Righting Abundance: An Emergent Strategy Primer for Funders – Non Profit News

In her latest book, author-activist adrienne maree brown offers a broad examination of how to hold collective power, right wrongs, and generate true belonging. The book examines a wide range of systems that impede liberation—ranging from family dynamics to structural racism. In the chapter excerpted here, brown delves into the world of philanthropy. 

This excerpt is from Loving Corrections (AK Press, 2024) by adrienne maree brown. Reprinted here with author and press permission.

In 2017, I released a book that I thought a few people would read. Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds has gone further than expected. It has reached organizers, activists, facilitators, artists, designers, people of all races and class backgrounds, here in the US and all over the world.

For those not familiar, Emergent Strategy (ES) is the way we make moves toward justice and liberation in right relationship with each other and the planet, in right relationship with change, and by learning from the great teacher of nature.

In the wake of the book, I have been invited by foundations to give trainings and talks on ES, and I am hearing that major movement donors and program officers are using it. As I listen to how different funders are interpreting the work, I am realizing that some people are getting excited about ES and beginning to use the language but are missing or misinterpreting the core lessons.

What we want is interdependence, where resources can flow in a decentralized way from inequality toward justice.I empathize—it’s an exciting and massive set of ideas to grapple with—I get humbled regularly. So in the spirit of loving correction, in support of activists and organizers who need their work nurtured and amplified, I thought I’d write this piece to funders looking to experiment with and/or align with ES, and uplift some of the models I see working.

Common Misconceptions

“Anything goes! Emergent Strategy, right?” In the past few months, I have been in conversations with funders and donors who spoke of processes that were particularly messy or chaotic in ways that impacted movement workers, and they shrugged and blamed Emergent Strategy. ES isn’t an invitation to be messy across class lines or power differences. It isn’t a way of speaking about general chaos. That moves us away from right relationship. ES is about nonlinear, adaptive, intentional change. What we want is interdependence, where resources can flow in a decentralized way from inequality toward justice.

“Work for free/possible money!” I have been invited into multiple funding processes in which the expectation was that I would provide a significant amount of time in a “collective” funding process, or a cohort. In a couple of the processes, the money we were working toward had not been secured yet. In each process, there were people with wealth organizing the effort, with good intentions but not understanding how much work they were asking for. I have to say that it’s exceedingly rare that processes sparked by funders are actually easy or aligned with the processes organizers/organizations would plan for themselves.

“We are extending trust.” I often hear funders say they are “extending trust” when they are choosing to continue to invest in someone who has been problematic in movement spaces and has not yet been accountable. Or when funders are continuing to work with organizations that are out of alignment with their movement sectors or communities—often because they are willing to contort for the sake of funders.

Philanthropists speak to me of the ES value that “no one is disposable,” which is absolutely the case! But when organizations are working toward healing, and funders don’t provide resources in alignment with their accountability process, it makes it impossible to uphold movement accountability. Divestment and disposal are not the same thing.

Core Aspects of Emergent Strategy for Funders

Trust the people. Move at the speed of trust. ES is fundamentally about relationships—not the often forced or transactional relationships of philanthropy but relationships that are honest about the structures in place, relationships that require authenticity, and that invite learning. Consider starting with small funding, which offers to build trust by working together. Trust is built through lots of small things—conversations, interventions, successes.

Don’t drag movement momentum. Making organizers jump through hoops to prove their impact or unveil flashy new programs every year is a sign that philanthropy is not in right relationship with those it claims to serve. Forcing social justice workers to take on additional work (such as convenings that double as free issue consulting, unpaid selection committees, and most grant writing and reporting) is a literal drag on movement momentum.

But don’t rush us either. In general, divest from the myth of false urgency. Movements shouldn’t be moving on a timeline that philanthropy sets; the reverse would be a much healthier process. Funders would do well to follow the rhythms of movements. This is true when it comes to trusting movements to move through accountability processes and conflict resolution. Offer to support good processes, rather than investing in those people or organizations creating division.

Pay attention. Trusting the people means noticing which organizers and groups communities turn to, supporting them, and funding the ecosystems that generate them. It means putting the balance of movement-resourcing work on those with the balance of the resources.

Mistakes bring growth. Trusting the people means trusting that mistakes and changes in the process will grow the group, which in turn means funding groups for the long term, so they have room to stumble and learn and course-correct. It is important that funders are developing trust through mistakes and learning inside of their groups as well, but as often as possible, that learning should not spill over into the work of organizers. When it does, it means that philanthropy is redistributing organizer time to meet the needs of capital. There is a palpable distinction between learning hard lessons in community versus becoming a problem for community. Keep learning, keep trusting, keep growing.

Trust boldly. If you can’t think of any groups that you would trust to directly distribute your resources in an area you fund, then you’ve got some work to do around trusting the people, and some work to do around building the relationships you have with communities you want to support.

Since leaders who have superb external and internal capacities are rare, it’s essential for organizations to be mindful of this between transitions.

One important tip here relates to how fractals interact with trust: if a strategy hasn’t been successful at a small (local, intimate) scale, it’s not likely to work at a large (national, broad) scale. Trust people working over time to cultivate strategies and scale them appropriately. Fund with a fractal strategy—pay attention to groups who are experimenting and growing strategies starting at a small scale. Pay attention to collaborations that start with building relationships and political trust, instead of lofty surface-level alliances.

Leaders shaping the future are unique, not replaceable cogs in the system; build a transparent culture that can adapt to different leaders with different skills. Since entering the formal nonprofit world, I have witnessed a handful of successful organizational leadership transitions, where a leader was developed within the organization and there was an organic, well-timed transition of power.

But more often, I’ve seen a desperate scramble for a replacement, where someone who didn’t carry the leadership skills, capacity, or personality of the outgoing leader(s) is advanced, or someone from outside the institution is hired and a near-instant culture clash is initiated. These patterns seem especially common in smaller organizations.

As I’ve reflected on these challenging transitions, it’s become even clearer to me that organizations are relational structures. The person, or people, who end up at the helm in a hierarchical structure usually have concurrent capacities. Some leaders have excellent external capabilities (public speaking, charisma, compelling storytelling, and/or ability to direct attention to where it is most needed) and others thrive due to internal leadership skills (structure and systems, personnel or financial management, human resources, and/or conflict mediation).

Since leaders who have superb external and internal capacities are rare, it’s essential for organizations to be mindful of this between transitions, by focusing on ongoing learning and development across roles, practicing transparency and skill sharing, and encouraging collaboration.

Guiding Questions for Funders

Am I trustworthy? Can the groups I’m interacting with trust me to be straightforward with them, and to walk with them through their changes? Can they trust that I’m looking for ways to resource them, rather than standing between them and what they need? Am I adding to their momentum, or their workload?

Is my institution trustworthy? Do we have a set of values that aligns with movements we claim to support? Who does my institution answer to? Can I trust my institution, from the program officers to the board chairs, to take leadership from organizers, people of color, women, and other historically marginalized/attacked populations?

Does our work sustain the current conditions of inequality…Or are we resourcing material shifts that also transform capitalist power dynamics?

Follow those questions into conversations that help you grow.

Emergent Strategy Funding Models

There are many models of emergent strategy in funding—here are a few that I want to uplift:

Auburn Seminary Spiritual Resilience Fellowship: This fellowship was an incredible experience because the Auburn team did their homework, identified movement workers they were excited by, reached out to resource the fellows, and demanded no extra work. The time we were invited to be together was restful retreat and nourishing community time.

Emergent Fund: The structure of this collaborative fund is movement informed, offers a quick turnaround of funds for projects in adaptation, and has a low barrier to entry. This one was actually inspired in part by the book, and it’s been incredible to watch it grow and support movements without ego.

Groundswell’s Liberation Fund: This fund is advised by leaders who are women of color and trans organizers, guiding funds to groups they know to be effective and who do “whole people organizing.”

And, of course, Third Wave Fund: They are currently moving a strategy that is a combo of rapid-response (Mobilize Power Fund) and long-term funding, because it’s important to move/respond quickly, but also to sustain organizations for the long haul.