Our Solidarity with
Movements
EDGE was founded in relationship to strong global movements. At its inception, EDGE supported trade justice organizing, the World Social Forums, climate justice mobilizations around the COPs, and broader global movement building. Movements, not members, set the agendas for EDGE’s work. Funders were invited to “zoom out” into the systemic and intersectional analysis offered by movements, and then “zoom back in” to their own funding practices with a broader political lens.
Movements presented systemic alternatives and demands of philanthropy, holding what one founding board member described as “that glimpse of utopia in front of our eyes.”
This foundational solidarity with Movements remains integral to EDGE’s work. We hope to dismantle extractive funding systems and align resources with the priorities and visions of social movements to drive systemic change and justice.
We understand Movements as groups of
people, regardless of formal structure or
registration status, who align with alternative
and more just visions for society.
They are not dependent on funding, but
funding can widen their ripple and
safeguard their efforts.
RECIPROCITY
Solidarity at EDGE is
reciprocal.
We leverage our position inside philanthropy to create spaces where movements can interact with, influence, and hear from funders directly. We use our in-person gatherings to make room for movement-only strategizing and underfunded opportunities for collective reflection.
We spotlight movement priorities through conferences, webinars, political education spaces, and the Global Engagement Lab. And we create conditions for further action by holding members accountable and communicating standards of practice that match the urgencies movements face.
We also offer something less tangible but consistently reflected in partner feedback: a political home where movements and funders
engage beyond transactional grant cycles, rooted in solidarity and trust.
Movements shape EDGE’s political analysis and keep systemic alternatives visible within the network. They provide checks and balances, calling out extractive tendencies and sharpening our clarity. They bring content, strategy, and grounded priorities that inform our members and influence the wider sector. And they hold us accountable to a political intent of moving money to movements, not simply hosting dialogue
Listening and responding to movement partners is central to EDGE’s political core. Our strategy is designed to organize
philanthropy in service of movement sovereignty; shifting power so that movements, not funders, shape alternative systems.
Movement Engagement
in Edge Programming
Movements are embedded across EDGE’s
workstreams.
Political Education and Setting Agendas
EDGE’s Political Education offerings operate as our ideological and theoretical space, where we set agendas related to the ending of extractive systems and the alternatives being built by movements. Through teach-ins, written reflections, and public webinars, movement representatives and progressive philanthropic actors collaborate to surface systemic analysis, liberation frameworks, and grounded strategies.Movement organizers, networks, and secretariats are key stakeholders in this work. They help develop visions of alternatives that challenge philanthropic norms and push funders toward alignment with movement priorities.Political education is not neutral. It lays the ideological groundwork for funders to act.
Movement Building Through the Global Conference
Our global conference is a primary site of movement building. We provide travel support, create movement-only strategizing spaces, and ensure movement representation in shaping the agenda and political direction of the gathering. The conference is designed not only as a networking space, but as a space for cross-movement exchange, collective reflection, and direct engagement with funders.
Partners identified Movement Building as their top priority in our 2025 survey, affirming that solidarityrequires infrastructure, not just invitations.
Governance, Leadership & Agenda Setting
Movements shape EDGE beyond participation. They influence the direction of the network through leadership and agenda-setting roles.
Conference Planning Committee
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.
Global Engagement Lab Advisors
Movement-informed advisors help shape the political and strategic backbone of the Global Engagement Lab.
They co-design curriculum, suggest speakers, ground the learning journey in organizing practice, and ensure funder leadership development is rooted in real-world movement strategy and power analysis
These roles move beyond representation. They embed movement analysis into EDGE’s agenda-setting, leadership development, and long-term strategy.
OUR COMMITMENT
We begin from the premise
that no money in
philanthropy is neutral.
If philanthropy is shaped by histories of extraction and inequality, then solidarity cannot mean simply redistributing a fraction of that wealth more efficiently. It must mean organizing funders to shift power, align resources with movement-led visions, and ultimately reduce philanthropy’sdominance over social change.
EDGE is committed to building a network of funders who see themselves as organizers, not benefactors. Who are willing to be accountable to movements. Who understand that the goal is not to perfect philanthropy, but to contribute to systemic alternatives that make extractive funding systems obsolete.
