How Funders Can Deepen Their Support for a Black-led Movement Ecosystem
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Black Lives Matter Protest in Chicago. ryanbphotography/shutterstock
Right now, we are in the midst of an uprising for freedom. Across the country, movement leaders are organizing for racial, economic and social justice in the face of an unprecedented pandemic, the global rise of white supremacy and authoritarianism, and the continued and destructive impact of systemic racism.
Today, as the work of Black organizers and advocates makes broad systemic change—from defunding the police to reparations—not only possible but also imminent, this moment is a test of philanthropy’s character and integrity. Can we rise up and meet the occasion to resource social movements to the same degree as the organizers fighting on the frontlines of democracy, justice and freedom?
It’s great to see so many funders making important, yet long-overdue investments in Black-led nonprofits that have been historically underfunded and resourced. But philanthropy must also be willing to go the next step and intensify our efforts to ensure that movements have what they need to win now and for the long haul.
The structural racism exposed by the events of 2020 won’t be “solved” by a temporary shift in grant budgets. Activists are not seeking to return to the past, but are rather leaping toward what is possible for the future. Now is a time for far-reaching action to transform society so that Black lives are valued and protected. We need to mobilize resources to build a Black-led movement ecosystem with the strength and capacity to dismantle oppressive systems and advance visionary ideas and strategies for creating a more just, equitable and liberated future.
Since our inception, Solidaire Network has been committed to supporting Black liberation work by cultivating authentic, just and right relationships with Black-led organizations and community leaders, investing in movements so they can do the transformative work that benefits us all. As a community of donors and donor organizers, we know we must roll up our sleeves and work in partnership with social movements. Through our Black Liberation Pooled Fund, we are partnering with members of our donor network and beyond to move money to the powerful ecosystem of Black-led social change organizations around the country.
Here, we are sharing five priorities we’ve embraced for this funding effort so that more grantmakers can understand how their support can make the biggest difference:
Protect Movements Immediately
Movement leaders and their organizations are facing a heightened risk of violence and state repression, alongside the considerable stresses and harms of fighting racism 24/7. The danger is real and the need intense. Solidaire launched the Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund just two weeks ago, and already we have moved more than $900,000 in grants to groups across the country. Grantees are experiencing physical and digital threats of violence from white supremacists, militias and right-wing organizations. These threats have escalated—gaining in sophistication and frequency against movement organizations and key social justice leaders for months. Grantees are requesting urgent resources to secure the physical and digital safety of staff and volunteer leaders through steps that include home alarms and surveillance, along with digital scrubbing of personal and organizational information.
Resource Movement Infrastructure
Fund legal, communications, technology, financial, organizational development, healing, cultural work and leadership infrastructure to sustain and support our movements for the long term. Because structural racism is embedded not just into our systems but our institutions, movements need to build and sustain infrastructure from the ground up that allows for Black creativity to thrive and build power for Black communities. For example, the Highlander Research and Education Center serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the South. Through popular education, participatory research, cultural work, intergenerational organizing and more, Highlander develops leadership and helps create and support strong, democratic organizations that work for justice, equality and sustainability in their own communities and that join with others to build broad movements for social, economic and restorative environmental change.
Support Black Resistance
When we talk about Black resistance, we’re referring to those organizations and activities that are focused directly on dismantling and disrupting extractive, exploitative and oppressive systems steeped in structural racism. For example, the Movement for Black Lives is an ecosystem of over 170 Black-led organizations that works through a multiplicity of tactics to end the war on Black people. Its members work to end the disproportionate criminalization, incarceration, detention, deportation and killing of Black people.
Fund Black Futures
This means investing deeply in the work of envisioning and creating new institutions, deeply democractic governance structures and decolonized systems that recognize and respect the dignity of Black people. We believe there is no shortage of Black genius, innovation and agency. What is missing are the right investments in this work at scale and at the right time. For example, Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy is advancing structural shifts toward climate and ecological justice in communities of color in the Gulf South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas. Their work at the intersection of climate justice, migrant rights, land sovereignty and economic opportunity is positioned to create the climate-resilient future our communities deserve.
Liberate Wealth
Supporting Black liberation calls on philanthropy to liberate capital and wealth in new ways so we can build a durable Black movement for dignified Black lives. It means committing 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) dollars, tapping generously into our endowments, and organizing with peer funders to align our investments. It means investing in and trusting Black leadership. And it means making generational, multi-year commitments—think at least 10 years—of unrestricted funds and assets so Black-led groups have what they need to experiment and grow. Funders must resource social movements with the commitment to transform our society within a generation. That means liberating wealth commensurate to the level of systemic harm that has been done to Black communities. For example, Kataly Foundation (a Solidaire Member) believes that philanthropy must shift from charity to solidarity and share in the risk to transform our society to the same degree as frontline social movement leaders.
All too often, foundations hold tightly to assumptions and norms that make philanthropy a world apart from what’s happening on the ground in Black communities. It’s time to leave behind the rules and fund social movements so that Black-led groups have what they need to change our collective society for good. Ten years from now, when we who believe in freedom, human dignity and justice look back, let us be in a position to celebrate that when this movement asked us to step up and step in for our collective liberation, we replied with a most historical and resounding yes.
Nwamaka Agbo is CEO of the Kataly Foundation, which is forging a new relationship with social movements. Rajasvini Bhansali is executive director of Solidaire Network, which organizes funders and donors to move money to the front lines of social change.
