Meet the foundations we that we are honoring in Los Angeles, CA at 2023 NCRP Impact Awards
“MOVER AND SHAKER” IMPACT AWARD FOR BOLD PEER ORGANIZING:
the Solidaire Network
https://solidairenetwork.org
Press Release | Video | Transcript
Since its inception in 2013, Solidaire Network has worked to push the limitations of traditional philanthropy in pursuit of a more radical vision of accompanying and fortifying social movements. It aims to be an active collective of donor organizers who mobilize quickly to get critical resources to the frontlines of social justice movements.
The Solidaire community holds a collective vision of radical giving that invites donors into the practice of transforming their relationship to power and wealth. To serve as a connector between movements, donors and the wider philanthropic sector, Solidaire organizes donor members through political and popular education, working groups and peer learning opportunities.
Solidaire believes in the power of Black and Indigenous leadership. Overall, the network fosters a culture of collaboration over competition by bringing funding to clusters of organizations, LLCs and collectives. They listen to movement partners and ask who else in the area should be funded.
Getting the Money to Where Its Most Needed
Doria Robinson of Urban Tilth, a Solidaire Network movement partner. Credit: Brooke Anderson Photography
Solidaire invests in under-resourced communities and geographies and uses an ecosystem funding approach, since robust movements require a variety of formations and tactics. Solidaire supports membership organizations, political education, networks and alliances, self-determination and sovereignty. They resource providers of legal aid, bail funds and those providing messaging and security.
Over the last five years, Solidaire Network has moved over $36 million to grassroots organizations, prioritizing long-term partnership with frontline movements engaged in intersectional, diverse and innovative work to build power and create new systems rooted in solidarity and collectivity.
Last year 61% of its overall grantmaking went towards Black-led organizations and a quarter of the Movement Infrastructure funding went towards Indigenous-led organizations. Its grant vehicles include:
Resourcing Movements and Organizing Donors
Solidaire sees itself as one force among many in a long, liberatory struggle and are committed to accompanying movements as they contest for power. Their members are impactful resource organizers who strive to accompany movements with humility, integrity and solidarity.
For example, Solidaire board member Laura Flynn supported the ten-year struggle to Stop Line 3, fighting a pipeline bringing tar sands from Alberta, Canada, to Wisconsin and cutting across Anishinaabe tribal land, the Mississippi River and threatening Lake Superior. When construction was announced, Laura mobilized Solidaire members to raise an initial $20,000 for their movement partners Honor the Earth and the Giniw Collective to seed resistance camps in Northern Minnesota.
Laura met Solidaire member Katie Redford, of the Equation Campaign, on the Line 3 frontlines. Laura and Katie teamed up, organized donor briefings, and once again, Solidaire members showed up with resources. Some put their bodies on the line for civil disobedience. Solidaire members and other aligned funders moved over $3 million to the Indigenous-led Stop Line 3 resistance and funded three Land Back purchases.
The Solidaire Network is also among the few national funders resourcing the urgent, holistic security and collective care needs of grassroots movement organizations and leaders. One example includes a community of Black women, genderqueer survivors of gender violence and Indigenous people who came together to purchase a 300-acre property dedicated to collective healing. When the community began facing vandalism from neighbors and harassment from local law enforcement, they turned to Solidaire’s Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund to resource a physical security infrastructure.
Future Support
Solidaire is deeply honored to receive NCRP’s “Mover and Shaker” Award and looks to continue its resourcing of movements and organizing donors rooted in a firm belief that the most innovative solutions are borne from those with a legacy of resistance.
“We model our solidarity with movements by moving money quickly and boldly, and meeting our partners in their various forms of development and growth.” says Executive Director Rajasvini Bhansali. “We are honored to follow the trusted guidance of movement leadership and movement elders as we work together to transform society so that every community has the resources to flourish.”
Solidaire’s 10-Year Strategy 10-Year Strategy is a roadmap to build lasting left power in the United States by strengthening movement capacity, shifting philanthropic practices and unleashing a movement-aligned base of donor members.