Partnering for People Power report – WINGS
People-powered, democratic movements are crucial for transformative social change. They are often underfunded, dependent on too few donors, and vulnerable to shifts in funding practice. The recent cuts to bilateral aid, announced after this research was carried out, have made the resourcing landscape for social movements and grassroots communities even more uncertain and unpredictable, increasing calls on philanthropy to leverage financial and non-financial assets to help communities and civil society, including from WINGS’ network.
WINGS has launched new research into the philanthropy support ecosystem for social movements in Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. ‘Partnering for People Power‘ maps the funders, philanthropy support actors, and approaches that are in place to grow resourcing for social movements. It makes the case that to address the scarce and uneven distribution of funding for social movements, we need a whole ecosystem approach, with dedicated investment into growing and strengthening movement-focused philanthropy in these regions.
The report highlights inspiring approaches to grow resourcing for social movements and grassroots communities from philanthropy support actors, and makes recommendations for foundations and philanthropy support actors based in and active in the regions. International philanthropy has a critical role to play in exchanging and learning with regional actors to build trust between movements and philanthropy. Together, the ecosystem can build cultures and infrastructures of giving that increase the resilience and independence of social movements to carry out their important work.
