Movement Strategy Center Highlights Milestones, Stories, and Achievements from the Ecosystem

Community Chronicles is a seasonal shout-out to our ecosystem partners and their incredible achievements. Read on for some of the ways our ever-growing list of over 150 community-led and centered partners — including Fiscally Sponsored Projects (FSPs), the Movement Strategy Network (MSN), and grantees — are making the world a brighter place.

Like us, you may be reflecting on recent months with mixed emotions. While we entered the fall season full of hope and excitement, we’ve been traversing the stages of grief since early November. In light of recent events, we remain more committed than ever to creating a world of liberation, interdependence, and resilience; a world where we can thrive and uplift one another despite the voices of those who would like nothing more than to tear us apart. We all know the cliché about actions and words, but it’s true. Those voices may be loud, but our unity, empathy, and willingness to put in the work to create a better world for us all make ours louder. 

This showcase of fall happenings throughout the MSC ecosystem is a reminder that among today’s struggles there are activists, allies, and communities using art, advocacy, education, music, poetry, stories, and more to heal, grow, love, and stand up against hate. Read on for some highlights, stay informed with our monthly newsletter, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Threads so you don’t miss a moment of motivation.

The graphic created by Illustrating Progress during our Harvesting Resilience gathering.

Harvesting Resilience
MSC staffers recently joined our partners at Resonance Network and friends throughout the ecosystem for “Harvesting Resilience: Post-Election Community Gathering.” During this virtual event, we envisioned a world where we’ve created liberated communities together, where our mothers can rest, and where the wisdom of interdependence is celebrated. As we discussed what practices we can take with us (color therapy, laughter, sleep, time outdoors, and more), a graphic recorder from Illustrating Progress created a beautiful graphic to continue inspiring us as we move forward together.

Norma Wong’s book was released just in time to help us process the outcome of the election.

Learning from Norma Wong

MSC mentor Norma Wong is an 86th generation Zen master who developed the 60/40 Stance, one of our founding principles. Her new book, “When No Thing Works: A Zen and Indigenous Perspective on Resilience, Shared Purpose, and Leadership in the Timeplace of Collapse,” was released Nov. 5. This guide blends storytelling, poetry, and wisdom to explore resilience and leadership through Zen and Indigenous lenses. Drawing on these powerful traditions, she encourages us to rethink our approach to challenges and discover ways to work together toward shared goals, even in turbulent times. Wong recently joined Collective Acceleration for a virtual reading and discussion, which you can enjoy here. She was also a guest on the Nov. 12 episode of ”How to Survive the End of the World” (available on Apple podcasts/Spotify).

The inaugural Remember the Future fellows. Image courtesy of Art.coop.

Remembering the Future
Art.coop, an MSC fiscally sponsored project, recently launched the Remember the Future Fellowship (RTF), awarding $15,000 each to six arts and culture groups! Art.coop shared the meaning behind the fund’s name: “We know that the practices of cooperation are as ancient as culture itself … cultural workers have always been remembering ancestral practices as they build the futures of care that we need.” RTF enhances Art.coop’s mission to provide funding, ideas, and tools to artists, co-ops, and collectives that are actively building a solidarity economy, and are committed to sustaining systemic change through interdependence, with the resources to continue their work. Learn more about the inaugural fellows here and on our blog!

MSC staffers joined our partners at Love Wins NYC during one of their eight monthly food pantry distributions.

Letting Love Win in NYC
Love Wins NYC, a queer-centric organization serving a large population of LGBTQIA+ individuals, migrants, and survival sex workers, has been helping combat food insecurity in Queens, Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx since 2020. MSC staffers were inspired by our Nov. 1 visit to their Jackson Heights, Queens, location. We helped with food distribution (all fresh produce!) and got to know the Love Wins team, volunteers from Stonewall Community Foundation and New York Common Pantry, first-time volunteers, and members of the vibrant, diverse local neighborhood. Love Wins provides resources to 30,000 community members each year. Check out their list of locations and food pantry schedules here, and fill out their volunteer form here. Meet the team and read about our day with them on the Move Blog!

MSC staffers visited our two Saginaw, Mich.-based partners and learned how they’re unified in supporting their neighbors.

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighb
Earlier this year, MSC staffers visited Saginaw, Mich., and spent time with our partners from The Neighb and Saginaw Just Transition Indaba (SJTI). At The Neighb, a community center, neighbors are able to access a range of holistic services, including childcare, food services, and enrichment for children, families, and seniors. SJTI is working to reduce food and energy insecurity and redevelop the city’s old fairground into a park and recreation center, urban farm, and a community center that provides educational, cultural, social, and recreation opportunities to the community. Read about our visit and get to know the organizations on our blog!

Congratulations, Latinx Racial Equity Project!

Latinx Racial Equity Project (LREP) trains and inspires Latinos to lead from a framework of decolonization and racial equity. Borealis Philanthropy recently named LREP one of their Racial Equity to Accelerate Change (REACH) Fund grantees! The grant is designed to support grassroots entities, communities, and movements “dismantle entrenched systems of racism while embracing liberatory practices to co-create transformative futures.”

Happy Birthday, Alliance for Felix Cove!

Alliance for Felix Cove celebrated its third birthday in September! The Alliance is dedicated to preserving and restoring the ancestral Coast Miwok/Támal-ko homelands of the Felix family at Point Reyes National Seashore. They were recently named a Calif. coast grantee in the 2024 Liberated Paths Grantmaking Program, organized by Justice Outside, California Ocean Protection Council, and California State Coastal Conservancy. The program “supports outdoor initiatives and organizations that cultivate and celebrate the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color.” Founder and director Theresa Harlan recently discussed allyship with a local historian and a local resident. Learn more on our blog and with “Coming Home to the Cove,” a three-part podcast series featuring Harlan.

A Politics of Joy and Belonging. Image courtesy of Thrive Network / Thrive East Bay.

Finding Joy Where We Can
In September, our friends at Thrive Network / Thrive East Bay joined award-winning transformation facilitator Akaya Windwood, and musician activist BenjaSoul for “A Politics of Joy & Belonging.” The event, held in downtown Oakland and streamed on Zoom, was a celebration of freedom, love, justice, song, and renewal — a welcoming of joy back into our lives. Windwood, the co-author of “Leading with Joy” reminds us to “find joy where you can, stay steady, and keep breathing.”

And Right Here at MSC

Judith Leblanc on Moving Forward

MSC board member Judith Leblanc is a member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma and director of the Native Organizers Alliance, a national Native training and organizing network. In a recent opinion piece, she acknowledged that despite the painful history of Indigenous peoples in this country, they are poised to “fight to protect all that is sacred.” Leblanc was a guest on Laura Flanders and Friends; discussing what lies ahead for people and planet in the wake of the election with Flanders, Guerline Jozef from Haitian Bridge Alliance, and Serena Sebring from Blueprint North Carolina. Listen to the uncut interview here, and a shorter version here. Leblanc was also featured in a Native News Online piece highlighting six Indigenous activists creating meaningful change in a world full of historic and systemic injustice.

MSC board member and STEM Funders Network Executive Director Errika Moore.

Congratulations, Errika Moore!
MSC board member Errika Moore was named an inaugural awardee of the Kapor Foundation’s (part of the Kapor Center) research fellowship! Moore is inaugural executive director of STEM Funders Network, an MSC fiscally sponsored project dedicated to eliminating the barriers and inequities that prevent individuals from full participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning experiences and workforce development. Moore shared that the fellowship will support her as she completes her master’s degree at Georgia Tech, and her doctoral research on the “role of philanthropy in addressing systemic barriers and disparities in computer science education and STEM more broadly.”  Moore was also recently featured in a Society of Women Engineers piece on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Read the DEI piece here, and check out our conversation with Moore on our blog here!

To Restore the Future, You Must Know the Past

MSC Board member Anasa Troutman, founder of Movement Strategy Network member BIG We Foundation, wrote about Robert Reed Church in Nonprofit Quarterly. Church, the South’s (and possibly the country’s) first Black millionaire, owned businesses along Beale Street in Memphis, Tenn., and used his influence to support the “infrastructure, narrative, and social will that made wealth more creative for other black Memphians.” While Church aided in the development of a Black-middle class neighborhood in Memphis, the city looks quite different in 2024 — but Troutman reminds us we can continue to uphold his legacy of community and collaboration today.

MSC staffers in Atlanta, Ga.

MIIC at the Fiscal Sponsors Gathering
Members of MSC’s Movement Infrastructure and Innovation (MIIC) Team attended the National Network of Fiscal Sponsors annual gathering in Atlanta, Ga., a conference for fiscal sponsors from across the country. Our colleagues Lauren Wheat, Alejandra García Lezama, and Sophie Hou presented “Co-Designing Equity: A New Approach to Growing Financial Capacity with Fiscally Sponsored Projects.” During the session, they spoke about how fiscal sponsors can support projects with fundraising, and shared ways in which MSC can assist other fiscal sponsors in designing their own fundraising support programs. 

MSC staffers participated in a pilot program designed to promote wellness in the workplace.

Embedding Wellness into the Very Fabric of MSC’s Culture
In 2022, MSC’s Communications Team used a grant in support of staff wellness to design a program that offered discretionary stipends, self care, and culture-building activities alongside context and education around the Transformative Movement Building framework our organization was founded on. Internal surveys showed 95% of participants found the program helpful — now we just need to secure new funding to keep it going and expand it to our partner communities! Read more about the origins, successes, and challenges in a new report on the Move Blog, or in our collection of Resources.

Discover What’s New!
Catch up on all the latest happenings and insights in MSC’s monthly newsletters.

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