Giving Compass' Take:

• Funding peacebuilding movements is an investment in a better society. There are funding groups specifically made for peacebuilding movements but makes up only a small percentage of philanthropic giving. 

• How can we strengthen the donor base of this type of funding? Why should peacebuilding be a priority?

• Read about conflicts internationally that involve forest conservation and peacebuilding. 

Creativity blossoms in periods of great national upheaval. Add creativity to discontent and you get mass movements calling for freedom, equality, justice and peace.

Humans are hard-wired to make things right, no matter the cost. But that work costs money.

Who funds the risk-takers, the movement-builders? Who ensures that nonviolent movements can organize and reach communities? Who supports leaders of a movement so they may continue to buy groceries when their work for peace and justice overtakes their work that pays the bills?

Behind these mass movements for peace and justice is often a funder – or many – who took a risk, often a long-term one. Though teams of volunteers and armies of individual donors are often primary supporters of grassroots groups, some foundations have also contributed financially to causes that were not easy wins.

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy has documented the “Freedom Funders” who supported the civil rights movement and its advocacy over the long term. For decades, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ploughshares Fund and others have funded strategies toward principled, global nuclear security.

At the Peace and Security Funders Group, we track philanthropic giving in our Peace and Security Funding Index. Our findings show that deep investments are being made in creative peacebuilding projects, both in the U.S. and globally.

This number may seem large, but investment in peacebuilding and security makes up only 1 percent of the $30 billion of total foundation giving in 2015, despite the fact that peaceful and stable societies are the requisite to nearly every other philanthropic goal.

Read the full article about funding peacebuilding initiatives by Catherine Thompson at News Deeply