Empowering Social Change: Holistic Strategies for Effective Philanthropy

To drive lasting social change, funders must embrace a holistic approach beyond traditional methods. This piece explores key strategies I employ as a grantmaker, enhancing movements by fostering connections, trust, and adaptable funding. While there's no universal formula, active listening to grassroots activists and acknowledging power dynamics are crucial.

It's essential to hire individuals from the movements being funded. They bring firsthand grassroots experience and deep insight into challenges, especially beneficial for funders new to the focus area. This practice builds a strong bridge between funders and movements, decolonizing funding methods and fostering trust with grantee partners. Ultimately, it strengthens the bond between the movement and the funders.

Collective strategy spaces are vital for movements, allowing experimentation and learning from failures. Success in social change isn't always linear; it hinges on unity, processes, and connections. Funders often demand unrealistic success indicators, leading organizations to replicate ineffective strategies to secure funding. 

We must create a safe space for movement partners and grantee partners to share concerns, adjust priorities, and learn from failures. We should revise standards to align with reality, empowering movements to adapt effectively.

The Non-Profit Industrial Complex promotes a social movement culture that is non-collaborative, narrowly focused, and competitive. To retain the support of benefactors, groups must compete with each other for funding by promoting only their own work, whether or not their organizing strategies are successful. This culture prevents activists from having collaborative dialogues where we can honestly share our failures as well as our successes.

― INCITE! (2017) Women of Color Against Violence. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Duke University Press. (Original work published 2007)

Limited funding often leads organizations within the same movements to compete which strains community solidarity and hinders collaboration. This competition fosters individualized efforts, shifting focus from the movement to individual organizations. To prevent funding monopolization and promote collective impact, funders should consider the broader impact of their support. This can include offering collaboration grants, diversifying funding for non-long-time partners, supporting strategy spaces, and engaging with various community actors to assess needs and funding dynamics.

Movement actors and grantee partners often face numerous risks in their work, including external threats like police repression and internal challenges such as weak safety infrastructure. Funders must acknowledge these risks, collaborate with affected parties to map them out, and provide tools for safety and security.

Holistic support should encompass addressing burnout, offering wellness tools, promoting time off, and emphasizing collective and self-care. Direct investments in partner well-being, such as complementary activities and rest spaces, are crucial.

The Equality Fund's Wellness and Collective Care grants were highly appreciated by partners, highlighting the importance of addressing burnout and nurturing well-being. Funders can further support well-being by funding psychosocial support, healing practices, and basic benefits identified by organizations and staff.

Continuous support for digital safety is also essential, including offering digital safety packages, workshops, and resources to help activists navigate the digital landscape securely.

FRIDA the Young Feminist Fund stresses that movement actors are experts in their realities and possess the tools for change. However, they are often undervalued by funders. Trusting their expertise is crucial for social change, starting with involving them in strategic discussions, providing sustainable funding, and allowing flexibility in strategies.

As highlighted in "Toward a Feminist Funding Ecosystem" by AWID, empowering activists to define funding priorities in dialogue with funders is essential for a balanced ecosystem. This approach ensures that funding aligns with the evolving needs and aspirations of the activists themselves.

Movements and change would not exist without spaces to meet, co-create, exchange, and learn. Convenings remain of utmost importance to carry on the work, learn from other experiences, build trust, and collaborate on and exchange strategies. However, funders often do not prioritize these convening spaces, mainly because they can be costly, particularly post-COVID.

Feminist and LBTQI groups need spaces that bridge issues and borders to build relationships, share information, and develop strategies for leadership, research, advocacy, and collective action. Providing funding for convenings, especially when they are led by or co-designed with activists, is an effective strategy to spark collaborations and deepen partnerships. Donors can support these kinds of peer exchanges and learning opportunities by drawing connections across country and regional programs and engaging with grantee partners about what they most need.

– Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice's feminist guiding principles

Philanthropic advocacy is vital in the funding ecosystem, connecting donors with grassroots organizations and influencing how funds are allocated. Donors can serve as references, recommend organizations, and collaborate with partners to highlight funding conditions and challenges faced by movement actors. Research provides evidence of funding gaps, emphasizing the need for practices that prioritize trust, flexibility, and community engagement.

Capacity strengthening and accompaniment are not isolated concepts but are integrated into the collaborative process with grantee partners and movement actors. This approach, centered on care, trust, and respect, involves co-creation and co-design. Funders can provide crucial support by sharing learning resources, offering opportunities for learning, funding experts, facilitating connections, and providing mentoring opportunities.

In conclusion, the strategies discussed in this piece have been instrumental for me, personally, in developing an effective approach to funding social change by strengthening efforts, fostering connections, and building trust with movement actors. However, it's important to acknowledge that these insights are based on personal experiences, and other grantmakers may have different perspectives. Social change is complex and requires flexibility and openness to diverse methods as what works in one context may not be universal. The journey toward social change is non-linear, demanding continuous adaptation and collaboration. Embracing holistic strategies while recognizing the limitations of personal experiences can contribute to a more equitable and effective funding ecosystem. 

References:

• INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence INCITE! (2017). The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Duke University Press. (Original work published 2007)

• Equality Fund. (n.d.). We moved together. In Equality Fund. https://inmotion.equalityfund.ca/we-moved-together

• FRIDA- The Young Feminist Fund. (n.d.). Garden of Change. https://youngfeministfund.org/GardenOfChange/

• The Association for Women’s Rights in Development [AWID]. (2019). Toward a feminist funding ecosystem. https://www.awid.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/AWID_Funding_Ecosystem_2019_FINAL_Eng.pdf

• Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. (n.d.). Feminist funding principles. https://astraeafoundation.org/microsites/feminist-funding-principles/