On Saturday, July 28, 2018 Transform Finance was in Atlanta to present a workshop at the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training's (GIFT) biennial conference - Money for Our Movements (MFOM).
Hosted over three days, MFOM brought together hundreds of grassroots organizations fighting for social justice and seeking additional/creative ways to fund their work. In past conferences, MFOM focused on covering more traditional fundraising (donations, grants, etc.); this year, the conference theme reframed funding from a place of asking for money to support an organization to asking for support and partnership for movement work. This is where Transform Finance hoped it could contribute.
Through our session, we focused on introducing workshop participants to new, non-donation forms of funding their organizations, while highlighting the value of thinking beyond your own balance sheet. In the session's first part, participants were curious, active, and engaged in discussion to build out earned revenue strategies for their organizations. In the second, participants were eager to learn more about how foundations are doing impact investing.
Based on the room, which was at capacity, and the liveliness of discussion/questions, it was clear that many social justice practitioners are thinking beyond grants, and curious about engaging with capital strategies in a larger way to support their movements. We see engaging with capital--of which earned revenue and impact investing is a small piece--as an additional tool in a practitioner's toolbox (not the only tool) and are excited to see how many others folks came out for our session.
We thank GIFT for allowing us to present and were honored to hold the space to learn together.
