Imagine and Act: NCG's 2024 Annual Conference

More funders are now identifying power-building as a key strategy to their work than there were 10 or 20 years ago. In a critical election year, it is important to reimagine long-term power-building strategies from traditional electoral voter engagement and the cyclical boom-bust funding that accompanies it. Participants will be asked to imagine a thriving multiracial democracy beyond electoral cycles and what is possible to achieve when justice movements are fully resourced.

This session will highlight the work movement leaders are doing to build power in low-income, Black, indigenous, and people of color communities, and other historically marginalized communities. Beyond ensuring voters are regularly engaged in local and national elections, our panelists are leading efforts tying long-term power-building to other fights for racial and economic justice. Funders will leave with an understanding of how investments in advocacy, organizing, shared governance models, and community-led solutions complement and build on successes at the ballot box and the grantmaking practices that will sustain this work.

How we show up in relationship with one another matters. How might foundation staff behave – what values and practices might they embody – to operate in service of realizing liberation and more connected, just, and ecologically vibrant communities?

In this session, we will explore centering relationships in philanthropy, especially in the processes of philanthropic decision making, as a practice towards creating a more equitable future. What does it mean to center relationships when moving resources? What is possible when we move away from transactional models of funding to more relational ones? What factors might impact authenticity and how might we keep those within sight as we transition to relational ways of making change together?

Join us for a conversation among movement leaders and their philanthropic partners on the power of transformative relationships in aligning values with actions to better facilitate social change. Learn how philanthropy can shift into right relationships with one another and within their organizations.

Despite the monumental funding allocated through landmark programs like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, there's a pressing need to ensure these investments yield lasting, transformative changes to historically marginalized communities. In the years leading up to the 2020 election, philanthropy invested historic resources to mobilize democracy, elect progressive lawmakers, and cement historic policies like these New Deal era investments. In the years since, communities that have historically lacked capacity continue struggling to influence how these funds are used, thereby passing up a tremendous opportunity for the philanthropic sector’s democracy efforts to have “felt” impacts in communities.

How and where these funds are deployed will determine whether these policies are truly transformative—putting the U.S. on a path towards a more just energy transition that builds momentum for even greater action in the future—or results in a short-lived era of investment with limited benefit felt in communities of color. This conversation will explore the intersection of philanthropy, progressive policy agendas, and historic investments in infrastructure and climate resilience. We’ll discuss lessons learned from past philanthropic efforts to mobilize democracy and influence policy, the potential pitfalls of framing these investments as “once in a generation”, and how philanthropy can play a proactive role in ensuring equity and community empowerment in resource allocation.