Social Movements and Philanthropy: How Foundations Can Support Movement Building

Authors

Barbara Masters, MastersPolicyConsulting
Torie Osborn, The California Alliance

DOI

10.4087/FOUNDATIONREVIEW-D-10-00015

Key Points

· As foundations seek to catalyze broad-based social change, there is a need for greater understanding of what social movements are, how they evolve, and how foundations can support them.

· Movement building presents unique challenges to foundations. Because movements, by definition, must be driven by the people who are most affected, foundations cannot determine the goals and timetables of a movement.

· The authors identify five core elements to movement building: organizing an authentic base; leadership; vision and ideas; alliances; and advocacy infrastructure.

· A framework for evaluating movement building is proposed, which can help foundations identify measureable outcomes and track progress throughout a movement’s various stages.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Masters, B., & Osborn, T. (2010). Social Movements and Philanthropy: How Foundations Can Support Movement Building. The Foundation Review, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.4087/FOUNDATIONREVIEW-D-10-00015