25 Powerful Ways Funders Can Support Social Movements

6/5/2018 25 Powerful Ways Funders Can Support Social Movements — Inside Philanthropy
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25 Powerful Ways Funders
Can Support Social
Movements
Solomé Lemma, Guest Contributor
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So funders, you want to offer support to social
movements? Here’s the essence of what you need to
do, boiled down:
1. Get uncomfortable.
2. Move more money.
In the 30-plus years that Thousand Currents has been
operating in the global philanthropy and social change
space, we’ve come to learn intimately the difference
between supporting a cause or an issue, an
organization or a movement. Here’s our understanding
of some of the key characteristics of social movements:
Movements are generally focused on moving systems,
structures and institutions toward justice and equity.
(FYI, philanthropy is, itself, an institution.) This
means fundamentally changing society’s status quo,
not just making changes to service delivery for “poor
people” (though this clearly remains important and
has strategic and tactical importance in movements).
Movements build community and momentum in
response to a specific need or social condition or
vision, or all three. They resemble an umbrella, rather
than any organogram, including and gathering more
and more individuals, campaigners, formal and
informal groups, policy analysts, civil society
organizations, media makers, etc., all taking
coordinated steps.
Most importantly, what differentiates movements from
other social good efforts is that they are rooted in and
led by “the people.” This collective leadership can take
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many forms, but it is seen in its accountability to
people—not boards nor funders.
Movements are characterized by systemic analysis and
agenda in order to take principled, collective, direct
action and create targeted strategic pressure. Just as
much as they may include joint efforts on policy
advocacy, narrative shift, community organizing and
mobilizing popular support, movements are
phenomena. However, sometimes, they are standalone
efforts working to push a new or excluded agenda
forward. Movements vary greatly, as the context and
the people decide the configuration that a movement
takes.
Now, if you still want to keep learning about how to
effectively support these ever-moving, sometimes
nebulous, and interconnected groups of humans trying
to achieve change together around the world, here are
some additional insights Thousand Currents can offer
on moving with movements in practice.
3. Be clear: Funders don’t start movements.
They fund. They can connect. They may convene. They
can facilitate (sometimes, if requested to do so). They
can encourage. They back, but they don’t build.
Building is the work of movement leadership.
4. Don’t predicate your support on a formal
organizational registration. Movements take many
forms and often don’t fit into bureaucratic boxes.
Limiting your funding to a particular structure
undermines the emergent and dynamic nature of
movements, and stifles impact.
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5. Make the case for why YOU (funder) should be the
one supporting the movement(s) instead. Be prepared.
6. See multiple entry points to movements.
Don’t get attached to one group or one leader within a
movement. Learn about the various actors and
relationships within a movement, and identify the
multiple entry points through which you can provide
support.
7. Know that movement leaders are taking all
the risks; their lives, families, communities are on
the line. At the recent Edge Funders Alliance meeting
in New Orleans, community organizer and co-
executive director of Freedom Inc., M. Adams, said,
"People who work in movements have little and give
everything they have materially, emotionally,
collectively... I challenge you funders to try to match
what we give with your money."
8. Be really clear about your lines of
accountability to movements. If you support a
movement, you are accountable to that movement.
What will your contribution be to their
priorities/efforts? How will you report to them on your
activities? How will they offer feedback to you? Be
ready with the flexibility this will require. These
interactions will continually shift how you support
movements.
9. Be prepared to be challenged. Movements pose
questions to address fundamental injustices. This is
their core work, in fact, and this will apply to your
organization, too. For example, where your funding
comes from will be called into question. Consider:
What are you willing to grapple with internally in yourSHARES

organization or institution? Partnerships with
movements will not make it easy for you. See #1 above.
10. Provide long-term, core funding. This means
for as long as it takes. Social transformation doesn’t
happen overnight. This also means no strings, no
conditions. If movement partners want to pay the light
bill or start a new campaign, it must be up to them. If
they want to change their strategies and tactics, they
can. You remain flexible.
11. Be mindful of time as a crucial resource for
movements and be sure you’re not asking more of it
than is actually required. Do your work. This means
stop asking already-busy and stretched movements to
take on more labor than they need to. Be clear up front
about what information you will need (including
correspondence, not just reporting) and be ready to
negotiate. Thinking we should have all the information
at our fingertips, all the time, is a privilege that
funders of movements must release. Do you need to
send that email with a question, or can you look up the
data yourself?
12. Do NOT blur your role. You may fancy yourself
an activist, but our roles as funders of movements
should be the primary responsibility and identity when
engaging with them. Let the lines be clear so that you
are not distorting power, which will be another unfair
burden on movements.
13. Be ready for the rejection of your ideas and
input. Do not be defensive. Again, this means: Do.
Your. Work. And this means embracing the personal,
emotional work of setting aside your ego and listening.
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14. You don’t speak for movements, because you
are not the face nor the emissary, nor the proxy nor the
overseer of movements. You speak publicly only about
the support your organization offers to movements.
15. Get with your people. Show up for the
movements you support in philanthropic spaces like
funders’ affinity groups and conferences. That’s where
your voice matters. Use your access to move more
money!
16. Quit looking for a “toolbox” on supporting
movements. After funding grassroots efforts for over
30 years at Thousand Currents, we are still
experimenting and making mistakes. What we have
learned is that our work is not about having the correct
tools or technical fixes, nor sharing answers or the
“one right way.” Rather, our support to movements
requires grounding ourselves in collective, iterative
learning.
17. Your funder timelines don’t matter.
Movements, and our partnerships with them, have to
move at the speed of trust to have any chance at
succeeding.
18. Commit to doing your homework. The history
of social movements in the U.S. and around the world
is shrouded and obscured within mainstream culture.
That means many of us have much more to learn.
19. Learn that organizing is not sexy. It is under-
recognized and under-valued work that only becomes
visible when there are tipping points that garner wider
public attention. For example, before #MeToo arrived
as a mainstream discourse last year, Tarana Burke hadSHARES

been meeting with 10 to 15 sexual assault survivors at a
time since 2006, doing the hard and slow work behind
that hashtag, about which she says, “Hearing ‘me too’
can change the trajectory of the healing process.”
20. Shift from individual to the collective in our
own personal and professional orientation as funders.
This means acting together and understanding how to
challenge perspectives that reflect isolationism and
instrumentalism.
21. Expand your definition of what leadership
is. What is required of movement leaders is not about
rising within traditional top-down hierarchies.
Instead, movement leaders have new and more fluid
ways of working; they are adept at stepping aside and
letting others lead. Within shifting contexts, they have
to know how to guide people again and again to the
greater good, and to cultivate and build upon collective
learning. Let’s say goodbye to the singular, charismatic
leader trope.
22. Think about how all the -isms show up.
Becoming ever more aware of how social identities
contribute to overlapping oppression and
discrimination doesn’t mean that you automatically
have to abandon funding focus areas. Funding with
intersectionality in mind demands that we continually
consider multiple perspectives in our funding
strategies.
23. Representation matters. This will require some
potentially difficult interrogation on the extent to
which your own organization’s staff and leadership
reflect the movements’ leadership.
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24. Know how and when to ask the right kinds
of questions, ones that unleash “next level”
thinking/planning. And if you don’t know how, then
just listen and learn some more.
25. Move beyond platitudes. No, seriously. For
example, the philanthropy sector has been talking
about endowment spend-downs for decades. Ask
yourself: What stops us from ensuring the wealth flows
to “endow” and sustain movements? See #1 and #2
above.
In fact, when in doubt about anything regarding
funding progressive social movements, see #1 and #2
above.
Solomé Lemma is the Deputy Director of Thousand
Currents and co-founder of Africans in the Diaspora.
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