The EDGE community reaffirms that accountability must go beyond pledges and public statements. True accountability requires funders to reflect critically on their role, eliminate trend-driven grantmaking, and advocate within philanthropy for practices that shift power to movements.

Funders must be transparent, responsive to movement feedback, and willing to take risks in support of systemic alternatives. Accountability also means supporting movements when their work is politically bold—rather than retreating from it.

The 2025 EDGE Conference aimed to create space for these difficult yet necessary conversations—centering practical, political, and structural accountability, and advancing concrete strategies for systemic change.

Our community pushed the conversation on accountability beyond pledges and statements. True accountability demands funders not only reflect on their own practices but actively organize within the sector to shift power and resources toward movements and systemic change.

• A recurring message was that accountability means taking risks—not delegating them. For many activists, the risks are not metaphorical; they are life and death. We heard this clearly from those working on the frontlines—from trans organizers in Colombia, to Sudanese communities facing starvation, to Palestinian and Indigenous defenders resisting violence and displacement. The cost of inaction is measured in lives.
• Participants reminded us that money has no meaning without the movements that animate it. And while many funders hold good intentions, intentions alone are not enough. After Berlin, for example, pledges to Palestine were made in good faith—yet much of the promised money was never moved due to institutional roadblocks.
• This conference felt like a final call to action: for funders to internalize the urgency of this moment, recognize the privilege that comes with holding resources, and either move money boldly and in alignment with movement demands—or stop claiming solidarity.

EDGE exists to support this shift. We call on funders to become funder-organizers: to challenge institutional barriers, advocate among peers, and build practices grounded in accountability, transparency, and long-term commitment to systemic change. Thank you to everyone who attended, we hope to remain in touch!

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