We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Movement Ferguson, Beware the Nonprofit Industrial Complex

Click here to access article by Netfa Freeman from Black Agenda Report.

Freeman puts a spotlight on the dangers of seeking funding from non-profits that are funded by the rich, instead of building grass-roots movements that fund themselves.
While, of course, few if anyone may be “getting rich,” no one – particularly those of us working in the non-profit industry – can deny the influence funders have on what not-for-profit formations do or won’t do, what political positions they take or don’t take, etc. Even if, as the director of Soros's fund disclaims “they have no ‘direct’ control over the groups they give to, and said they are all trying to improve accountability.” “Direct” is the operative word.

If we think of this as funders literally dictating to organizations we will miss how this works. An organization or individual doesn’t have to be told anything directly.
The problem, as she recognizes, is that in order to build a grass-roots movement political consciousness raising is a necessary, but also a very difficult, effort to accomplish. That is why I have always stressed the importance of creating a self-funded alternative media by the grass-roots.