Giving Compass' Take:

• National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's vice president Timi Gerson discusses the Movement Investment Project, a recent initiative to compel donors to fund local, grassroots-led movements rather than top-down strategic plans. 

• What makes this strategy different and more nuanced? How can funders join and collaborate to invest in marginalized communities? 

• Check out the Giving For Impact Magazine on Giving Compass, filled with NCRP research and articles. 

The National Committee of Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has long been known as an organization that puts listening to the community at the center of its mission. Through this work, they have become one of the most trusted sources on what philanthropy can be doing to serve the most marginalized communities. Their most recent initiative is no different. Organizations, big and small, across the sector, are also realizing that real change often takes support of local, grassroots-led movements rather than top-down strategic plans.

It’s through that lens that NCRP released its Movement Investment Project. I recently caught up with Timi Gerson, vice president and chief content officer at NCRP and author of State of Foundation Funding for the Pro-Immigrant Movement, to learn more about their new initiative.

KGC: Tell us about the Movement Investment Project and how it’s different from other initiatives that support movement building.

TG:  Funders have an urgent opportunity to invest in ways that put us on a path toward a more equitable, just, and inclusive future. Social movements are the driving force behind efforts to create this positive change. NCRP’s Movement Investment Projectis a multi-year initiative to educate and mobilize the philanthropic sector in support of these movements.

KGC: How does this fit into your broader goal of maximizing grantmakers’ impact on equity and justice?

TG: It has been 10 years since NCRP started advocating for a set of aspirational goals for the philanthropic sector rooted in equity and justice embodied in Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best. What we’ve found is that the rhetoric of the funding world has shifted in the past decade, but the money has not always followed. Funding movements is a way for funders to put their money where their mouths are.

Read the full article about investing in immigrant and refugee movements by Kristina Gawrgy Campbell at Independent Sector.