Giving Compass' Take:

• Kaylen Ralph unpacks the 2019 Women's March: from controversy to logistics. 

• What does the controversy mean for the movement? Can funders help to overcome the difficulties the movement faces? Should donors get involved? 

• Learn how to fund bold leaders to make an impact. 

This year’s Women’s March agenda focuses on sustaining that momentum through grassroots approaches to activism. The Unity Principles of the 2017 Women’s March, developed in collaboration by two dozen women leaders, constitute the bedrock of the 2019 “Women’s Agenda,”, a “federal policy platform” that will shape the movement’s priorities leading up to 2020.

Who is in charge of the march this year?

In 2018, the composition of the leadership team was not without controversy. In December, Tablet magazine published an article that asked “Is the Women’s March Melting Down?”, in light of rumors of the leadership’s alleged anti-Semitism and connections to the Nation of Islam. (According to the publication, leaders of the march told The New York Times that they “categorically condemn anti-Semitism.”) Women's March chapters in Washington State and Rhode Island have responded to the controversy by disbanding their chapters or distancing themselves from Women's March Inc, according to the Chicago Tribune. Chicago held their march in October to drum up enthusiasm for the midterms elections and will not be holding an additional march on January 19.

What can you expect from the “Women’s Agenda?”

After the January 2017 Women’s March, the team organized the Women’s Convention in Detroit in October 2017. Under the theme “Reclaiming Our Time,” a phrase first popularized by Representative Maxine Waters, the convention included tactical workshops and forums that focused on strategizing and “intersectional movement building” going into the 2018 midterms.

The federal policy agenda in place this year, which was built out from the Unity Principles that guided the 2017 Women’s March, focuses on ending violence against women and femmes, as well as state violence; protecting the rights of LGBTQIA+, immigrant, and disabled populations, and enacting reproductive, economic, and environmental justice, among other policy priorities.

Read the full article about the Women's March by Kaylen Ralph at Teen Vogue.