On October 4th, 2018, EDGE Funders Alliance, in collaboration with global representatives of It Takes Roots, hosted a webinar on the “People’s Orientation: What Happened, Takeaways and Next Steps.”

For a global audience of close to 100 funders, grassroots, frontline leaders from the member alliances of It Takes Roots (Climate Justice Alliance, Grassroots Global Justice, Indigenous Environmental Network and Right to the City Alliance) described the activities and outcomes of Solidarity to Solutions (Sol2Sol) week in San Francisco, and shared the floor with representatives of the allied funder circle who worked collaboratively with movement leaders to plan the People’s Orientation for funders, in response to the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS).

Touching on what happened inside and outside GCAS, presenters shared takeaways and proposed next steps for movement and philanthropic leaders, discussing ways in which global funders can support truly systemic solutions to intersecting global crises.

In addition to a recap of the Sol2Sol/GCAS week in San Francisco, we discussed connections to global struggles and solutions, as well as the tenets of “systemic change philanthropy,” what it means and how you can start to implement its principles in your work.

For more information on next steps, including how you can become a “systems change funder” or how you can join us in holding philanthropy accountable to real climate solutions that center communities and grassroots movements, please email Samantha Harvey at EDGE: samantha@edgefunders.org. She will connect you with allied funders and share information on continuing discussions.

Moderator

Samantha Harvey Samantha Harvey is a Fellow with EDGE Funders Alliance, supporting a global cohort of funders and movement partners to co-learn and build strategies toward systemic alternatives to the extractive economy. Until recently, she was a Program Officer with The Overbrook Foundation, where she developed the Foundation’s Environment and Movement Building programs, and helped co-found Building Equity and Alignment for Impact, a grassroots-led initiative with the goals of shifting resources to the grassroots organizing sector and supporting equitable partnerships between grassroots, mainstream green groups and philanthropy. She is a graduate of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, and her writing can be found in Earth Island Journal, Truthout, Alternet, Medium, The Dark Mountain Project and more.

Presenters

Alison Corwin is a Senior Program Officer for Sustainable Environments at the Surdna Foundation. She engages in grantmaking to develop and support how communities of color and low-wealth communities build accountability, alternatives and democratic muscle to promote infrastructure development that simultaneously aims to achieve racial equity, and economic, environmental and climate justice. Click here for complete bio

 

 

Angela Adrar has committed her life to advancing the role of the grassroots sector; she provides agile leadership and structure to address and adapt to the changing and complex priorities of local communities while influencing national and international agendas. She has served as a leading member organizations from the local to the international, including: La Via Campesina North America (LVC-NA), US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA), the Building Equity and Alignment for Impact (BEA), US Friends of Movement of Dam Affected Peoples (MAB) and others. Click here for complete bio.

 

 

Cindy Wiesner is a 25-year veteran of the social justice movement in the U.S. and internationally who currently serves as the national coordinator of the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. She is also a steering committee member of the Climate Justice Alliance, a group she co-founded, she plays a leadership role in the Peoples Climate Movement that organized the massive mobilizations in New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco in recent years, and is an advisor to Groundswell’s new Liberation Fund. Click her for complete bio.

 

 

Davin Cardenas is the Co-Director and founding staff of the North Bay Organizing Project in Sonoma County, and is a coordinator for the Homes for All campaign of the Right to the City Alliance. The North Bay Organizing Project has been developing leaders and working on issues of immigration policy, student justice, environmental justice, and tenant protections in Sonoma County for the last 7 years. Davin previously worked as the first community organizer at the outset of the Graton Day Labor Center, from 2004 – 2011, and graduated from Sonoma State University with a B.A. in Liberal Studies in 2004.

 

 

Kat Gilje is Executive Director of Ceres Trust. Ceres Trust, whose name honors the ancient goddess of agriculture, provides grants that support healthy and resilient farms, forests and communities; and the ecosystems upon which we all depend. Ceres Trust focuses on grassroots leadership and organizing, equity, and movement building toward systemic and transformational change. Click here for complete bio.

 

 

Mateo Nube is one of the co-founders of the Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project. He was born and grew up in La Paz, Bolivia. Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he has worked in the labor, environmental justice and international solidarity movements. Mateo is the son of Barbara, and fortunate father of Maya and Nilo. He is also a member of the Latin rock band Los Nadies. Mateo is national co-chair of the Climate Justice Alliance’s Steering Committee.

 

 

Since the late 1980’s, Tom B.K. Goldtooth has been involved with environmental related issues and programs working within tribal governments in developing indigenous-based environmental protection infrastructures. Tom works with indigenous peoples worldwide. Click her for complete bio.