Movements is a new lens for us. We believe movements are primary builders in the work that leads to wider social change. The resourcing movements inquiry is a way to help us better understand and support movements.
What is the purpose of this work
We believe movements are primary builders in the work that leads to wider social change and that they have enabled transformative gains for the whole of society. The resourcing movements inquiry is a way to help us better understand and support movements. A cornerstone of this developing inquiry is the belief that resourcing goes beyond moving money, it’s also about supporting ways that encourage people, including us, to make use of all their assets.
Movements is a new lens for us and we are aware that we are still at the foothills in terms of our knowledge of – and links to – social movements. We know too that we will need to build our organisational muscle if we are to become a funder that can operate as a movement accomplice, which is our aspiration as we build towards transformative change.
We see ourselves as part of an interconnected and complex global world. We want to support movements with similar perspectives – movement that are inherently collaborative, that are diverse and work across boundaries, to imagine actions and policies and to embrace the pockets of action that spring up.
What are we doing?
The guiding question for this inquiry is: How can movements be resourced and sustained to move towards equitable and just outcomes? Some of what we’re doing to help us with this question include:
Supporting work to look at different approaches to funding movements. We learnt that traditional grant-making approaches can damage the way movements work e.g., through indiscriminate funding, funding that doesn’t consider the sustainability of the whole movement or funding requirements that can lead to ‘movement capture’. This includes developing a participatory fund and looking at different ways of funding.
We know that direct funding is only one way to nurture movements – the wellbeing of movements is also important. We are taking a more holistic approach to wellbeing, one that goes beyond a narrow definition of mental health. We are supporting work to consider what a healing justice approach might mean to UK movements, and another is in supporting the spread of knowledge and information that are useful to grassroots movements.
We have heard the need for spaces for movements to build strategy and connections and are working to identify and facilitate cross movement connection and convening. We are consciously working with movement actors that take an intersectional approach as we believe this important to achieving equitable and just outcomes.
