A LETTER FROM THE WOODS FUND PRESIDENT
I was blessed to have been a part of a social change movement throughout my 20s and 30s. Social movements consist of a number of people organized and coordinated to achieve a collection of goals, often to bring about social change. When we think of social movements, often what comes to mind is the Civil Rights Movement, the Climate Justice Movement, the Women’s Movement, Gay Rights Movement – to name a few. Compared to other forms of collective behavior, movements tend to have a high degree of organization and are of longer duration.
From 1997-2013, I was a part of, and eventually co-led, an international campaign to release fifteen Puerto Rican political prisoners. That campaign was rooted within a movement for the independence of Puerto Rico. As an organizer within this campaign and movement, I was able to meet Puerto Ricans from throughout the diaspora, and learn about the common oppression diasporic Puerto Ricans were facing throughout the United States. I learned and met other incredible organizations and individuals – all who supported the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, some who were fighting for the release of their political prisoners, all who supported the liberation of oppressed people everywhere.
It was through this work that I met Inhe Choi, who tutored me in the art of grant writing. Jeanne Kracher and Jane Kimondo, the leaders of Crossroads Fund (which was the only foundation that supported our campaign and movement). Nancy Kurshan and the late Dr. Steve Whitman. Margaret & Melinda Power. John Bartlett. Dr. Laura Ruth Johnson. Dr. Jesse Mumm. Mike Hannan and Dr. Mike Staudenmaier – allies who exemplified the true meaning of white allyship. I met Hatem Abudayyah and learned of the ongoing struggles of the Palestinian people and how those struggles mirrored the fight for Puerto Rican liberation. I met Rev. Nozomi Ikuta and the late Rev. Mike Yasutake and learned of the Japanese-American struggle, the internment camps and the campaign against neoliberalism in Japan. I met the ferocious Emma Lozano and Rev. Slim Coleman, and became aware of the struggle against deportations and neocolonialism in Mexico and Central America. I learned about Black nationalism and Black political prisoners and learned of the work of Dr. Barbara Ransby, Dr. Cathy Cohen and Dr. Beth Ritchie.
I am blessed that the movement became my most prolific teacher. It taught me the importance of relationship building, the art of strategy and the obligation to solidarity building.
The individuals mentioned above (and I’m leaving out so many more colleagues from this piece) worked tirelessly to achieve the goals of their individual campaigns, and also pivoted to consistently support the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners. I remember my fellow organizations and attending their events, their demonstrations, their actions of civil disobedience... because as Puerto Ricans we knew that to achieve our liberation, the freedom of our island from the clutches of colonialism, we also had to support all people of color’s struggle for liberation. As a movement, we had arguments, disagreements about tactics and strategies. We challenged each other in every way possible.
It was beautiful, chaotic, challenging, tense and exhausting work, but we were bound to one another because we understood and were rooted in the collective belief that their liberation was ours, and our liberation was theirs.
When the pandemic descended upon us, the Woods Fund board of directors challenged the staff to devise a strategy that would outlast the pandemic. We asked ourselves: what would it mean to support movement building? We knew that in particularly difficult times organizations tend to hunker down – further siloing themselves from each other. Often they have no choice. They may need to focus their energies towards the crisis on hand (or as the past seven months have shown us, multiple crises). They may have to focus their resources towards particular programs and initiatives as directed by a funder. We also had a sense that organizations involved in coalitions and campaigns were not able to build strong ties – the ties that would bind them beyond any crisis.
A social movement is a continuous phenomenon that thrives on the ability of the progressive community to capitalize on political opportunities and translate such opportunities into social change. This collective organizing work is described as being ‘revelatory’ rather than prescriptive: that through transformative processes of action, we learn who we can be, how we can work and what we can achieve
We have seen how COVID-19 does not discriminate, but its impacts do — exposing deep weaknesses in the delivery of public services and structural inequalities that impede access to them. We see the disproportionate effects on certain communities, the rise of hate speech, the targeting of vulnerable groups, and the risks of heavy-handed security responses against those protesting these injustices. This year has brought to us the opportunity of interlocking and converging crises. Against the background of rising ethno-nationalism, populism, authoritarianism and a pushback against human rights in some countries, the crisis provided a pretext to think and act collectively.
What would it mean to support a collective of organizations that could capitalize on this opportunity to unite with others, to work in solidarity and to strengthen their trust and relationship with each other?
We discussed the creation of a fund to support movement building – could we fund organizations to come together? Are folks able to really work through their tensions? Are they willing to have the necessary, but difficult, conversations about those entrenched practices and bias that we must all unlearn in order to work collectively?
What would it mean to incentivize organizations to break out of their silos? To work collectively? To radically reimagine their surroundings...together? Could we fund organizations to spend time developing their relationships and to foster a movement culture that enables collective and constructive strategic reflection? Well, yes we can. And that’s just what we did.
In May, we announced the creation of the Movement Building for Racial Justice Fund and allocated the largest amount towards one grant in the history of the foundation – $500,000 over two years. The amount of the award was important. We wanted it to be significant so that 1) organizations involved in movement building could be compensated for their time, and 2) it ensured that the fund would extend past one year. We received eleven proposals and in August, made the decision to fund the Just Chicago Collective – a collective of twelve, majority Black-led, organizations.
Just Chicago Collective proposed working towards a vision of a city that centers a solidarity economy. They envision a city that is healing, informative, listening, and liberatory so that the lived experiences of marginalized peoples – the lives of transgender non-conforming, formerly incarcerated, Black women and youth, low-income and poor among others –- are centered in and radically improved by policy and legislative measures. In their “just Chicago”, they envision the “solidarity economy” landscape expanding and taking root in all corners of our city. Of building a just and sustainable society and economy that are rooted in the values of solidarity, cooperation, mutualism, equity and inclusion, participatory democracy and resilience. It is a vision that will require organizers to build their capacity for practicing collective governance, cooperative ownership, community-driven development and deep democracy. We believe that their vision of reclaiming neighborhood space, of creating and controlling local economies, and creating non-hierarchical organizational systems all contribute to Black liberation and healing, whether or not they have immediate policy goals.
“Just Chicago is about building solutions with the community for the community. Far too often, the opposite happens, individuals come together and define solutions for communities without doing the necessary work of building consensus within those communities around the prescribed solutions they have developed.”
– Richard Wallace, Equity And Transformation (EAT) and Just Chicago member
You might ask, how does a foundation measure movement building? Well, for one, you have to believe in your core that social movements, and their ability to empower communities, matter. Second, you have to become comfortable with the messiness of movement building and social movements. Third, you have to realize that movement building is a constant, iterative process. The array of actors in movements rarely operate in “lockstep,” and those involved in any movement are not necessarily in 100 percent agreement on things, and that’s ok.
Because of these dynamics and understanding that movement building can take anywhere from 5-10 years, or even longer, to achieve visibility and success, we decided to work in partnership with the Just Chicago Collective to co-create indicators of success. We’ve challenged ourselves, and our board, to build in flexibility, space to learn, space to build relationships and the space to fail as indicators of success. As a foundation we are excited to learn along with the Collective the complexities of movement building, how a movement maneuvers through the domains of social change, and the infrastructure and conditions needed to build strong relationships rooted in actions of solidarity. We will admit: we are excited and anxious. This is the first time that the foundation has engaged in this type of funding. But if not now, then when?
We invite you to join us on this journey, learn from us and from the Just Chicago Collective. We also invite the larger philanthropic community in Chicago to consider incentivizing organizations to work together collectively to strengthen movement building in our city. It is as a collective unit that we will achieve our liberation.
– Michelle Morales, President
Learn more about Just Chicago here.