EDGE organises funders
to dismantle Extractive
funding systems and
align resources with
movement priorities for systemic change.

OUR WORK IS GUIDED BY THREE
CORE PRINCIPLES:

No money in philanthropy is clean

Philanthropy is inseparable from the harmful systems of power and extraction that generate wealth. Every foundation, donor, and funder has, in some way, been involved in practices that extracted resources from people and land. This isn’t about individual moral failing. It’s about how wealth accumulates under current systems.
Our mission is to dismantle extractive funding systems while aligning resources with movement priorities for systemic change and justice. But we go further: we’re accountable to futures that don’t require philanthropy at all. We work toward divestment from the very societal structures that make philanthropic “solutions” (good or bad) necessary in the ﬁrst place.

We work in the tension between knowing and doing

Many funders already understand that philanthropy perpetuates inequality. But understanding alone doesn’t change systems. Power does.
EDGE exists to work within that tension: supporting funders to shift not just their analysis, but their practice and the power they hold.

Peer inﬂuence matters, funders can be organizers

Movement representatives serve on the Conference Planning Committee, helping deﬁne themes, identify urgent political priorities, shape sessions, and ensure the gathering reﬂects movement analysis rather than donor-driven agendas. The global conference is not only a convening space. It is a political intervention shaped in part by movement actors. The goal isn’t just funder education. It’s making movement visions visible and resourceable.

HOW WE UNDERSTAND
OUR WORK

We understand change as a process with two parts:

Shifting ideology (changing minds)

Driving action (implementing change)

As a member network, EDGE facilitates systemic, seismic shifts
in the philanthropic sector by setting agendas that challenge
extractive funding systems.

We organize funders to influence each other, we make movement visions visible and we create conditions for different funding practices to take root.

We are also a community. This work requires trust,
experimentation, and the willingness to stay in
diﬃcult conversations about power, resources,
and accountability.

OUR WORK

HOW WE WORK

Our programming centers three
interconnected areas: Learning,
Action and Influencing, all grounded
in deep relationships and
member-led accountability

LEARNING

We create political
education spaces where
funders reckon with their
role in perpetuating
inequality and explore what
it means to fund in
solidarity with movements.

Webinars

We bring movement leaders into conversation with funders, not to educate us but to surface what movements are building and what gets in their way. These sessions challenge funders to
confront uncomfortable truths about philanthropic practice.

Workshops & teach-ins

Strategy and skill-building sessions that help members translate critique into changed practice within their institutions, even when that means ﬁghting internal resistance.

EDGEy Wednesdays

90-minute member-led open spaces where funders bring their hardest questions, share what’s breaking down in their institutions, and test ideas with peers who understand the political stakes. No polished presentations. Real talk.

A C T I O N

We organize funders to
move together, take risks,
and produce tangible shifts
in how resources flow.

Action PODs

(Philanthropy Organizing to Deliver)

Six-month organizing spaces where members tackle speciﬁc problems and deliver concrete outcomes. Our members drive this work with support from staﬀ.

Regional Retreats

Multi-day gatherings where members build the trust and relationships required to challenge each other, take risks together, and organize regionally for sector change.

I N F L U E N C I N G

We work to shift narratives
and create platforms where
movement priorities become
visible and fundable, and
where progressive funders
can organize each other
toward bolder practice.

Global Engagement Lab (GEL)

A nine-month cohort that pushes funders beyond their comfort zones. Two in-person retreats, monthly organizing calls, and deep engagement with movement leaders who don’t soften their critiques of philanthropy. GEL is about personal transformation in service of disruption. Graduates join the GEL Family, an ongoing political community that organizes within and across their institutions.

LEARN MORE

EDGE Conference

Our global gathering of 300+ funders and movement leaders designed collaboratively by members and activists. The conference creates space for the conversations within the network to reach a wider audience and for Movements to speak to philanthropy directly.

C O M M U N I T Y
B U I L D I N G

We invest heavily in spaces
where members can be
vulnerable, challenge each
other, and build the
solidarity required to
influence the sector.

Agora

A core governance and relational space for collective reﬂection, where members can share feedback, ask questions, and hold EDGE accountable. The Agora supports members in thinking together about EDGE’s direction, the limits and possibilities of progressive philanthropy, and helps ensure governance remains grounded in movement realities and member priorities.

Regional Breakfasts & Local Meetings

Informal spaces for members to connect across time zones and geographies. They’re where members ﬁnd co-conspirators, test strategies, and build the peer support needed to push their organizations.

Conference Cohorts & Side Events

Small groups that navigate conferences together and meet on the sidelines for dinner or drinks to digest what they’re seeing in the sector.

Member-LED GOVERNANCE