Teach-In: How Philanthropy Can Divest

While grantmaking is often where change starts, investments frequently represent a much larger portion of institutional wealth and influence.

Last year, Funding Freedom launched a Divestment Toolkit designed to help funders explore how to align their investments with their values and movement commitments.

This is an invaluable resource we hope our members leverage!

This two part teach in series is designed to support EDGE members in understanding the toolkit and how it can be implemented in their work.

Part 1: Getting Started (May 12th, 2pm UTC)

This session is designed for those who are early in their exploration of divestment. It will be a walk through of the divestment toolkit’s key section.
We will introduce key framing, reflect on the role of philanthropic wealth and power, and explore practical first steps such as understanding your organization’s financial structures and identifying internal allies.
Part 2: Moving Toward Implementation (May 18th, 2pm UTC)

This session is designed for participants who want to go deeper. We will explore how to analyze investment portfolios, identify strategies such as shareholder advocacy or divestment, and work through real organizational dilemmas. Participants may have the opportunity to bring concrete questions or cases for collective reflection.

These sessions will be interactive learning spaces for reflection, practical exploration, and peer exchange. We strongly encourage more than one person from the same organization to attend, particularly colleagues involved in finance, leadership, or strategy.

Please note: We encourage participants to familiarize themselves with the Divestment Toolkit before attending.

Who Should Attend

This series is open to EDGE members who are:

Curious about divestment and want to understand where to begin
Already exploring divestment internally and seeking peer support
Interested in aligning their organization’s investments with movement values
Looking for practical tools to navigate internal change processes

Participants can attend either session or both, depending on where they are in their journey.

Come Prepared!

To make the sessions as practical as possible, we invite participants to:

Review the Divestment and Investment Toolkit ahead of time
Reflect on how investments are currently managed within your organization
Consider questions or dilemmas you would like to explore with peers
If attending Part 2, consider bringing a concrete example or challenge related to your organization’s investments

We hope you join us!

Facilitators:

Soheir Asaad
Soheir Asaad is a political and feminist Palestinian organizer and a human rights advocate. Besides her work at the “Funding Freedom” project, Soheir leads advocacy at Rawa Fund, which aims to promote solidarity and support of Palestinian self determination and independence from donor conditions through trust based partnerships and awareness of historical harm of funding on Palestinian communities. Soheir received a Master’s degree in international human rights law from the University of Notre Dame (US). Previously, she worked for years in international human rights advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Rebecca Vilkomerson
Rebecca Vilkomerson is the Co-Director of Funding Freedom. She authored Funding Freedom: Philanthropy and the Palestinian Freedom Movement, the report published by Solidaire in 2022 that inspired the founding of Funding Freedom. From 2009-2019 she was the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace. Rebecca co-authored the book Solidarity is the Political Form of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing, published by Haymarket in 2024.