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.
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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, 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.
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.”