

We talked about it for months but kept coming back to this idea that MSC is DEI. But why? And how do we do a better job of sharing that we are living and working DEI every day? With that, Why MSC? was born.

Why MSC? is what we are calling our brand new landing page, over a year in the making. Launched at the very end of 2023, Why MSC? is more than a blurb, a donation plea, and a series of links (which was the whole of our old landing page). It’s more like your Netflix home screen — it’s all right there: you can peek into the whole of our ideas, partnerships, and resources. You can get lost in it — you’ll find featured partners as well as easy links to access all our partners. You’ll find our beautiful staff. You’ll find shortcuts to our robust social media channels, to our mission and vision, our annual report, and — of course — a plea to donate. And you’ll find some of the stuff that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle — our videos, our essay series on Shifting Philanthropy, and our Q&As with ecosystem movement leaders we so admire. Best of all, it will allow us to easily update featured components.

You will find Diversity; you will find Equity; you will find Inclusion. Because MSC is DEI. 

The design was inspired by a series of disparate websites across disparate industries that employed a sort of grid to differentiate different sections, links, and ideas. The sites we looked at — there were many — were dynamic, graphic, and playful. More importantly, those grids made updating sections very simple. We look forward to swapping our featured partners, resources, blogs, videos, and photos regularly — to keep things fresh and share as much of the critical work our partners are doing as we can. All of this was possible with the help of our friends at Agenda28 who worked with us to develop Why MSC? over many months and many iterations.

We couldn’t be happier with the result. Especially with DEI — all the good, and all the virtue signaling — under attack in the wake of last June’s Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action. Please check it out and check it often. And let us know if you have any feedback.        

Originating from Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Texas, MSC’s Advancement team converged in the hills of Oakland, CA for their first in-person retreat. Meeting together in person for the first time helped the team form deeper connections between themselves and MSC’s history and mission.

The team, which includes Development, Philanthropic Services, and Communications personnel, began their conversations with icebreakers about remote working habits, challenges, and preferences before moving on to team-building workshops designed to bring into focus how each individual can contribute to the Advancement Team’s strategic goals.

Led by Lidia Alvarez, MSC’s Communications Manager, these workshops included this video of MSC’s Vice Chair and Co-Founder, Taj James and the use of the Movement Building Practice: Leading With Vision & Purpose workbook, one of MSC’s foundational resources. “Facilitating the Advancement team retreat was a truly meaningful experience, allowing us to delve deeper into our 100-year vision and explore how it aligns with our shared ideals of collective liberation. Witnessing the team’s unwavering enthusiasm and dedication towards our long-term goals was truly inspiring,” noted Alvarez.

On the second day of their retreat, the team traveled across the Bay to the heart of San Francisco for a day of shared meals, a museum exhibit, and further team-building conversations. After breakfast at a local cafe, the team made their way to Golden Gate Park and the de Young Museum for its current exhibition: Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence. This exhibit contains the artist’s signature, larger-than-life paintings and bronze sculptures depicting contemporary Black men and women set within historical tableaus. Wiley’s work is breathtaking, and is a comment on the realities of colonialism and systemic racism.

Moved by the exhibit, the Advancement Team reconvened just outside the de Young and continued their team-building conversations from the day prior. Later, they made their way through Golden Gate Park to the Conservatory of Flowers before sitting down to a farewell dinner.

As the MSC ecosystem continues to grow, its internal teams grow as well. By meeting in person for retreats such as this, teams develop strong, authentic relationships and can better support MSC’s core infrastructure, partners and grantees, as well as MSC’s vision and intention to create equitable systems in philanthropy.

Every degree of warming intensifies the risk of species extinction, highlighting the urgency of addressing climate change. As we watch the weather report on any given day, the unfolding realities of our changing climate become strikingly evident — the record highs in Portland, Boise, and Salt Lake City juxtaposed against unprecedented cold on the East Coast are stark reminders that our weather patterns are shifting in real time. The implications of these extremes cannot be ignored, it’s as if nature is pleading for our attention. It is a resounding wake up call, urging us to acknowledge the pressing need to address climate change and foster a sustainable future for generations to come.

These shifting weather patterns are amplifying pressing societal issues — homelessness is on the rise, thanks in part to soaring rent and food prices. It is heartbreaking to see how these issues exacerbate the number of lives lost to both scorching heat and bitter cold. But of course food prices are going to rise when agricultural states like California grapple with drought followed by record flooding and how that impacts food production. Taken together, it’s impossible to deny the interconnected nature of climate change, social inequity, and economic disparity. Especially among Black and Indigenous communities which continue to struggle against remnants of colonialism that perpetuated economic and social inequities. 

We find ourselves at a critical crossroads, where addressing these intersectional challenges requires not just environmental action but a profound examination of systemic issues within philanthropy. A timid or half-hearted response is simply not enough.

Taj James, one of Movement Strategy Center’s founders, believes “the only solutions are real solutions.” At MSC, that comes down to a fair and equitable society, one that moves away from an extractive economy and embraces ecologically sustainable livelihoods, democratic governance, and ecological resilience. Now is the time to invest in a Just Transition that boldly paves the way towards a cleaner, more resilient future that leaves no one behind and addresses past injustices. 

While Big Philanthropy understands the value of organizations that believe in this way forward, the powers that be often fail to invest significant resources in helping such organizations scale up their operations for broader impact. That’s why it’s so important to not only give generously but rethink the ways funds are distributed. 

Funding was generous during the COVID-19 pandemic — there was a surge of much needed unrestricted funding for general operating support. But, much of that funding came in the form of a one year grants. Those one year grants have expired; and the pandemic has more or less ended. As writer Imani Barbain now notes, the end of the pandemic only signals the end of support. Those one year grants fell short of providing holistic and infrastructural support to organizations, and such limited support can leave organizations unchanged or, worse, in an even more precarious situation with limited alternative options. This is an episodic support model that jeopardizes sustainability and cannot move the needle in terms of the societal and climate challenges ahead.

We call this a scarcity mindset and it stems from a patriarchal system where donors often doubt the ability of organizations to efficiently utilize funding and limits the sort of unrestricted support grassroots organizations need to keep the lights on. Another often unspoken issue is that many donors are often driven by peer recognition which can keep money from leaving a donor’s network and does more for that person’s social status than for any grassroots organization. 

Yet, a shift is underway as more philanthropic organizations recognize that their funding structures must become more equitable and will require relationship-centered change management, investment in infrastructure — essential resources, systems, and capacity-building initiatives, and a willingness to rise to new and surprising challenges. 

For over 20 years, MSC has worked toward normalizing a more equitable and relationship-oriented philanthropic construct that nurtures an ecosystem of effective activism built on supporting a Just Transition. Practically, MSC believes in the importance of releasing funds to fully support programs and infrastructure while moving away from a scarcity model of episodic giving. And, crucially, we believe in creating sustained long term relationships that support those best able to improve lives at the intersection of climate and social justice.

We need to start with the backbone of movement work: the folks on the frontline, the activists and organizers who, unfortunately, are rarely well paid. Those closest to the ground organizers are paid even less, and this disparity becomes even more pronounced along race and gender lines which perpetuate systemic inequities. It is not uncommon for those dedicating themselves to the most impactful work to earn less than a living wage, forcing them to juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet.

“For most nonprofit employees, work is about much more than money. People want to make an impact beyond themselves, to do good. Yet our society repays their civic commitment by paying them less than they’re worth and expecting them to be satisfied. At a minimum, we need to better honor their contribution by giving them the tools they need to succeed,” says Peter Manzo, executive director of the Los Angeles based Center for Nonprofit Management. Philanthropy must also consider how class shapes perceptions and values around work and pay, and grapple with how those theorizing and strategizing about movement work are paid more than those actually doing the work. At the end of the day, every individual — whether they’re making our world a better place from the ground or the conference table — deserves to receive a fair and just wage that sustains a decent standard of living.

There is no valid justification for not operating from a place of abundance and collaboration in philanthropy. In their altruistic effort to be frugal, many donors withhold investment in crucial infrastructural areas such as talent, strategy development, research, evaluation, technology, and relationship building, as highlighted by Forbes. This reluctance also extends to their grantees, setting arbitrary limits on nonprofit overhead while expecting results without providing adequate funding for evaluation tools. These tendencies of destructive frugality are explored in Kris Putnam-Walkerly’s book Delusional Altruism: Why Philanthropists Fail To Achieve Change and What They Can Do To Transform Giving.

Further, there is an artificial governance that requires private foundations to give out just five percent of their endowment each year. But why can’t these institutions embrace abundance and go beyond this mandate which leaves 95 percent of funds in an account somewhere? Further, why can’t endowments borrow against their assets to have even more funds to give away? 

The rich know how to use financial markets to grow their fortunes. They should be encouraged to do the same thing to grow their charitable trusts — especially if they are hoarding such a large percentage of it. Doing so could increase the size of their grants, change how those grants are distributed, and shift what that money can be used for. 

Despite this, Kathy Moore, MSC’s Senior Director of Advancement, is hopeful and believes we should “embrace the power of abundance.” She says “the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors can operate from a place of abundance — and in fact, by operating from this place, we unlock a realm of boundless creativity, daring experimentation, and courageous risk taking. It is through this audacious stance that we can unearth genuine solutions capable of transforming our systems and culture at their core.”

We remain optimistic that trends are shifting. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) recent examination of MacKenzie Scott’s grantees finds emerging empirical data indicating that when nonprofits receive large, unrestricted grants, the effects are “dramatically and profoundly positive.” Scott, philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is not alone: the Ford Foundation continues to commit billions of flexible dollars in unrestricted grants including MSC’s BUILD Grant. Launched in 2016, it was intended to bolster MSC’s long term capacity to dismantle inequality and it proudly emphasized the importance of “unrestricted funding combined with dedicated institutional development” for stronger and more resilient organizations of all structures, sectors, and sizes. Programs like the BUILD Grant are a good first step, but philanthropy should consider even longer term continued investment to ensure that the building phase can be maintained and organizations can remain stable well beyond the development and implementation phases.

Take, for instance, our partnership with the JPB Foundation. Launched in 2019, the foundation awarded MSC $3.5 million over three years for “Building Bold Environmental Health Movements that Center Communities at the Frontline of Environmental Health Inequity and General Operating Support.” Though the grant was for general operations, it was intended for specific purposes and goals as outlined by the JPB Foundation. However, as MSC found itself facing operational challenges in 2020, the foundation gave us flexibility to use the money for whatever was needed to stabilize the organization. In addition, they simultaneously worked with us to expand the scope of our regranting partnership to provide additional flexible revenue for our core infrastructure needs. In late 2022, the JPB Foundation renewed our general operating grant for another $3 million over three years, this time for “Securing Next Steps for Our Movement” — ensuring ongoing stabilization, strengthening, and expansion of the work already accomplished in the first three years, and including service expansion for MSC’s nearly 40 Fiscally Sponsored Projects (FSPs). They even encouraged and supported our interest in using a portion of the grant to set up a reserve fund to ensure future stability and success.

Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) are another area that has experienced substantial growth, but their current structure can perpetuate wealth accumulation rather than benefit communities in need. This highlights the need for a radical new approach, exemplified by MSC’s new DAF model. Launching later this year, the program will direct capital investments to historically excluded communities through local community development corporations (CDCs). “In a world where DAFs are often criticized for their misuse, MSC’s DAF program stands out by infusing our values and empowering philanthropists to make a difference.” Lauren Wheat, Interim Co-Chief Fiscal Sponsorship Officer, continues: “while traditional DAFs may be associated with tax evasion during financial windfalls, MSC’s embraces a higher purpose. By becoming part of the MSC ecosystem, DAF fund holders gain proximity to grassroots activists, enabling them to evolve into better philanthropists. With stringent requirements and annual fees contributing to transformative movement building, MSC’s DAF redefines the landscape of giving.” 

In a perfect world wealthy individual donors would move away from DAFs in favor of trust-based relationships with equitable intermediaries, like MSC. Donors could initiate a general purpose or vision and even act as an advisor, but they would relinquish the power and control that comes with a DAF. Mohini Tadikonda, MSC’s Chief Advancement Officer, calls these arrangements — Special Interest Funds (SIFs) — “the future of equitable grantmaking.”

MSC introduced a SIF program in 2022, aiming to support grassroots frontline work in communities with limited access to philanthropic resources. This program rapidly and equitably moves capital, supports community leaders, and transfers control from wealthy donors. Currently, MSC holds several SIF charters, focusing on financial literacy, decarbonization, capacity building, and community organizing — like the Sandbranch Revitalization Fund in support of a Texas Freedman’s Settlement.

There are several ways that SIFs can support a more equitable approach to philanthropy. For one, community initiated charters like the Sandbranch Revitalization Fund can move more money more quickly and more deeply into the community, and do so with little overhead. This ensures that the majority of that money actually goes to support the community in ways the community best sees fit. Meanwhile, pooled funds, like the Equitable Intermediary (EI) fund MSC manages, allows foundations to come together on a general purpose or vision and enter a trust-based relationship with equitable intermediaries. This relationship ensures that funding is being used in a way that best supports the vision of the donors and the needs of communities. To further stretch this funding, Intermediaries can require higher administrative allocations from the foundations to help offset the significantly lower administrative allocations offered to the community initiated funds.

Big Philanthropy is required — or at least encouraged — to give out five percent of their corpus each year. But committing to longer term relationships and creating real climate solutions will require more than five percent. The upside of larger grants and longer commitments mean greater impact. The downside: change takes time, and in our capitalist system, philanthropy can be overlooked. Despite this, MSC — and many other organizations — are developing innovative ways to stretch resources, repair past harms, and make a difference. 

Social movements are not something that can be achieved in a single day. It takes time, dedication, and commitment to create lasting change. Thus, philanthropic partnerships must be long term and informed by the real practices and challenges that communities, frontliners, and movements are facing. By building partnerships that are rooted in this commitment, we can work towards a future where everyone has the resources and support they need to thrive. To paraphrase James: we can’t use the same old ways of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place. We need to heal and reconnect at the root. Our collective survival on this planet depends on it. So give generously, distribute wisely, and let’s work together to create a world that’s sustainable, just, resilient, and equitable for all.

Check out Mark Wagner’s work on his website and on Instagram.

“It feels important to start to have other ways of thinking about ourselves or our responsibilities, beyond being an activist or beyond being an advocate or even an organizer,” says Kristen Zimmerman — activist, artist, storyteller, and cofounder of MSC. She continues, “it’s really about … how do you form community?”

Zimmerman “landed in the Bay Area” after a few years working in Asia. Her work in California — much like the work she was doing in Nepal — involved the power of storytelling and culture building, within the spectrum of youth organizing. It was in this work where she crossed paths with Taj James, another of MSC’s co-founders and current Board President. Their first encounter was at an event for an organization called Media Alliance — Zimmerman sensed a “potent connection,” and that the two were “going to know each other for a while.” 

She was right: James was also working with youth organizers at Coleman Advocates for Children. He saw a common thread between his work and Zimmerman’s focus on “participatory action research with youth.” She said James understood “how the different offerings and gifts that different people might have fit together,” and quickly pulled her into a youth-led juvenile justice organization in San Francisco. That early collaboration included a study of recommended reforms with “a parallel youth-led research project” that involved interviewing young people and advocacy “around what should happen.” The project “was really powerful” and “impacted a lot of the trajectories of the young people,” many of whom “kept in touch.” 

Later, while James “decided he was going to start Movement Strategy Center,” Zimmerman was compelled to document some of the local creative and “youth-led efforts,” that, in her opinion, felt like “a cultural moment.” The work was crucial. At that time, the general perception of young people was that they were largely “jaded and inactive.” 

Her storytelling project needed a home, and “none of the established organizations felt right.” She met with James, and they decided her work could be a founding project of whatever it was that James was cooking up. She recalled that everyone involved was “very entrepreneurial,” with projects involving storytelling, personal wellness, alliance building and strategy, social networks, and spirituality. “It was very much just a collection of experiments.” 

It felt right, and lasting. At one point, Zimmerman found herself “thinking about multiple decades of change” and how it was likely she’d be with MSC for many years of partnership. That “culture shift” around sustainable organizing appealed to her — especially the focus on collaborative alliances that eliminated the ways organizers often competed with each other for resources.

Even so, organizing was exhausting. There was a realization that “we’re not therapists, we’re not trained to be healers … But we can bring healing and transformation and embodied practice to groups” by collaborating with people who are focused on individual healing and wellness. That was the aha moment — MSC would be an integration of movement work paired with the holistic, emotional support and spirituality needed to sustain the difficulties of movement work.

Enter Norma Wong: James and Zimmerman met Wong when she was working with Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice — a small organizing group focused on Asian communities in Oakland. The group was experiencing growing pains, and while Zimmerman and James consulted on movement and alliance building, Wong was helping them stay grounded and move through conflict with their vision intact. That intimate collaboration “created the beta template” for MSC.

Wong’s ongoing involvement and expertise kept “integrating the embodiment work with the strategy work.” They landed on applied zone work — “also called forward stance.” Early projects included the Move to End Violence, the Transitions Initiative, the Forward Together project (their first project that was rooted in Indigeneity), and a number of other projects and writings.

Zimmermanm’s sense of spirituality didn’t start with Wong, though. She explained “a difficult relationship with organized religion,” but a familial “connection to land” — forests, forestry, small-scale farming, and nature in general. Years later, she recalled her mother telling her, “oh yeah, [nature is] our family’s spirituality.”

Her art rounded out that sense of spirituality. As an undergrad, Zimmerman majored in visual arts but felt “a little bit like a misfit in the art department.” Unlike many of her peers, her artwork was “always really community oriented” and “story oriented.” A lot was collaborative, involving immigrant and refugee youth as well as young people in domestic violence shelters. The work was a way to center these youths, who could feel misplaced within “their community’s trajectory,” and to help them “have a healing relationship to their story.” 

Later, an itch to work abroad coincided with a friend’s return from working in education and storytelling within minority and refugee communities in Nepal and Tibet. Inspired, Zimmerman and her friend wrote letters to the Tibetan Department of Education along with the Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Women’s Congress, two activist groups. In essence, the letters said, “hey, we have this idea. Is it of use to you?”

That idea became “an intercultural project, doing work both with youth here and youth there, and specifically young people who were navigating questions around identity, belonging, and their own place in a longer arc of their community.” They “collaborated for three years in different spots” with community organizing groups, recent political refugees, elders who had left Tibet, and teachers who were facilitating opportunities for young people to ask questions, develop stories, and interview one another while creating “magazines and exhibits and advocacy efforts.”

The work was a formative experience — “making meaning and helping people find belonging, helping [herself] find belonging,” and learning “how people heal and repair relationships with intergenerational trauma.” Zimmerman “was lucky enough to live in really wonderful communities,” sharing meals, building relationships, and creating art. She had a “visceral sense” of being a guest in a foreign country and in a family’s home, while also “being held by community.” These communities were strong enough to not only support the folks who had always been there, but to hold newcomers. Paired with her exposure to the sense of community in Tibetan Buddhism, she felt inspired “to figure out how to repair and create community in a similar way” at home. That sense of community often seemed so lost in the United States: “it takes so much more energy and feels you have to hold the community together rather than the community holding you.”

Later, a series of life experiences — the birth of her son, who has Down syndrome, the traumatic loss of her sister when her son was four, and the loss of her mother shortly thereafter — inspired a number of questions: “how do you actually repair human relat​​ionships to each other? How do you form functional communities that are really rooted in place? How do you attend to spirit as part of the center of systemic and cultural transformation?”

It all inspired the here and now: in 2018, alongside Shawna Wakefield and Rufaro Gwarada, Zimmerman founded Root. Rise. Pollinate!, an MSN partner. The project supports a transnational community of individual and collective feminist changemakers with learning and networking opportunities as well as regenerative mind-body-spirit practices. The idea of “pollination” is central: collective changemaking “is really about pollinating new ways of being in a new worldview.” 

She cited a Transitions Initiative-era question: how do “we jump or leap from cultures rooted in violence and separation, extraction, domination, all of that, to cultures and ways of being and seeing the world that are really rooted in our connection and mutuality and care?” The answer is in forming community and connecting to other communities. It’s “a different way of thinking and being” and “the pollination part feels evocative, it feels more poetic, and it also feels like, yeah, there’s a connector part and a life giving part and that feels really important.” 

Now, she is bringing that sense of community and collaboration to a forthcoming graphic novel. In collaboration with Movement Strategy Network (MSN) partner Beloved Communities Network, this graphic guide to building world-transforming communities features writings by 25 leaders, a foreward by adrienne maree brown, and illustrations by Zimmerman. Ten Thousand Beloved Communities is about deepening relationships to people and places through a lens of indigeneity. The book defines the story and lineage of Beloved Community, and features stories of Beloved Community in action along with practices to help readers integrate Beloved Community and the wisdom of the Transitions Initiatives into their daily lives. 

MSC’s Transitions Initiative, and the affiliated Labs, are mentioned frequently. Some featured culture nights and, chuckling, Zimmerman told us “you could talk to everybody about their culture night moment.” Normally she might’ve gone “up and painted a painting” but “it’s not the same as performing.” One night she mustered up the courage to sing the Bill Withers classic “Lovely Day.” She said: “It’s a testimony to the community side of the work that I could do that … That people joined in … It was the most beautiful thing and I wasn’t doing it alone, which was awesome.”

Movement Strategy Center (MSC) is values-aligned with the activist organizations we offer infrastructure to and thought partnership with; and dismantling white supremacy in philanthropy and intermediary services is fundamental to our goal and mission. But at the end of the day, we are a cog in the machine of capitalism; and capitalism is core to economic, racial, and environmental inequity we are fighting each and every day. 

It’s with this in mind that we cannot deny the obvious tensions between the philanthropic organizations that fund our works and the on-the-ground movement leaders we partner with.

 

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This thinking is by no means new or innovative — it’s ingrained enough within the greater philanthropic and activist ecosystems to warrant parody. There are dozens of social media accounts dedicated to poking holes in the nonprofit industrial complex. Two of our favorites, @nogodsnoprofts on Instagram and @philanthro_tea on Twitter, have amassed more than 4,000 followers thanks to a collection of memes and hot takes that are often humorous, honest, and entirely relatable.  

Dontay Wimberly, rapper and People’s Climate Innovation Center (formerly Climate Innovation) Young Black Climate Leader (YBCL), shared similar frustration in his Instagram stories. He noted that in 2020, $471 billion went to nonprofit organizations — nearly half a trillion dollars. “That’s how much money was given away — so imagine how much the ruling class has in the first place.” He continued, “capitalism is a zero-sum game … for the few to win, everyone else has to lose. That’s why nonprofits are so frustrating. They don’t really talk about capitalism … Then they would have to reconcile with the contradiction that nonprofits are a byproduct of capitalist exploitation.” 

And he’s right — without unfathomable wealth there would be no philanthropy. And without philanthropy, many of the activists behind crucial movement work would be hobbled. Wealth and philanthropy are essential — but that doesn’t mean there isn’t work to do.   

Carla Dartis, MSC’s executive director, wonders: “how many philanthropic organizations and family foundations have direct access to small grassroots organizers? How many have activist organizers on their boards? Their advisory councils?” Without those folks involved in decision making how are funders supposed to fully understand needs? Without a seat on the table, where is the community and partnership? And when the organizers on the ground are honest about their needs, “they are seen as weak — they can never be seen as a true partner.”

Candace Clark, the resource organizing director at HEAL Food Alliance, one of MSC’s fiscally sponsored projects, agrees: “No one can tell you how to fix a problem in the community they aren’t a part of.” 

 

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Problems between philanthropic organizations and activists are compounded by what Dartis describes as a “model of scarcity.” These foundations have good intentions but the funding is rarely enough; the timelines too defined; the relationships too “episodic.” It’s nearly impossible for activists to secure enough funding and — crucially — unrestricted funding to support ongoing efforts, growth, or infrastructure. And, she adds: those deadlines and restrictions, that manufactured urgency, is “the white supremacy piece.” All organizations, large and small, need to be able to adapt or shift as circumstances change and hot button issues arise and established funding can rarely be diverted to tackle these issues.

Jose Pienda, executive director for After Incarceration, an MSC fiscally sponsored project, understands this scarcity sentiment. Since his release from prison in 2020, Pienda has worked with the Restorative Center to pursue a personal restorative justice journey and provide restorative outlets for others. Pienda believes “if we replace competition with collaboration, we all have access to everything … At the end of the day, we are all working for each other.” But he doesn’t believe Big Philanthropy always works that way, referring to the status quo as “a competitive rat race mentality of how and where we get our resources.”

Intermediaries can seem to complicate the situation by standing between one or more foundations and grantees. But MSC avoids this; and part of avoiding roadblocks is acknowledging that we exist in a sort of paradox between capitalism and liberation. We do not try to ignore the inherent capitalist hypocrisy that is the backbone of philanthropy.   

And we make mistakes — all of us do, big philanthropy and otherwise. But the key is accountability. Clark says, “accountability can feel like being reprimanded but that’s not the intention, it’s dialog, it’s sharing, it’s willingness.” Crucially, she adds that “accountability is transparency” and that means being “open to correcting mistakes.”

Terry Marshall, the cofounder of Intelligent Mischief — a member of MSC Movement Strategy Network (MSN), tells us, “anything that is real, started as imagination first.” MSC imagined a leader-full ecosystem of dynamic and strategic leaders, projects, teams, strategic initiatives, collaborations, and organizations working to advance BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+-led power building. We started as a group of organizers addressing the overlapping issues of our time collaboratively; who know the climate crisis is connected to the immigration crisis; and that racial justice can not be separated from gender justice. Our purpose is to strengthen projects on the ground and reshape collective futures while working towards equity and community — even with funders, large and small.

It all comes down to being in a relationship with one another. Our fiscal sponsorship programs are based on a cohort system that builds on a nested network approach. The idea — which brings in classes of activist organizations — speaks to the concept of Beloved Community and to the need for power-building. Onboarding starts with goal and intention setting; and many goals include relationship building. It’s a crucial, foundational part of the work, and determines our resilience and ability to move forward together. In her book, Emergent Strategy, social movement facilitator adrienne maree brown reminisced about an offering of advice that MSC cofounder Taj James once shared: “don’t thingify, humanify! Shifting our way of being is our tangible outcome. Systems change comes from big groups making big shifts of being.”  

Anya de Marie, who helped develop this approach during her time as MSC’s chief fiscal sponsorship officer, said, “we created as much community as we could inside complicated and contradictory philanthropic and nonprofit cultures and constraints. Rather than an individualized focus on organizational development, we use a network-centered approach that is relational and trauma-responsive.” That rationale reflects MSC’s employee culture — it has been and continues to be a community and political home. And that sense of belonging can take the edge off the very difficult work and very difficult conversations that come with transformative movement building.

Movement building is relational work, and our relationships with our programs and partners allows us to be innovative and agile in our approaches. Mariame Kaba, author of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, tells us, “being intentionally in relation to one another, a part of a collective, helps to not only imagine new worlds but also to imagine ourselves differently.” While most intermediaries offer a black and white, client-based approach, our services are designed to address a community’s complete need for resources; and our infrastructure is focused on access and transparency. 

This process extends to many of MSC’s partners. Clark, who is new to the HEAL Food Alliance team, notes that when they are working and planning with their member organizations — a diverse group comprised of rural and urban farmers, fisherfolk, farm and food chain workers, rural and urban communities, scientists, public health advocates, environmentalists, and indigenous groups — they strive for safe spaces, open communication, and the encouragement of all voices from all backgrounds and all geographies to speak their minds and “craft their stories.”

Moving forward, MSC envisions sharing our movement building expertise and ultimately expanding our intermediary model to other activist communities and intermediaries. This equitable service toolkit will be offered to other intermediaries as a guide to setting up their projects and their ecosystems up for success while collectively shifting the paradigm of philanthropy. Crucially, this system will actively engage activists and communities around the model — which will strengthen communities all over. 

MSC proudly focuses on projects that are most impacted by inequities; we don’t have minimum budgets; and we work hard to facilitate powerbuilding and education for our fiscally sponsored partners — with financial literacy, business acumen, and operational knowledge. This not only expands their mission’s impact and their role in systemic change but it helps them walk the walk and talk the talk when in conversation with potential funders, partners, and employers.

This strategic investment in professional development is crucial, as staff and leadership within grassroots organizations sometimes lack the operational literacy required to operate in philanthropic circles. Our focus on building skills and expertise is unique in the world of intermediaries — we believe strategic investment in staff and partner education builds capacity for the movement and the movement leaders, at MSC and beyond. MSC’s Movement Infrastructure Innovation Center (MIIC) project advisor Jamillah Renard‘s financial literacy coaching and resources has increased our organizational breadth while granting our activist partners transferable skills that will increase their income capabilities.

All of this requires funding. And sometimes to get the funding communities need, activists need to be open to partnering with foundations and funders that may not be completely aligned in terms of mission and vision. Per Clark, “it’s important to be strategic, and to look at alignment even if it’s indirect. Compromise is nuanced and sometimes there are still benefits.” It’s hard to know who or what else every philanthropist and foundation is involved with; but it’s safe to say that they don’t set out to be extractive. And here is where communication is again key: “you can walk them through and they may be willing to see things differently.” That said, there are differing opinions on this throughout the transformative movement ecosystem and activists will need to do what’s right for themselves and their communities on a case by case basis.

Last summer, we witnessed many institutions and nonprofits denounce systemic racism amid the world’s sharp focus on George Floyd’s murder and the larger Black liberation movement, yet few organizations have moved toward tangible action. A recent report from PolicyLink and Bridgespan Group found that of the $11.9 billion in philanthropic capital publicly pledged to support racial equity, only $1.5 billion is trackable.

It’s true that transformative movements are never singular and always a long-term process, and philanthropy must play a critical role in resourcing the infrastructure, ecosystem building, and sustainability of those movements over time — but what can explain the profound disconnect between pledged funding and payout? How can philanthropy better and more quickly support these social change movements while creating genuine relationships with movement leaders and realizing a Just Transition?

Movement Strategy Center (MSC) believes that the problems can be at least partially attributed to the institutional racism embedded within the systems of philanthropy and traditional grantmaking. We — intermediaries, foundations, funders, and philanthropists — must reevaluate what works and what causes more harm than good. The racial reckoning of 2020 has led many organizations to adopt stricter racial-bias programs and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives; but compliance is not enough when “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

Like it or not, humanity — and, of course, philanthropy — is inclined to take the path of least resistance. To make any strategy successful, whether related to DEI initiatives or in social justice work, we need to not only set goals but foster values-aligned character traits and culture. Social activist and philosopher Grace Lee Boggs warns, “whenever an organization is in a crisis, it is necessary to look at your concepts and be critical of them because they may have turned into traps.” Plainly, we have to name it to change it. We have to admit that even as many nonprofits work to improve equity, White Supremacy is embedded in our culture and our organizations. And to change structures and systems we must also change how we think, the way we live, and even who we are. Everyone who participates in the movement ecosystem — community leaders, organizers, policymakers, corporate donors, and philanthropists who fund the organizations pushing for the change — all have an essential and evolving role to play in shifting social systems and practices.

To decolonize philanthropy, and support this crucial movement work, we must be open to the concept of Emergent Strategy policies and culture building. Emergent Strategy, a book and framework written by facilitator adrienne maree brown, suggests that western culture tends to work against the emergent strategies and processes that are realized over time as intended goals collide with the shifting realities at hand. The writer explains that “emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions.” By being cognizant of how needs and environments change — including a holistic focus on authentic relationships and the evolving needs of movement leaders — philanthropy can reshape their values and what they’re advocating for.

It’s a concept that MSC subscribes to. Executive Director Carla Dartis says, “if philanthropy is really about reaching an outcome of social justice, it also needs to be about a set of practices that engage multiple partners on the ground and in the boardroom, and it needs to be about the changing environment.” She continued, “as a result, the work is going to change. And it is out of that space that you can really advocate for the people.”

Mohini Tadikonda, MSC’s Chief Advancement Officer, agrees: “philanthropy needs to put it all on the table and commit to learning and evolving together. We need to admit to what we do not understand and commit to overcoming it.” Self-Accountability and reflection are essential in repairing generations of racial bias when White Supremacy is prevalent. And that goes hand in hand with the need to move money into the communities that need it most. To do that we need to change the policies and cultural practices that allow internal bias to persist. Part of that relates to any philanthropic endeavor that boasts perpetuity — because forever is often at the expense of the very communities these organizations aim to heal, and is at odds with the concept of Emergent Strategy.

At MSC, we support organizations that tackle social justice causes centering on the interconnected issues of racial, gender, and environmental inequity. Our infrastructure supports partners seeking to foster deep-rooted connections, collaboration, cross-pollination, and evolution. Our approach centers on responding to the needs of groups, and supporting them without imposing artificial processes and deadlines or irrational expectations. “These groups are not coming from a structure that is valued within capitalism — there are no customers, no-one is buying anything, no-one is profiting. You can’t expect or exert specific performance or achievement goals as if these groups are businesses,” Dartis adds.

To support social change movements, we must also recognize that long-term fundamental mindset change is required to elevate these concepts. To do that, funds should be unrestricted and should, ideally, not expire. “When we are fueled with a scarcity mindset, as so many of our communities have been conditioned to be, organizations scramble to do as much as they can before the funds run out,” said Dartis. She continued, “this causes people to take shortcuts that we can not afford when we are attempting to build and sustain equity.” In other words, long term sustainability for grassroots organizations requires the resources and flexibility to support work without burnout — because thriving and robust movements need thriving and robust staff and infrastructure. It’s important to remember that while love is at the center of movement work, it does not pay the bills.

Further, the mainstream understanding of philanthropy today is derived from a White supremacist, capitalist, and patriarchal frame of thinking. We must consider how the tenets of White Supremacy Culture like, “Perfectionism,” “Concentration of Power,” and the objectivity of “Progress is Bigger and/or More” have contributed to the roadblocks that BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA movement leaders, activists, and communities face when they are asked to out-organize racist laws, systems, institutions, and policies without funding and support. These platitudes and bureaucratic hoops can set up those on the ground to fail.

Social change funders are embracing general operating support for these communities, and that is great for optics. But funding often gets caught in a bottleneck on its way into the hands of the communities who need it most; or that funding expires just as the communities are seeing the impacts of that hard work. We cannot let symbolism overtake substance.

It comes down to trust. adrienne maree brown reminds us, “trust your people, and they will become trustworthy.” This vital lesson in Emergent Strategysummarizes what many in philanthropic circles are beginning to learn. Foundations have to change their habits to build trust; and they have to add diversity to their staff and their boards. They need to listen to the folks who are actually out there doing the work — and not just the elites in their conference rooms. When funders understand that systemic racism — and their cultural blinders — are the root cause of massive and growing economic and social disparities, they will seek to break down silos around funding priorities; and they will work to create funder and organizer coalitions that foster accountability and experimentation that can lead to important positive shifts.

When White wealth — any wealth — is moved into a space without cultural awareness, and where decisions should be made by people who are not traditional gatekeepers and decision makers, it needs to be done without unreasonable stipulations or any sense of superiority. The Building Movement Project (BMP) released a report that found people of the global majority “do not reap the advantages of leadership to the same extent as their White peers, as indicated by the extent to which common frustrations and challenges among nonprofit staff persist for leaders of color while they seem to ease for White respondents who have reached leadership positions.” It begs the question: are the individuals in these leadership positions evolving? Are they culturally competent? Open?

Philanthropic habits must change, and the solution won’t be the same for every partnership. It can mean building relationships with program officers and movement leaders through phone call updates and not just reports. MSC works with each partner organization in ways that work for them, in ways that support and care for movement leaders, and support the ongoing engagement that builds collective leadership. Decentralization can be slower and more resource intensive, but investment in coaching, financial and administrative support, leadership development, and capacity building supports and enables frontline success and longevity while allowing for experimentation and learning.

Philanthropy for social movements must begin to level the playing field and move away from the current hierarchies that temporarily fund outcomes rather than sustainably funding relationships. A way of contextualizing a reprioritization of support to BIPOC-led movement organizations is to consider reparations. Edgar Villanueva of Decolonizing Wealth said this is “a direct way to use money as medicine. Humans have used money wrongfully. We’ve made money more important than human life. We’ve allowed it to divide us. We forget that we gave money its meaning and its power.” Reparations are a commitment to trust, a commitment to relearning, and a commitment to fundamentally change the embedded culture of White Supremacy.

Boggs’ asserted that “a revolution that is based on people exercising creativity in the midst of devastation is one of the great historical contributions of mankind,” and that “these are the times to grow our souls.” MSC believes this: communities have the answers, and we just have to listen. Not only should they have a seat at the table, but they should set the agenda so the solutions center on love and can be tailored to the shifting needs at hand.

Everyone has a role to play in Movement building. Philanthropy’s primary function should be rooted in radical trust that supports the practices behind equitability and diversity. This community-centered funding and fundraising, with a focus on the types of engagement that sustain movement building for the long term, can contribute to a radical and deep network that strategically navigates toward a future we envision: of interdependence, of liberation, and of resilience.

In 2006, Warren Buffett announced he would donate 85 percent of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to charity. At the time, Buffett was the richest person in the United States, and his portfolio of stock in the holding company he founded was worth $44 billion. But Buffett did not pour over lists of individual nonprofits and NGOs before deciding exactly what to fund; nor was he content to exclusively pad the endowments of the various family foundations his wife and children founded and operated (that said, those organizations did receive a hefty $6 billion between them). Instead, Buffett decided to award the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation the lion’s share.

Buffett’s gift of about $31 billion, over a number of years, solidified the Gates Foundation — which regrants funds to on-the-ground charities working to improve health and education in the poorest countries around the world — as the largest grant-making organization in America and one of the most influential in the world.

That, in a nutshell, is regranting. An individual or organization wants to make an impact but doesn’t necessarily have the infrastructure, access, or expertise to reach the communities that need it most. So, they funnel that cash into a grant-making organization. That organization, a presumed expert in the field, is better-positioned to determine where those funds can make the most impact and grants that money to the folks on the ground who can really make a difference.

But, regranting has its flaws. There can be a lack of efficiency in the process — both in terms of the hoops organizations often have to jump through to apply for and secure funding and with regard to the time it can take for the money to get from a large foundation to an on the ground leader with immediate and shifting needs.

Beyond that, regranting is not immune to the often discriminatory practices that exist throughout philanthropy. A goal of philanthropy at large is to restore justice and mitigate inequities — but women- and BIPOC-led organizations are consistently underfunded. This is true for a number of reasons, be they outwardly racist or relating to a lack of connection and rapport between small, BIPOC-led nonprofits and the decision makers at foundations that often lack diversity in boardrooms and on senior leadership teams. In addition, so much funding is tied to unrealistic application and reporting requirements. Imposing these stipulations on small organizations and grassroots activists who lack the bandwidth, funding, and expertise to compete is just another form of discrimination.

At Movement Strategy Center (MSC), we work to avoid the pitfalls and inherent discriminatory policies of traditional regranting with our “Philanthropic Innovation” program. The model encompasses more than regranting — much like the mold-breaking ways with which MSC incubates, accelerates, and provides infrastructure for fiscally sponsored projects, Philanthropic Innovation challenges the status quo. The proof is in the diverse cohort of organizations and individuals who have thrived within the program — the very ones that face the greatest difficulties accessing funding through traditional grant-makers. Which makes sense: our all-female senior leadership team and 100 percent BIPOC board lead a staff that is 85 percent BIPOC women. This diversity is a direct reflection of the values of the projects we provide infrastructure for — and flies in the face of traditional intermediaries.

What we are doing in the regranting space speaks to the emerging trend of “Participatory Grantmaking,” which shifts the power from grantmakers, boards, investors, and the wealthy to the movement leaders and communities on the ground. MSC believes it’s time to trust the front line groups doing the most difficult work in the communities most affected by injustice and inequity — and, crucially, we believe it’s time to provide support to these groups without imposing unrealistic metrics and deliverables. “These leaders know their communities. They understand the problems and issues firsthand and know best how to use funds to address them,” says Mohini Tadikonda, MSC’s Chief Advancement Officer.

Further, MSC seeks to support movement leaders and movement builders. Tadikonda believes movement building has been woefully underfunded across the philanthropic sector, despite being a foundational element to sparking and driving durable societal and systems change. “Movement building is still very much trapped in a short-term crisis response method of thinking. The reality is there are urgent issues and very little funding, and that prevents long-term thinking and planning.”

She continued, “we need to create spaces and resource opportunities for leaders to experiment and collaborate and also make mistakes, learn, and try again, which is difficult with limited resources and strict project specifications and requirements.” One such opportunity was the Next Generation Fund — anchored by the Ford Foundation — a response to a growing call from frontline organizers and leaders to learn restorative and transformative practices that support a rising generation of social justice leaders who can nurture sustainable approaches to organizing and community building.

These roots-up, on the ground individuals who are building movements and serving the communities they understand are best equipped to make change; and MSC has been supporting these individuals through innovative regranting since 2014.

MSC was instrumental in the founding of the Building Equity & Alignment for Environmental Justice initiative and worked with the San Francisco Foundation on youth organizing projects. Other projects included the Assisting Partners for Places initiative, which focused on accessibility concerns and promoted grants for frontline groups rather than sustainability professionals, and advising the Kendeda Fund on areas of environmental justice funding that supported community-driven solutions in the field.

The Climate Resilience and Urban Opportunity initiative, a multi-year project developed with the Kresge Foundation, proved especially relevant in 2020 in the midst of the global pandemic. The project provided $5,290,575 in environmental funding to 126 underfunded frontline groups and individuals through grants and relief funds while hosting contracts for vital consultant work supporting multiple related initiatives. It also supported MSC’s more than 30 fiscally sponsored projects by managing hundreds of grants and contracts, while advising our philanthropic partners around budget creation and resource allocation strategies — decision-making that ensured increased transparency and accountability to the grassroots projects receiving the funds.

Initiatives like these are absolutely paradigm-shifting. They provide power-building, flexible resources to movement leaders working in emerging areas of focus in the social justice field who often face urgent financial needs. And, they push funding entities to shift the ways they conceive of their areas of interest in the context of intersectionality within complex societal issues. Through these processes, environmental funders have learned to broaden their definition of climate work to address the needs of urban groups pushing back on environmental discrimination in housing rights, public safety, and economic development. “We serve as problem solvers and thought partners for pooled funds, foundations, and corporations,” said Tadikonda. She added, “these projects have been successful because they put the communities most impacted by these environmental issues in charge of how to best address the challenges and benefit their communities.”

MSC’s Philanthropic Innovation work has included partnerships with tribal groups across the country, youth organizing groups with almost no fundraising experience, and brand new projects that need both seed funding and organizational infrastructure. One project, the California BIPOC Farmer and Land Steward Relief Fund, moved over $835,000 to 80 BIPOC farmers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 California wildfires. Many of these farmers are leading on implementing climate resilience practices but face incredible barriers accessing financial support for their enterprises — discrimination, language, and a lack of familiarity with granting processes.

Each project is tailored to the needs at hand without imposing artificial deadlines and processes. And, as an institution, MSC relies on simple, standardized platforms that enable the speedy movement of money to even the projects that lack traditional financial infrastructure and frequently face technology and language barriers. It surprises funders that projects may lack simple access to wifi or bank accounts — but we have learned to work with these roadblocks. Our flexibility and willingness to think outside the box allows those receiving funds to “work around challenges and limitations rather than expecting them to work within systems that don’t support their circumstances,” said Tadikonda.

Recently, MSC assisted with a regranting project that funded individual youth leaders who lacked a nonprofit or intermediary affiliation. Thus, the organization that normally handled this foundation’s regranting projects was unable to process the transactions. Tadikonda explained, “we were able to take this on by working within compliance to treat them as MSC subcontractors and pay them directly.” She continued, “we are problem solvers, and work around obstacles to ensure equitable access to resources for all.”

Carla Dartis, MSC’s Executive Director, added, “what really sets us apart, though, is our shared values and deep commitment to the work that our projects do. We put love at the center.”