The EDGEy Wednesdays
In the last four years, the EDGEy Wednesdays have become a cornerstone of EDGE programming, providing a platform for members to share initiatives, explore practices of progressive and solidarity philanthropy, and invite peers to collective actions.
With the launch of EDGE’s new strategy in 2025, we envision a slight shift in the focus of EDGEy Wednesdays. We aim for these sessions to become a space for presenting actionable work, peer-to-peer learning, and fostering accountability within the philanthropic sector. Rooted in the tactics of our strategic framework, EDGEy Wednesdays should prioritize exploring practical ways to dismantle extractive grantmaking practices, organize among peers to influence systemic shifts, and develop tools and strategies to implement transformative change.
We aim to deepen our collective understanding of how to operationalize systemic change in philanthropy, understanding what needs to be funded to achieve justice-driven outcomes, and why these shifts are critical for the future of philanthropy.
The EDGEy Wednesdays has grown to be monthly space at EDGE that is led by members of our global network. If you are an EDGE member and interested in organizing a meeting, please do reach out to Martina at martina@edgefunders.org!
2024 Sessions
Shifting the Power in Research – Key Insights from the IOUH x Wellcome Partnership
This session, led by Impact on Urban Health and the Wellcome Trust, will highlight key insights from their four-year partnership, Shifting the Power in Research.
Chained funding and movement sustainability: transitioning from funding to different type of collaborations
The session aims to make a case for chained funding support and intergenerational bridging to uphold movement sustainability. To do this, we spark some candid conversations around our first comings into contact with social movements and, second, anchor such conversations in the importance of bridging the movement incubator work.
Increasing availability of resources for Environmental Defenders: lessons learned from a collaborative Rapid Response práxis
A session exploring lessons learned from supporting Human Rights and Environmental Defenders in Brazil, including data on impacts, results, and articles written by guest experts in the field,
Que Paguen: How communities are organizing against corporate power in Latin America
This session explores strategies for building a powerful movement in Latin America, maximizing community resistance tools, the importance of in-person organizing, and connecting local and global efforts against corporate power, featuring a video on extractivism resistance and insights on corporate impacts in Argentina from the Indigenous Mapuche Confederation.
Collective Transformation: Funding Narrative Ecosystems to Build Power
This session explores how funders can better support groups using narrative strategies, analyze and challenge common narratives in philanthropy, and focus on practices and mindsets needed to redistribute power and strengthen narrative ecosystems and infrastructure.
EDGEy Wednesday: So you think you’ve ‘done’ participation
In this EDGEy Wednesday, we discuss the Advancing Participation in Philanthropy Tool (APPT), which helps foundations enhance participation, inclusion, and power shifting across governance, grantmaking, and evaluation.
Reimagining philanthropy’s role in supporting social justice movements
This EDGEy Wednesday focuses on reimagining philanthropy’s role in supporting social justice movements, identifying ways to create programs and practices that provide essential care, mitigate risk, and empower leaders to achieve lasting change.
Creating More Effective Feminist Movements: Albinism, a case-study in intersectionality
Taking as a jumping-off point the Bosch publication, The Transformative Power of Intersectionality, shared ahead of last September’s EDGEy Wednesday conversation, “Is there a recipe for applying intersectionality?” we will delve deeper into these questions and more!
“Putting money at the service of movements – The Climate Justice focused Abundance Fund”
What happens when you give a group of climate justice organisers a bunch of money and tell them to dream big? That is exactly what the experiment that led to Collective Abundance was all about. And now? This EDGEy Wednesdays explores what it means to fund more freely, despite common barriers, and in line with visions for well-resourced and climate-just communities.
Previous Sessions
Community Organising in Philanthropy – Building Political Power with and for Movements
An energizing, political and engaging conversation, which was co-led by EDGE members Sarah and Jeff from Multitudes Foundation and Martha from the Civic Power Fund, with the important insights of organizing practices from Love and Power and Démocratiser la Politique!. The conversation showed that philanthropy can play a vital role in resourcing groups to raise their own money — backing them for the long-term to build a membership base that can transform initial philanthropic investment into sustainable, self-generated income.
Giving with Both Hands: Aligning Investments and Philanthropy Under the Same Vision
Over a decade ago, Seth Tabatznik, Founder of Be The Earth, sat in a board meeting that changed his life. He discovered that some of his family’s for-profit investments were doing the exact opposite of what their philanthropic funding was aiming to achieve: giving with one hand yet taking with the other. Ever since, Seth has been on a journey to align 100% of his capital with his values. With his partner, he started Be The Earth in 2019 in order to combine all the forms of capital of which he was custodian under a single vision.
Is there a Recipe for Applying Intersectionality?
In this session, we shared insights from the Support Program for Reducing Inequalities through Intersectional Practice, a grants program initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung (RBS) in 2020. We heard about the experiences of two of the program partners, Calala Women’s Fund and Global Greengrants Fund, along with RBS, reflected on the process of embedding intersectionality in their work, and shared core principles and lessons learned that can be useful for other funders embarking on a similar journey.
Trans masculine communities in Latin America and their role in the reproductive justice and feminist movements
In this EDGEy Wednesday, we learned about trans masculine advocacy in Latin America and dug into the role of trans masculine communities in feminist movements for reproductive justice and bodily autonomy.
Donors addressed why they fund trans masculine groups based in Latin America. The Network of American Trans Men and People Assigned Female at Birth Collectives (REDCATH+) was used as as a case study.
Funding journalism: on its value and why there’s something in it for more funders than you think
The role of independent journalism in society has never been more important than in the current moment. It is what builds a bridge between communities and ensures balanced information is available to all. Over the past decade, media oppression has been on the rise in both authoritarian states and open societies in Europe. Media organisations and freelance journalists alike increasingly turn to philanthropic funders for support to continue their work despite increasingly difficult conditions.
Journalism Funders Forum (JFF) aims to support the funding landscape for journalism in Europe through three strands of work. Firstly, by improving learning opportunities and knowledge about journalism funding across the continent. Secondly, the forum works to diversify and increase the number of journalism funders in Europe, as well as foster connections between them. Thirdly, the forum strives to help build a more effective, transparent and equitable funding environment for journalism in Europe.
This session was planned by EDGE member Democracy and Media Foundation
Nuclear Power? Bridging the Gap Between Perception and Reality
Philanthropy has increasingly shifted grantmaking from nuclear power to climate. That is now backfiring. Renewed discussions about nuclear power are distracting from immediately available, indispensable, economic, climate-effective measures. With the help of two experts, we want to shed light on major current challenges to independent research and to campaigning.
Both fields are confronted with a fundamental funding problem while nuclear propagandists and industry lobbyists have successfully led mainstream media and decision makers into nuclear la-la-land. We want to get the industry record straight and discuss how funding can help independent research and campaigning.
The session was led by EDGE member Philip Bedall from Grassroots Foundation, and included input from Mycle Schneider, Coordinator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) Project and Jan Haverkamp, Senior Expert Nuclear Energy, WISE. If you are a funder who is interested in supporting the important work of WNISR, please reach out.
A recording is available but is password protected, reach out to get access.
Righting the Wrongs: How Foundations are Using Money as Medicine?
“Money should be a tool of love, to facilitate relationships, to help us thrive, rather than to hurt and divide us. If it’s used for sacred, life giving restorative purposes, it can be medicine.Money, used as medicine can help us decolonize” Decolonizing Wealth: Edgar Villanueva, 2021
Vanessa Thomas from Decolonizing Wealth Project is in conversation with Celia Mckeon of Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Vy T. Nguyen of Weingart Foundation, to share how their foundations have confronted the histories of their wealth, the harm this has caused, and how they are now redressing this to use money as medicine.
Participatory grantmaking in action: Review of five years of FundAction
A lively and collaborative conversation, which brought up different experiences in adapting participatory approaches and important questions around what meaningful participation really is and how we can successfully cultivate that.
Theft by Deception: Land Grabs, Pension Funds, and Land Speculation from Brazil to the US
Organized by EDGE member Lydia Simas (Grassroots International). This session was about land grabs impacting rural communities, particularly in Brazil but also the U.S. and other regions, fueled by pension funds such as TIAA and Harvard speculating with land, particularly impacting Black and Indigenous farmers and traditional communities. We discussed the issue as well as the international coalition of grassroots groups, environmental organizations, students and faculty that was formed to respond with a strategy of exposing institutional investors, building local pressure and transnational advocacy to cancel land deals, securing land rights, stop corporate land grabs and protect delicate ecosystems.
Navigating internal power structures to support anti-racist work
A session led by Jenny Oppenheimer (Lankelly Chase) & Nani Jansen Reventlow (Human Rights Lawyer).
Inner-Led Transformation
Organised by Romy Kraemer (Guerrilla Foundation) and Janosch Sbeih (Full Circle Foundation), this meeting explored the role and importance of inner work for social change and how foundations might support activists and grassroots organizers by funding personal transformation and work at the level of organisational culture.
In this blog post, we are offering a snapshot of the presentation given by our organizers and speakers. We have also uploaded the recording of the webinar online, but decided to keep it password protected to maintain the privacy of our participants. If you are interested in watching it, you can reach out to the EDGE team.
Holding healing and decolonization spaces
A session organized by Galina Angarova (Cultural Survival) & Daisee Frouncour (Cultural Survival) with Avexnim Cojti (Cultural Survival).