The events of 2020 were deeply challenging, by many accounts — a time when trauma impacted so many of us, our families, our health, our communities, and our planet. Within the Black community in the United States, the past year was an especially trying time of deepening fear, frustration, and pain but also tremendous activism, transformation, and hope. The struggle for freedom and justice that people of color have long endured gave rise last summer to a wave of demonstrations that swept across cities and states in the weeks following the brutal murder of George Floyd, leading up to the presidential election, and beyond it.

It was a “movement moment,” as Rajasvini Bhansali would say — an opportunity for those who want to use their wealth and resources for collective impact to lean in and be in partnership with grassroots organizers and movement leaders working toward societal transformation. Bhansali is the executive director of Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers who work together to get critical resources and an abundance of solidarity to the frontlines of social justice movements as they are happening. As part of the Packard Foundation’s commitment to racial justice and equity, we have joined with Solidaire Network in providing $20 million to the Black Liberation Pooled Fund, which allocates grant funding to primarily Black-led multiracial organizations around the country working for social change.

Bhansali sat down with Packard Foundation’s Carlin Johnson Politzer, program officer within the Office of the President, to talk more about the work of Solidaire Network and to share some of the insights and learnings that she and her team have gathered about the importance of partnership and trust in philanthropy and movement building. Their conversation came just a week after a violent mob stormed the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., setting the stage for another challenging year of work ahead to move our society towards greater justice, equity, and unity.

Read the full article about responding to the movement moment at The David and Lucile Packard Foundation.