What is a Funders Alliance?

Written by EDGE Senior Advisor Amanda Mercedes Gigler

The EDGE Funders Alliance. Someone recently asked me, “what do you actually mean by alliance?” We were talking about what it would take on a practical level to bring a more intersectional approach into EDGE’s programs. This question brought me back to an explanation I have heard over the years: “EDGE is an alliance of funders with movements.” But still, what does that mean?

In my last blog I wrote about a few of the common threads that have been coming up in the many conversations I’ve been having with funders and activists over the past few months. The main message from activists was for funders to stop parsing out funding in theme-specific grantmaking programmes and, rather, to fund more holistically. The main message from funders was that they want to continue to learn from movements. And what I heard and read from many people was that funders need to put more effort into organizing themselves.

Alliance: a political tool

This leads me to reflect on the “alliance” being the political tool and generative space for funders to organize their intentions, access, privilege and resources into grantmaking. The alliance is also the place for funders to admit they don’t have all (or even most) of the answers and to support each other to keep doing (keep making grants!) while they also keep learning, adapting and improving. And this alliance is also the space for funders that are committed to justice and systemic change to influence each other to fund more and better, and work together to convince others in philanthropy to also do so.

Alliance as allyship

It is this onus of self organizing on funders that makes me think of what good allyship could be. Because it’s not just that funders need to organize – the goal is some sort of action, some sort of change. This prompts the question: Is a funders’ alliance with and for movements also a form of allyship? An ally does the work of self-educating before they enter the conversation, they listen, show up and take action, collaborate and take responsibility. Perhaps allyship is a useful way to start to unpack and understand what this alliance at EDGE is.

Learning while and by doing

Inviting people from social movements and activists to the EDGE conferences

This was a practice of one of EDGE’s precursors, Grantmakers Without Borders (Gwob). I think this has been a practice that has been touted to have a lot of potential for building this alliance, and in reality this has sometimes played out as tokenizing, extractive, disempowering and painful for movement representatives.

What can be learned? It’s not enough to invite movement representatives to an annual conference individually or disparately. EDGE has learned from movements that they want and need resources and space to self-organize before and in parallel to engagement with funders. And when inviting people from movements into a funder space, be transparent about why they are being invited, provide compensation, travel and time stipends, and consider this part of a long-term commitment to engage with movements.

Many of these things have been done in different EDGE conferences and convenings, and there are always opportunities for funders to do this more conscientiously.

Including people from social movements in some of the programmatic offerings, like the Gender Justice Initiative, the Climate Justice Working Group and others

What is happening in these spaces? People – both funders and movement representatives – involved in these groups have told me that more intention is needed from funders on building and caring for relationships with people from social, climate and other movements. Sometimes staff turnover in foundations (and EDGE) has contributed to weakening relationships or to transactional exchange, where a movement representative is invited to present content, is compensated, but has been engaged in little or limited follow up.

The opportunity here – again, this happens to some extent – is to remember that we are human beings, people with ideas, histories, interests, emotions, desires. And as soon as we connect, we are in relationship. And relationships require care.

Supporting movement-only spaces when there is an intention there will be some form of engagement by the movement representatives with EDGE or its membership

I hesitated to include this as an example because when EDGE has done this – supported and/or facilitated movement-only spaces – the question of “is this EDGE’s role?” emerges and there does not seem to be consensus. (At least amongst the sample of a few dozen members I’ve spoken with about this.) This has taken the form of a separate space in a physical meeting, such as in the Funder/Movement Encontro in 2019 in Rio de Janeiro.

Another example is a current process called the Economic Justice Dialogues, which brings together feminist leaders and activists to build knowledge and relationships with compassionate, flexible facilitation that centers care and repair rather than outputs and outcomes.

What can be learned? A lot. 1) be transparent about who is convening and proposing the space/process, why, how long it will be resourced and with what expectations; 2) if funders’ interests are to learn from movements or at some point engage with the movement-only space, then make that clear from the start; 3) in addition to compensating movement folks for the time they contribute to these processes, provide additional core funding to the movement organizations involved.

Why do I suggest two forms of financial support? Compensation for time brings attention to the time commitment from each individual. Resourcing the organizations that the participants are members of or work for recognizes that the contributions and efforts of all people draw from collective experience and knowledge.

And above all when initiating or even quietly supporting a movement-only space or process, funders need to take into account power dynamics and relationships and take responsibility for the impact of the power that they have as resource-holders and resource-deciders.

Holding funder-only spaces where EDGE members learn from and share with each other on the politics of funding, on the role of social justice philanthropy in systemic change work, on power, on grantmaking tools and practices, and more.

What can be learned? As important as it is for funders to have conversations just amongst themselves and to be proactive about organizing themselves, it is even more crucial for funders to proactively, frequently and succinctly share what is discussed, questioned and decided directly with movements.

My proposal: consistently share notes of all funder-only meetings back with movements – or implement other accountability mechanisms that increase transparency and decrease the burden on movements to figure out what funders are thinking, doing and planning.

As I write this, EDGE staff tell me they are already starting to do this by sharing notes from members’ dialogues in its blog. Great! Let’s make sure the information is accessible and actionable.

Concluding and continuing

These are only a few of the organizing aspects that contribute to the continued evolution of an alliance of funders that seeks to better work with and for movements. And while there have been challenges along the way, the importance of organizing within philanthropy to support justice, human and planetary healing, and systemic change is evident. By fostering open spaces, nurturing relationships, supporting movement-only spaces and promoting transparency around intentions and expectations, the EDGE community can continue to evolve, experiment and meaningfully contribute to (and fund) the movements that are the reason we are all here – at our organizations, at EDGE, doing this work.

As I continue my own work to learn, reflect and advise on EDGE’s programmatic offering, I would also continue to welcome your feedback. And I’m looking forward to this year’s EDGE gathering in Berlin in October – and to sharing space, food, ideas and the dance floor with you there!

Contact Amanda (amanda@edgefunders.org) with any questions.

If you would like to learn more about the EDGE Funders Network or be a part of our community, reach out to contactus@edgefunders.org.