Giving Compass' Take:

• Mario Lugay discusses the strategies he hopes other social justice funders will follow to build momentum and movements.

• Are these suggestions feasible for funders? How can you better embrace social justice in your work? 

• Read about these lessons for advancing social justice.

Of the many approaches to social change, I turn most towards movement-building strategies. As a funder, I’m constantly searching for the ways that my practice and work best align with the demands of such an approach. Below is the first of four such ways that I’ve come to believe strongly in.

  • Find a Political Home: Social justice movements require scale and scale, in turn, requires a level of consistent connectivity among people and organizations. Political homes — community-based and led social justice institutions or organizations that individuals are members of and with whom there is mutual investment and accountability — provide exactly this.
  • Build the Vehicles to Move us Forward: For those of us in philanthropy, foundations, like the bus system, offer opportunities to move individuals, communities, organizations, and/or ourselves from one place to another.
  • Develop your Skills as an Organizer: Regardless of your background, your relative privilege or lack thereof, your profession or where you live, there are ways to contribute and benefit.
  • Choose to be a Member: To be clear, I would only share this last suggestion with those who already engage their jobs, philanthropy and the larger non-profit sector with a commitment to social justice values and practices.

Read the full article about social justice funders by Mario Lugay at Medium.