Movement Building

Ten Elements of Movement Building - WKKF Community Leadership Network

What defines a social movement? How does a movement gain power?

Metrics for Building, Scaling, and Funding Social Movements

Investing in movements or networks for social change is a strategy that some funders are using.  But, how do you measure the results? Marino Morino, who wrote “Leap of Reason: Managing to Outcomes in an Era of Scarcity” pointed me to this recent report, “Transactions, Transformations, Translations:  Metrics That Matter for Building, Scaling and Funding Social Movements” by Manual Paster, Jennifer Ito, and Rachel Rosner with the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and funded by the Ford Foundation.   The report addresses metrics for success for investing in broad field social movements or networked approaches to social change.  The report is written for funders and those on the ground doing the work in the context of networks, although it doesn’t go deep into practice. The report captures a conundrum in measuring social change movements or networked approaches.    Outcomes for “wicked problems” can be easily counted – policies passed, housing the homeless, educating children.  But there are less tangible results such as “we changed the frame” or “we shifted members’ consciousness” which for grassroots organizers on the ground view as the vibrancy of the network .   The report lays out some new metrics for movement building – that are paths to the more easily counted tangible results and where the unit of analysis is the movement or network, not an organization. As the report points out,  movement organizers are grappling with big questions.  It is less about how to raise funds for their organizations (although that’s important) but focused on the big picture:   What is the long-term change that we want to see?  What is needed to achieve it?  What roles do different organizations play?    The report identifies metrics to measure progress around this these questions – it asks and answers – “What exactly are the right metrics for today?

Capacity Building and Networks | Partners for Impact

Capacity building helps generate networks that help sustain movements.

Navigating the Nonprofit Polycrisis | Mazlo

Nonprofit leaders are navigating overlapping crises in funding, demand, workforce, and compliance. This framework offers practical tools to bring clarity.

Capacity Building: Definition, Types, and Activities | Motion | Motion

Learn more about capacity building, including the definition, importance, types, and activities to get started with it in your organization.

How Can the Social Sector Rebuild Trust and Align Movements for Greater Collective Impact?

Civil society is under pressure — trust is declining, advocacy [...]

Volunteering, Nonprofit Jobs, and Community

Find volunteer opportunities, nonprofit jobs, social-impact opportunities and more on the Idealist platform.

‘We feel that we were used’: Nonprofits after Chan Zuckerberg dropped social advocacy

A year after CZI ended social advocacy grants, nonprofits share lessons on funding loss, budget gaps, and surviving donor shifts.

Holding the Roots: Resourcing the Infrastructure Behind Movements - Interaction Institute for Social Change

There’s a quiet revolution underway. You can see it in church gatherings and small-town meetings, on Zoom calls between elders and young organizers, in community art projects, healing circles, and protest planning sessions. Across the country, IISC has had the deep honor of supporting and witnessing this movement: the call for food justice in Mississippi,... Read More

Donate to Help Guiding Threads Collective Nurture Liberation Movements, organized by Anna Krist

Guiding Threads Collective is a worker-owned cooperative that … Anna Krist needs your support for Help Guiding Threads Collective Nurture Liberation Movements

Scaling Open Source communities

Successful Open Source projects must transition from pure volunteerism to include paid contributions, mirroring how public goods like roads evolved historically.

From Fragments to Force: A Call to Unite the Pro-Democracy Movement

There is no shortage of organizations, campaigns, and visionary individuals working to defend and renew American democracy.

PARA

Civic social infrastructure for communities, governance, and public participation.