We're Hiring:
Executive Assistant
Movement Strategy Center is seeking a dynamic professional to provide administrative support to MSC’s Executive Director (ED), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and executive leadership team along with support for special projects that the ED focuses on to advance the organizational mission and work.
Full Job Description
Position Overview
Reporting to the Executive Director, the primary role of the Executive Assistant is to provide administrative support to MSC’s Executive Director (ED), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and executive leadership team along with support for special projects that the ED focuses on to advance organizational mission and work.
Core Responsibilities
Executive Assistance (50%)
- Support for ED, COO and Board of Directors Committees
- Manage calendars, scheduling & executing meetings from start to finish; selecting a date, inviting appropriate attendees, supporting agenda clarification and follow-ups and next steps
- Serve as principal administrative contact for ED and COO; answer and route: phone calls/phone messages, mail and email messages, and handle wide-range information dissemination
- Special projects & project management as needed (e.g. Organizational Development projects)
- Partner with Chief Advancement Officer and Advancement team to support executive voice, communications, development and relationships with internal and external stakeholders
- Support MSC Executive Teams’ partnerships cultivation including initiating meetings and responding to requests from key partners
- Scheduling and implementing the logistics for Board of Director meetings including Committee meetings
- Support preparation of ED presentations and content for executive team and staff meetings
- Manage and reconcile expense accounts for ED and COO
- Schedule and book travel accommodations for the ED and COO
- Provide file management for the ED and COO
- Other administrative duties as assigned
Agency-wide Administrative Support (35%)
- Under the direction of the COO, work in collaboration with MSC’s administrative team members to support agency-wide logistics, operational needs and other administrative duties as may be assigned
Organizational Change Initiatives, Community Stewardship & Emergent Projects (15%)
- Support organizational change management initiatives and special projects at the direction of the ED and COO
- Support Organizational Culture and Community Stewardship activities such as coordinating staff meetings, leadership team meetings, board meetings, retreats, and community building activities that may interface between staff, board members, the larger community and stakeholders in MSC’s network
- Provide project management support to emergent projects that may arise from the Board Executive Committee and Executive Leadership Team
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
Expected hours of work
Standard days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Daily schedule is flexible within the proximity of this time frame, and will be decided in consultation with the supervisor.
Travel
No significant travel expected.
Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience
- Experience in working with and supporting non-profit social justice organizations and leaders focused on transformative change to make the world more equitable and just;
- Minimum of five years demonstrated experience with executive assistant or special assistant to C-Suite roles, and/or equivalent positions;
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, both verbal and written;
- Ability to switch between detail-intensive data processing and relationship-based interaction with ease;
- Ability to manage and make progress on multiple projects simultaneously;
- Experience in supporting change management and organizational development;
- Ability to handle diverse challenges with a calm demeanor and positive outlook with service excellence;
- Ability to hold confidentiality and discretion re: sensitive information to support Executive Team’s work;
- Highly skilled in managing competing priorities;
- Highly motivated and proficient problem solver who anticipates needs and proactively creates solutions in a timely manner in a fast-paced, emergent environment;
- An orientation towards learning and development; willing to learn from mistakes, receive feedback, and know how to properly give feedback to others;
- Ability to communicate and take initiative in asking for help and clarity, and to propose solutions/options. Adaptability and comfort with emergence (i.e. ideas and systems not yet fully developed that responds to dynamic situations) — to partner and pinch hit on emergent projects that arise for the Executive and Leadership Teams;
- Proficiency and excellent computer skills in utilizing Apple and Mac operating systems and products, as well as virtual communication and meeting platforms, database management systems, expense reconciliation systems and other software applications including Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Zoom, Adobe Acrobat Pro, Canva and other design platforms; and
- Experience with online services such as Egnyte, Docusign, Paycom, Airtable and Asana is preferred but not required
Position Type and Compensation
- Full-time, 100% FTE, exempt position. Annual compensation is offered between $70-90K
- MSC’s 100% FTE benefits package includes:
- 20 vacation days leave accrual per year (15 days in the first year of employment due to a mandatory 3 month waiting period before accrual begins)
- 12 standard holidays, and 2 personal days per year (Personal days are designated as your birthday and hire date anniversary, and need to be used on these dates as required by CA time off laws)
- 12 sick days leave accrual per year
- 1-week paid MSC family and medical leave after one year of service (to be integrated with available state benefits); an additional week of paid leave for each additional year of service, up to 4 weeks
- Medical, vision, dental, life and disability insurance coverage for employees and their dependents (the enrollment eligible date is first of the month following 30 days of employment)
Employee contribution is required and further details will be provided upon hire
- Access to FSA and Commuter Benefits
- Opportunity to participate in an employer sponsored 403b retirement plan
Please include a cover letter with your application.
Movement Strategy Center is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, disability, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or any other status protected by law. People of color and LGBTQ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
Job Type: Full-time, Hybrid
Based in Oakland, CA
Pay: $70,000.00 – $90,000.00 per year
Sharing a Cultural Recipe for Resilience
A Project Advisor at Movement Strategy Center Presents a Recipe and a Family History for Southern Black Lives
The holiday season is among us — a time to celebrate, reflect, reset, and gather in community. It’s also time to prepare festive meals and share favorite dishes — many from recipes that have bounced around families for generations. The concept of sharing foods and sharing traditions has always been an integral part of movement work, as well. When we share recipes that connect us to our roots, we invite our community to recognize our whole selves.
The staff here at Movement Strategy Center (MSC) clock in across several states, cities, and time zones. Thus, our mostly remote culture demands creative ways of convening, connecting, and developing connections and we must be intentional in our cultivation of Beloved Community. At the end of the day, our issues and their solutions are interconnected — whether they’re at work or in life.
It was in this spirit of community and reflection, that our Movement Infrastructure Innovation Center (MIIC) team was asked to share a recipe that best represents their culture. Most team members shared actual recipes — tamales, a honey glazed ham, and lasagna — family favorites shared year after year at holiday gatherings. But, Karmella Green, who joined the MIIC team as a Project Advisor in the Summer of 2022, offered her team something different: a powerful video presentation detailing a cultural recipe rooted in compassion, shared history, and Black liberation.
Through an oral history, beginning in the 17th century, Green — a Black woman and a Texan — challenged her teammates to interrogate perceived benefits of White proximity, a driving force that prompts people of color to adopt anti-Black views. Karmella articulated the resilience of her culture, noting, “Slavery is White history. How we survived it is Black history.” Her narrative is buried in poems and pain; it details familial accomplishments and societal failings and is bookended with quotes from the Black luminaries lining her family’s bookshelves. She details her family members, including her great great grandmother — a well known member of their community. Throughout these stories, Green poignantly reminds us that “if intergenerational trauma can be passed down through DNA, so can healing.”
Her incredible piece is a recipe — not for a casserole but for healing, for growth, and for overcoming systemic racism. It echoes her contemporary efforts to disavow the inherent systemic racism within the philanthropic community, and it is a lesson for transforming communities.
Thank you, Karmella, for sharing your cultural recipe and reminding us, this holiday season, that when we share histories, we can shape possibilities for our collective future, rooted in love. With her permission, we invite you to watch her piece, as presented to her teammates, in the video below.
Trigger Warning: the video includes photos of violence, themes of racism, oppression, death, and abuse.
If you are feeling nourished, like and share this blog, and let us know in the comments below what dishes — or histories — are staples on your holiday table. No matter the dish you bring to the table, MSC wishes you and your beloveds a spirited holiday season.
Judith LeBlanc: A Movement Icon Goes to Harvard
One of Movement Strategy Center’s Board Members Brings Native Organizing to Cambridge
Judith LeBlanc isn’t just one of Movement Strategy Center’s board members — she’s a movement icon. LeBlanc, an enrolled member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, probably wouldn’t admit to her icon status. You’d more likely hear her refer to herself as a proud grandmother, a proud citizen of the Caddo Nation, or just a fan of ice cream and fry bread.
But she’s an absolute force. Just look at her resume: LeBlanc serves as the Executive Director of the Native Organizers Alliance; a field director for Peace Action; a National CoChair for United for Peace and Justice; a board member for IllumiNative; and the chair of the board of NDN Collective. Judith was a 2019 Roddenberry Fellow and, before her board position at MSC, she worked for four years as a member of MSC’s Transitions Lab community.
This fall she also made time to serve as a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School alongside a former governor of Wyoming, a former Secretary of State for West Virginia, and a former Prime Minister of Sweden — in addition to other luminaries of politics, business, and academia. She is leading a study group of lucky Harvard students that will focus on exploring Indigenous rights and Native and Indigenous organizing across the country.
At a September forum at the university, LeBlanc was a breath of fresh air among the far right doom and gloom. She called Election Day “a snapshot of the balance of politics.” She continued: “Everything that happens between elections — on issues at the grassroots level — is what shapes the outcome of elections.” She is thrilled by “a historic high number of Natives” running for office and the “vibrancy at the tribal and grassroots level … Native people are highly aware of the threats to sovereignty and the impact of systemic racism and they understand that elections matter.”
“Everything that happens between elections — on issues at the grassroots level — is what shapes the outcome of elections.”
After a recent Institute of Politics event, LeBlanc took to Facebook: “truth telling, good food, and great conversation with Mark Trahant, Phil Deloria, and Libero Della Piana. So proud of our people at Harvard who are preparing for sovereignty and self determination!”
Her enthusiasm was still palpable a few weeks later. In a conversation with LeBlanc, she noted that not only were the first Native women elected to the Congress in 2018, but that now, for the first time in over 230 years, there is Native Alaskan representation in the House of Representatives.
And all this in the same month that the Department of the Interior announced nearly 650 geographic locations with names containing an offensive slur for Indigenous women would be renamed — with input from Native communities. Though it didn’t come a moment too soon, it’s still impressive that this historic mass renaming is occurring less than a year after Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland — the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary — formally declared the word a derogatory term and began this process.
Last year, LeBlanc was involved in the Red Road to D.C. project — a two week national trek that saw a 25-foot, 5,000-pound totem pole created by a group of Lummi Nation artists journey from Washington state to Washington D.C. The House of Tears Carvers — the Lummi traditional carvers behind the monumental artwork — consider totem poles to be much more than art. LeBlanc agrees: “they tell our stories, they gather prayers, and give us guidance for how we walk.”
And that was exactly the intention of the tour — as co-sponsored by the Native Organizers Alliance and chaperoned by LeBlanc herself. At her speech on the National Mall, she drove the project’s mission home: calling on the Biden Administration to both “recognize the traditional, legal, and inherent rights of Native nations and Indigenous peoples to protect sacred places” across the country and recognize their own ancestral responsibilities to protect sacred places for future generations. LeBlanc was joined by Secretary Haaland and multiple speakers that day, each representing different tribes and speaking to the needs of their ancestral lands.
“What’s the medicine we need? That medicine is to heal the land. But first, we must bring people together to heal themselves, to understand their relationship to land and place and history.”
She also spoke of her hope to “bring people together to recognize what it is that will make us stronger.” She asked: “what’s the medicine we need? That medicine is to heal the land. But first, we must bring people together to heal themselves, to understand their relationship to land and place and history.” She continued, “the future is Indigenous … And I say that to mean that the future is when we will recognize our relationality — that we’re related — when we recognize that we have common struggles in order to make sure that our descendants live a good life.”
These sentiments aren’t new. From her work on behalf of the Wounded Knee Defense/Offense Committee on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in the early 1970s, to Standing Rock pipeline protests beginning in 2016, LeBlanc has espoused the value of cultural strategy and how “walking in ancestral knowledge” can “[define] the present” and shape the future. She also believes in establishing your role in the community or communities you hold yourself accountable to — in order “to be a good relative” in community.
At the end of the day, LeBlanc’s packed schedule, list of achievements, and everyday ethos all comes down to her respect for the role of the traditional practices of her people and all Indigenous people.
A big congratulations on your stint at Harvard, Judith — and in all your achievements and their throughline in peace, interdependence, community, and self-determination. Like and share this blog in honor of Judith and Native American History Month.
Sandbranch, Texas, and the Intersectionality of American Water
Movement Strategy Center Considers Water Equity, the Clean Water Act, and the Repercussions of Sackett v. EPA
Water seems fairly innocuous — you open your tap and water comes out. You assume it’s safe, it’s clean, it’s drinkable. Maybe you prefer Poland Spring or Lacroix, or you use a Brita, but you assume you can drink your water. You certainly feel comfortable bathing in it, washing your dishes with it, using it to prepare meals, or sloshing it into the dog bowl.
But water is a hot topic right now. Take the recent crises in Mississippi’s capital, the years of inaction and litigation in Flint, Michigan, and our country’s generally poor water infrastructure in many majority BIPOC cities and towns. At Movement Strategy Center (MSC), we are crowdfunding in support of the residents of Sandbranch — a Texas Freedman’s Settlement that still lacks clean, running water, despite its location just outside Dallas, one of the most prosperous cities in our country.
Our water is a hot topic at the Supreme Court, too. Sackett v. EPA is an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case that could broadly affect the Clean Water Act, which was ratified way back in 1972 and just celebrated its 50th anniversary. And it may wind up being the most significant attack on America’s clean water laws since the 1970s.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Sackett case, it involves a couple who hoped to build a home near a lake in Idaho. To do so, they began to fill the property — a federally protected wetland — with gravel. The EPA, citing the Clean Water Act and its broad protection of the “waters of the United States,” halted the work and required the gravel’s removal. That was back in 2007. Since then, the case has bounced around the court system and will now be heard before the Supreme Court.
The Sacketts’ lawyers will argue that the wetlands in question are not “waters of the United States,” and thus not subject to federal regulation.
We know what you’re thinking. It’s water; and it’s in the United States. What’s the question?
We turned to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) for a little clarity. Per Jon Devine, the director of NRDC’s federal water policy team: “Congress intended the phrase to be interpreted very broadly.”
When lawmakers were drafting the Clean Water Act … They envisioned its protections as extending to all the various bodies of water that make up a watershed, many of which people use for recreation, fishing, and drinking-water supply. And while those lawmakers may not have been hydrologists, they nevertheless understood the fundamental interrelatedness of these different bodies of water. “So the very earliest regulations set forth by the EPA were inclusive … All the relevant parts of an aquatic ecosystem, including streams, wetlands, and small ponds — things that aren’t necessarily connected to the tributary system on the surface, but that still bear all kinds of ecological relationships to that system and to one another.
He noted that, over the years, various parties — often developers and polluters — have attempted to litigate the meaning of the term; and until the early 2000s, those parties usually lost.
The Clean Water Act was nonpartisan, and it was passed in reaction to massive fish die-offs and dangerous levels of mercury and raw sewage in our waterways.
In 2006, another case surrounding another wetland drainage project was brought before the Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy stuck to the script — his opinion maintained that “waters of the United States” didn’t need to be visibly contiguous to warrant protection; and that if destroying or polluting one wetland or pond or creek could affect the health of a second body of water, then said waterway deserves protection. Both the Bush and Obama administrations subscribed to this viewpoint.
That said, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia saw things differently: his opinion centered on navigable waters. If it can’t accommodate a boat — well, protection shouldn’t be necessary.
That opinion, though ludicrous, was supported by the Trump administration and has opened the door to cases like Sackett v. EPA. And, crucially, it could make poking holes in the Clean Water Act a whole lot easier. And that’s a travesty: the Clean Water Act was nonpartisan, and it was passed in reaction to massive fish die-offs and dangerous levels of mercury and raw sewage in our waterways — not to mention the fact that Ohio’s Cuyahoga River literally caught fire and Lake Erie was projected to become biologically dead.
And while our waters have improved immensely, many waterways are still unhealthy and face further degradation from “forever chemicals” and increases in urban and agricultural run-off as developers pave over natural spaces and farmers and property owners doubledown on fertilizer and pesticide use. That’s to say nothing of climate change: drought, water scarcity, and just how hard our wetlands work in storing carbon.
We hope the Clean Water Act remains intact in the face of our overwhelmingly conservative Supreme Court. And, like Kennedy’s subscription to the interconnectedness of American waters — from seasonal ponds and small swaths of wetland to our largest lakes and most powerful rivers; we must recognize the interconnectedness and intersectionality of the American water system. We can not forget our brothers and sisters in Sandbranch, and in other communities all over the country that lack clean water infrastructure.
The people of Sandbranch — property owners and taxpayers — are represented by the Sandbranch Planning Committee and are working tirelessly to not only bring water to their community, but increase access to fresh food, equitable healthcare, and basic infrastructure (streetlights, trash removal, signage) to their community. With help from MSC, the Chisholm Legacy Project, and the Until Justice Corporation, the Sandbranch Revitalization Fund is starting with the installation of Hydropanels — a solar-powered system that can supply households with safe, clean running water pulled directly from the atmosphere.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has joined the crusade. The organization is sponsoring Hydropanels for two homes in the community while working to raise additional funds and urge other large environmental organizations to make similar investments in Sandbranch and other frontline communities struggling to access clean drinking water.
“It is shameful that hundreds of years after its founding by emancipated men and women, this community does not have reliable access to clean and safe water,” said Dr. Adrienne Hollis, vice president of environmental justice, public health, and community revitalization at the NWF.
Members of NWF and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined Tonette Byrd, who leads the local Until Justice initiative and has led efforts to bring Hydropanels to Sandbranch, at a town hall meeting in October. Byrd, who has worked closely with the community and built relationships with its members, said in an interview, “this community deserves better and what I see happening in this community should not happen anywhere in the United States.”
She continued: “we are thrilled to be working with the community to ensure that this innovative technology can begin to help address these historic environmental injustices and provide renewable, reliable, and affordable water for community residents. Other environmental groups, federal, and state partners should invest in this and other similar efforts to address water insecurity in frontline communities in Texas and across the country.”
The members of this community have been oppressed by systemic racism and environmental injustice for over a century. Phyllis Gage, a longtime resident, said, “we’re paying taxes. So where’s my tax money going?” Her comments remind us that these Americans need far more than Hydropanels. These are a sort of band-aid — residents need city water and sewage services, food justice, land justice, and opportunity; and all of it must be rooted in a Just Transition.
“This innovative technology can begin to help address these historic environmental injustices and provide renewable, reliable, and affordable water for community residents.”
Food scarcity has become a central aspect of their plans: a centralized, community Hydropanel will maintain a community garden to grow fresh produce for Sandbranch residents. Meanwhile, residents point to their rising property taxes — in 2020 tax rates doubled and, in some cases, tripled for landowners. This despite the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) designation that limits property improvements and buyout offers beginning in 2005 that offered some residents only $350 for their properties.
Sandbranch’s water crisis touches every part of every resident’s life — how could it not? Safe, clean water is essential — to people, to productivity, to the natural world. It’s all connected — much like the “waters of the United States” cited in Sackett v. EPA. We need the Clean Water Act to remain intact. And, in Sandbranch, we need to support the installation of Hydropanels — a first step in bringing equity to this tiny but mighty Texas community. Please donate what you can to the #SandbranchIsRising campaign; and please share this blog. Water is life.
Changing Funder Habits to Change the Game
Justice Funder’s Co-Director, Dana Kawaoka-Chen on the Habit Shifting Takeaways from the Transitions Labs
Originally published on December 12, 2014
We need new habits — philanthropic habits, that is. We need new habits that reflect the state of our country as it is now: a first world nation where young Black men are 21 times more likely than their White peers to be killed by police, where one third of the workforce is comprised of contingent workers, and where our country’s carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to what will likely be the warmest year ever recorded on the planet.
Habits are recurrent, unconscious patterns of behavior that are acquired through frequent repetition. Earlier this year, Staci Haines of Generative Somatics introduced me to the concept of 300/3,000: the idea that it takes a person 300 repetitions of a behavior before that behavior can be a conscious action you choose, then 3,000 repetitions of that behavior before it becomes an automatic response — think of a professional golfer changing her swing, or a baseball pitcher changing the release of a pitch.
While these are very physical examples, I think they apply in a philanthropic context.
What of our current grantmaking habits actually constrain movement? What of these habits are actually based on a dated analysis of the world? What new habits will get us a different outcome? How can grantmakers play a different role with community groups and thereby change the rules of the game?
Jen Sokolove of the Compton Foundation recently wrote on the What is a Justice Funder? blog: “funding only the kind of work with which we’re comfortable is precisely what limits innovation.”
To Compton’s credit, they are very transparently trying to develop new philanthropic habits to “build alignment across real divisions.” Another grantmaker to change their habits very publicly to “increase the net grant” is the Unitarian Universalist Veatch program at Shelter Rock who recently did away with asking for the “fake funder budget?
In my work with the Bay Area Justice Funders Network, I have observed that changes in strategy at philanthropic institutions aren’t always accompanied by a change in the grantmaking practices to carry out the new strategy, or vice versa. The results are challenging for the funder and their grantee partners. And when multiplied across multiple institutions, what is the cumulative effect on our ability to transform systems at the scale we need? What philanthropic habits get us closer to transformation?
Recently, I had the opportunity to reflect on habits from a very unique perspective. The Movement Strategy Center hosted a two day Transitions Lab where two dozen social justice leaders and funders gathered and, among other things, found ourselves passing a ball around in a circle. What this playful exercise surfaced for me was how rote our individual and group behavior can be unless we are intentionally trying to be different. It didn’t matter whether the prompt was for us to share the ball “abundantly” or “competitively,” we all have life experiences to draw from that allowed us to play together when bound by these rules. But this exercise made me think about how we play when we know that the current rules aren’t the ones we want to operate under anymore. Then what? How do we develop a new schema to work from?
”I am clear that we in philanthropy need new habits to support new ways of intersectional organizing, as well as new habits to radically transform the very systems that allow and perpetuate state violence without accountability.”
I am clear that we in philanthropy need new habits to support new ways of intersectional organizing, as well as new habits to radically transform the very systems that allow and perpetuate state violence without accountability. We need new habits because the very definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over, yet expect different results.
While I may not yet have the answers to these questions, our group exercise of throwing the ball reinforced my belief that we need to intentionally choose what habits are moving us closer to what we want and what new habits we need to develop.
So, let’s talk … What habits need to go?
What new habits are folks trying on?
Who is interested in practicing some new ones together?
Dana Kawaoka-Chen is the Network Director for the Bay Area Justice Funders Network. She can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter @justicefunders.
Everything You Need to Know About 988
Movement Strategy Center Chats with Tansy Hall McNulty, Founder and CEO of One Million Madly Motivated Moms (1M4), About the Launch of 988
On July 16, 2022, 988 is finally going live — a sort of sister service to 911, 988 will replace the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255, which will remain in service after July 16) as a nationwide number for individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts, mental health or substance abuse emergencies, or emotional distress. A first step in reimagining crisis support in the United States, this easy to remember, three-digit number (call, text, or chat) is confidential, free, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Callers will be connected to trained English and Spanish language crisis counselors with interpretation services in over 150 languages.
We (virtually) sat down with Tansy Hall McNulty, Founder and CEO of One Million Madly Motivated Moms (1M4), to discuss the launch of 988. As founder of 1M4, Tansy leads an ongoing effort to compile and share a comprehensive guide of local and regional Mobile Crisis Units all over the country — an often safer alternative to calling the police for Black families in need of mental health support. When 988 legislation was passed, in 2020, Tansy, 1M4, and their resource were in demand — this collection of crisis units and co-responders would be a jumping off point for 988’s network of operator-counselors and the mobile crisis units we all hope will follow, as 988 secures funding and expands.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MSC: What is 988?
THM: 988 is a federal mandate that was created back in December of 2020, that we would have a short, easy to remember, three digit number for suicidal thoughts, mental health emergencies, and behavioral health emergencies. Effective July 16th of this year, 2022, 988 will go live nationally.
MSC: When should we call 988 instead of 911?
THM: 911 is for criminal behavior or medical and physical emergencies … 988 is for those who are having suicidal ideations and those who are experiencing mental health emergencies, or emotional distress. So these are times that you need a counselor, someone to talk to, someone to de-escalate … The hope and the intention is for it to be a national dispatching center for mental health emergencies. That infrastructure is still being built, however … It will not be ready on July 16th in all places — so I want people to be aware that when you call 988 in these situations, depending on where you live, you may still have an interaction with a law enforcement officer.
MSC: How is 988 funded?
THM: 998 will be funded much like 911, in some states … Look at your cell phone bill, and look at the breakdown. On your bill you’ll see something that says 911. Everybody who has a cell phone is paying … 12 cents a month or 15 cents a month for 911. And that’s so it’s a fully funded organization and entity and that means it doesn’t run out of money. Well 988, ideally, would be funded the same way, but some states are running into issues with this additional fee, because it’s become politicized. So, some states are actually leaning towards a one-time grant opportunity to fund 988 and to fund the call-takers, those who will be servicing the 988 systems. The issue with having a one-time grant is it’s one time. And this is something that needs to be sustainable, so that it can continue, stay funded, stay helpful.
"The issue can be that sometimes the states take over and they don’t want communities to drive solutions, when we know communities keep communities safe."
MSC: What are some gaps that 988 does not address?
THM: The hope is for 988 to one day be fully fleshed out, to be able to release mobile crisis response teams, or mobile crisis units as well call it on our website — it’s just not there yet, they’re still building the infrastructure for that. And a big portion of that, too, is the need for funding — you have to be able to fund things for them to work, you have to be able to pay people … When you’re this close to someone going through rough times you need to be compensated well for that. So the funding is needed; and consistent, sustainable funding — not these one time things.
We also need community involvement — we have some community response teams on our website but there are so many others out there … I’m hoping they’re able to be funded through 988 too. The issue can be that sometimes the states take over and they don’t want communities to drive solutions, when we know communities keep communities safe.
MSC: How can we help make 988 better?
THM: Our involvement is needed, because a system that you are not a part of, you’re not considered. It’s very important to be a voice at the table; or just a voice on the other side of the phone. The opportunities to become a call-taker, to become someone who is the voice … Listening to what they need, what they’re saying, providing them the best outlet for help — and the outlet could just be you, listening. It’s amazing to me what happens when people just listen; when people actually feel heard.
We need people on the other end of the phone who sound like the community that’s calling them. So if you’re someone who is empathetic to other people, who has a will to listen … Look up opportunities for employment, to be the voice someone hears when they’re upset … If you are someone who cares about people, who cares about solutions, who cares about public safety, the safety of individuals going through rough times, consider being a call-taker, consider going through the training to become one of those counselors … who are trained to de-escalate, to provide a soothing voice to hear you out in your darkest hour.
"We need people on the other end of the phone who sound like the community that’s calling them."
MSC: What can we do until 988 launches and while it’s being developed?
THM: Right now you can go to our website and look up our mobile crisis units. Look at your state, look at your area, find who’s in your area who can respond to your needs. Particularly if you’re someone who has had or knows of someone who’s had suicidal ideations, or someone who has manic episodes — become familiar now with the guide and the people in your area, before you need them. It’s always best to build familiarity before you need that help. So you can know what their processes are and you know the group that’s going to answer the phone … I encourage you to call [their administrative phone numbers and] just talk — say, what can I expect? I have a family member or a friend who has these things that happen every now and then, what would happen? I don’t want to engage the police — will they be encountered?
On our site it will tell you. We interview the people to ask them — will you include law enforcement? Some said yes, every time; some said only if a weapon is involved — ask them those questions, talk to them. [Save their] numbers now, so if … something happens with [a] loved one, or [you] see someone going through some distress, and it seems like they need help, [you] can call this number and know they have a better chance of surviving that interaction.
You can all help us build out our guide. If you look at our list and you know there’s a mobile crisis response team that’s local to you [that isn’t listed] … Please share with us: go to our website or email [email protected], and send us the name of the organization. We will call them [and ask] them the same questions … just to make sure we understand how they respond.
MSC: How do I know 988 is something safe that I can trust?
THM: We want … to [hear] what’s actually happening in the community. So, after you call 988 we would like to know what happened — so we can document it, we can keep up with it, we can actually report back to the implementation team.
Even for our mobile crisis guide: when you contact these different units, we would like to know what happened, did they get you the help they needed?
I was in contact with a woman in New York … Her nephew was having back to back manic episodes, and when they happen back to back they increase in intensity. They put him on a list — it was a six month wait to get in with a psychiatrist. The family did not want to engage law enforcement, it’s a Black family. So they went to our guide, and they called their local mobile crisis unit, who put them in contact with resources. They ended up actually taking him to the ER, because at some ERs – it should be all but it’s some – there are psychiatrists on staff that you can get in with. So he was able to avoid having to interact with law enforcement by referencing our guide.
And his aunt, the one who contacted me, was extremely grateful that she had that resource, that information. So we want to know from others: when you use our guide, what happens? We want to hear your stories, hear your experiences, we don’t want to share your name … We just want to know your experience so we can get better. We can let individuals know, who are in positions of power — you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, or you did, you did an excellent job, tell your colleagues [and share your knowledge in] keeping people safe and truly caring for people when they need us.
Navigating Tensions Within Capitalist Systems
Movement Strategy Center on Forging Authentic Relationships Between Funders and Movement Leaders
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.
View this post on Instagram
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.”
View this post on Instagram
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, LGBTQIA, and 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.
“Accountability can feel like being reprimanded but that’s not the intention, it’s dialog, it’s sharing, it’s willingness. Accountability is transparency and that means being open to correcting mistakes.”
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.”
“Don’t thingify, Humanify! Shifting our way of being is our tangible outcome. Systems change comes from big groups making big shifts of being.”
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.
MSC's 73 Questions with Aisha Shillingford
Movement Strategy Center Chats with Aisha Shillingford of Intelligent Mischief in a 73 Questions-Style Interview
Movement Strategy Center and Intelligent Mischief present MSC’s 73 Questions with Aisha Shillingford, creative director of Intelligent Mischief. This is our take on Vogue’s iconic 73 questions and in it we discuss Afrofuturism, art and design, movement building, social justice, the Golden Girls — all for MSC’s first-ever #GivingTuesday and End of Year Giving campaigns.
Credits
Talent: Aisha Shillingford
Videographer: Auden Barbour
Produced by: Movement Strategy Center
Essential Shifts in Funding Practices
Movement Strategy Center on How Philanthropy Must Evolve
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.
“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.”
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?
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.
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.
Reconsidering Regranting
Movement Strategy Center Re-imagines Equitable Regranting through Philanthropic Innovation
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.
“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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”