Such a fascinating read! I am so excited to follow this series. With apologies for the following novella 🫣 I have some immediate questions and thoughts!
First, I love the detailed quotes in this piece and the brass tacks of how these alternative funding structures took shape. I can’t tell from this piece whether Vanguard funded orgs or collectives without 501c3 status, or orgs engaging in high-profile direct actions. Do you have any plans to explore how that kind of “high risk” (by modern philanthropy’s metrics, certainly) organizing was funded in the 60s and 70s — like SNCC and CORE? Or even outfits like the BLA and the Weather Underground?
Records are kind of hard to come by, and for good reason!, but I believe it was individual wealthy people (or children of wealthy people) connected to those orgs who routed funding, alongside small-dollar grassroots gifts and membership dues in some cases. I know the flexibility cost created by the setup of modern philanthropy has been explored in detail by INCITE and others. But I don’t hear as often about the cost of losing the kind of rooted, mutually beneficial relationships the donors and organizers in this excerpt describe, and this connection does seem more rare these days as orgs have professionalized and scaled.
I know people much smarter and more experienced than me have been trying to figure out how to scale more flexible funding for movements and how to deepen donor/movement relationships, and have had lots of success over the last decade for sure. But I’m not sure how many grassroots movement orgs are read in on this history or the potential lessons for fundraising strategy today (and thus many remain funded primarily by risk-averse foundations, etc, and approach fundraising transactionally to boot). This piece and the book referenced seem like a great option for popular ed to that end.
On a separate note, this quote really got me:
“Another shortcoming of the alternative foundations is that in comparison to traditional philanthropy or the government, they actually have so little money to give. Altogether, the local funds and national grant-making programs of the Funding Exchange network distribute only about $5 million a year. There may be some merit to small-scale charity, especially because the recipient groups have modest budgetary needs.”
It’s no longer the case that “recipient groups have modest budgetary needs,” given that neoliberalism has since folded and we now have to go toe to toe with authoritarian regimes, which requires building bases big enough and strong enough to contend for real power. I know that there are many large movement orgs that have had meaningful successes here, and that there are philanthropies very aware of the need to scale movement $$ and size (Freedom Together comes to mind). With that in mind, I’d be really curious to see any metrics on how giving to the Left/progressive groups tracks against giving to the right wing over the course of the last several decades. My guess is that much like with political giving, the progressive purse is much smaller overall.
I think there’s a question as to whether we will ever be able to secure funding at a similar level to the right — no matter how we dress it up, anti-capitalism just won’t be broadly attractive to most in the billionaire class, many of whom are funding right wing politicians, Turning Point, etc to the tune of millions a year (Turning Point’s total ecosystem revenue has been over $80mm a year since 2022, and it was only founded in 2012!).
This makes me wonder if it’s possible for donor organizers, left philanthropies, and movement fundraisers to work together with campaign leaders and other movement operatives in some kind of coalitional effort. Perhaps this could help us layer tactics in a more coordinated way than we are currently, recognizing that money is just one piece of the puzzle and being clear eyed about the limits to our potential total raise.
Maybe this is already happening at some level (via BBFC members maybe?). If so I’d love to read a piece on the current status and the vision, security allowing. 😬
Thanks again for this contribution and for all the work of Organize the Rich. As I said can’t wait to follow along with the series!
Such a fascinating read! I am so excited to follow this series. With apologies for the following novella 🫣 I have some immediate questions and thoughts!
First, I love the detailed quotes in this piece and the brass tacks of how these alternative funding structures took shape. I can’t tell from this piece whether Vanguard funded orgs or collectives without 501c3 status, or orgs engaging in high-profile direct actions. Do you have any plans to explore how that kind of “high risk” (by modern philanthropy’s metrics, certainly) organizing was funded in the 60s and 70s — like SNCC and CORE? Or even outfits like the BLA and the Weather Underground?
Records are kind of hard to come by, and for good reason!, but I believe it was individual wealthy people (or children of wealthy people) connected to those orgs who routed funding, alongside small-dollar grassroots gifts and membership dues in some cases. I know the flexibility cost created by the setup of modern philanthropy has been explored in detail by INCITE and others. But I don’t hear as often about the cost of losing the kind of rooted, mutually beneficial relationships the donors and organizers in this excerpt describe, and this connection does seem more rare these days as orgs have professionalized and scaled.
I know people much smarter and more experienced than me have been trying to figure out how to scale more flexible funding for movements and how to deepen donor/movement relationships, and have had lots of success over the last decade for sure. But I’m not sure how many grassroots movement orgs are read in on this history or the potential lessons for fundraising strategy today (and thus many remain funded primarily by risk-averse foundations, etc, and approach fundraising transactionally to boot). This piece and the book referenced seem like a great option for popular ed to that end.
On a separate note, this quote really got me:
“Another shortcoming of the alternative foundations is that in comparison to traditional philanthropy or the government, they actually have so little money to give. Altogether, the local funds and national grant-making programs of the Funding Exchange network distribute only about $5 million a year. There may be some merit to small-scale charity, especially because the recipient groups have modest budgetary needs.”
It’s no longer the case that “recipient groups have modest budgetary needs,” given that neoliberalism has since folded and we now have to go toe to toe with authoritarian regimes, which requires building bases big enough and strong enough to contend for real power. I know that there are many large movement orgs that have had meaningful successes here, and that there are philanthropies very aware of the need to scale movement $$ and size (Freedom Together comes to mind). With that in mind, I’d be really curious to see any metrics on how giving to the Left/progressive groups tracks against giving to the right wing over the course of the last several decades. My guess is that much like with political giving, the progressive purse is much smaller overall.
I think there’s a question as to whether we will ever be able to secure funding at a similar level to the right — no matter how we dress it up, anti-capitalism just won’t be broadly attractive to most in the billionaire class, many of whom are funding right wing politicians, Turning Point, etc to the tune of millions a year (Turning Point’s total ecosystem revenue has been over $80mm a year since 2022, and it was only founded in 2012!).
This makes me wonder if it’s possible for donor organizers, left philanthropies, and movement fundraisers to work together with campaign leaders and other movement operatives in some kind of coalitional effort. Perhaps this could help us layer tactics in a more coordinated way than we are currently, recognizing that money is just one piece of the puzzle and being clear eyed about the limits to our potential total raise.
Maybe this is already happening at some level (via BBFC members maybe?). If so I’d love to read a piece on the current status and the vision, security allowing. 😬
Thanks again for this contribution and for all the work of Organize the Rich. As I said can’t wait to follow along with the series!