“Move the money.” Community organizers in social movements have repeated this call to action for philanthropy for years. As a longtime organizer, I used to be the one expressing this refrain. Now, as the CEO of a new family foundation, the Kataly Foundation, I’m on the receiving end of the directive.

While the titles following my name have changed, my values, experiences, and political points of view have remained the same, and, in fact, have deepened.

Now, I see “move the money” as a call to action which by itself lacks intention and purpose, and doesn’t contend with what it truly means to unlock capital and resources for organizations. Questions like “How should we go about moving the money?” and “Who should we move the money to?” emerge. But rather than admit we have created roadblocks that impede our ability to move resources freely, we turn to other philanthropists and their organizations to answer these follow-up questions.

When faced with these complexities, it is tempting to turn to the familiar instead of exploring a different path. But when we are challenged, we do not have to find the answers alone. As part of my practice of engaging grassroots activists and community leaders to help me address a problem’s root causes, I reached out to Sayra Pinto, Ash-lee Woodard Henderson and Gopal Dayaneni, experienced community leaders of grassroots movements, who shared reflections on the power dynamics and self-centering habits of philanthropy. The following offers some of the collective wisdom that I received from these conversations as an offering to racial and social justice philanthropy.

Read the full article about philanthropy’s responsibility to movements by Nwamaka Agbo at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.