From silos to solidarity: funding cross-movement social justice work

The movement to fund community-led social justice approaches is growing but growth is not the same as infrastructure. Despite growing calls for cross-movement funding, the sector has yet to build the architecture that allows different movements to develop power together rather than compete for the same pots. Intersectionally-led, by-and-for organisations continue to navigate funding systems that were not designed with them in mind.

This session draws on the work of the Funding Justice Collective - a collective of 30+ Disabled leaders whose campaigns and partnerships have been building the case for resourcing interdependent social justice movements - and on lessons from cross-movement collaboration at Disability Rights UK. Together these perspectives bring both diagnosis and practical direction: what does collective liberation actually look like as a funding practice? How do funders move from resourcing individual organisations to resourcing the relationships and connective tissue between movements? And how do we ensure that any cross-movement work is driven by the communities most affected?

This session will open with a panel discussion before moving into a facilitated workshop where participants can reflect and work through the implications for their own practice.

This session will be particularly relevant if you are thinking about how to move toward cross-movement, ecosystem-level funding in the equity and justice space.