To bring an end to the inequalities and injustices within our society, we must tackle the underlying causes and repair the harm. We need to put more power into the hands of those working to address inequality and injustice, and create new systems that put equity, justice and peace first.
The work and leadership of grassroots social movements (“movements”) to challenge the profound and connected inequalities in our society is vital. But movements suffer from a lack of funding, infrastructure, and access to resources and networks. The Grassroots Movements Fund has been created in response to these gaps to support the sustainability of movement work. Grassroots movements work from the ground up and aim to give more power to people and communities to make decisions about their own lives. To keep in line with the aims and values of movements, the Grassroots Movements Fund uses a participatory grant-making process, which means the grant decisions are put into the hands of the communities affected by those decisions.
This is a pilot to resource movements that are on the frontlines of social and environmental injustice, and who are striving for transformative change – a vision in which discrimination and domination in society no longer exist.
Recognising that the roots and experience of many types of oppression and injustice are connected (for example class, race and even age will impact how you experience environmental damage), the Fund will focus on movement work that links together different struggles in their analysis of the problems they are trying to address.
After many nourishing conversations with movement organisers and activists we developed these guiding principles for the fund, which it can be held accountable to. These principles will underpin both the fund’s administration and its approach to grant giving.
We aim for the fund to:
