"As the South Goes..." Meet a Fund that’s Powering Frontline Southern Movement Groups

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Despite W.E.B. Du Bois' famous saying, "As the South goes, so goes the nation," Southern states in the U.S. have been historically underfunded, and that continues to this day. In a report on Southern grantmaking, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy found that “Between 2011 and 2015, foundations nationwide invested 56 cents per person in the South for every dollar per person they invested nationally. And they provided 30 cents per person for structural change work in the South for every dollar per person nationally.”

There’s little reason to believe those disparities have closed since then, and coupled with the fact that large portions of the South are made up of other underfunded groups, including rural Americans and people of color, the situation is grim.

Some funders and regional organizations, however, are working together to counteract the Southern philanthropy gap. Launched in 2020 as a response to the dual crises of the pandemic and George Floyd's murder — along with the conversations around racial justice and police brutality that followed — the Southern Power Fund is a collaborative that seeks to address longstanding disinvestment in the South and grow the power of front-line social movements there. It prioritizes support for groups that are often ignored or underresourced by traditional philanthropy.

To date, the Southern Power Fund has raised $28 million and has distributed more than $22.5 million to more than 400 organizations across 13 states and Puerto Rico. Its goal is to raise and distribute a total of $100 million. Major backers include the Ford Foundation, JPB Foundation, Democracy Frontlines Fund and the Solidaire Network, among others. 

The fund is anchored by four organizations: Southerners on New Ground (SONG), the Highlander Research and Education Center, Project South and Alternate ROOTS. Its steering committee is made up of members from nine organizations, which, in addition to the four anchor organizations, include Solidaire Network, the Ordinary People's Society, People's Advocacy Institute, the Smile Trust, AgitArte, Grantmakers for Southern Progress, and the Out in the South Initiative at Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

The Southern Power Fund was formed to be responsive to the surge in resources for organizations dedicated to advancing racial justice that followed George Floyd's murder and the subsequent uprisings. "What we knew — because we have been through so many disasters and organized through so many crises — was that those funds were not going to get to the ground, not going to Black-led organizations, not going to Indigenous organizations and rural organizations,” said Stephanie Guilloud, who serves as co-director for the Atlanta-based Project South. “And we knew that those are the groups, those are the communities that keep us alive.”

As a result, a group of Southern leaders that had longstanding relationships with one another came together to create a joint effort to find, receive and move some of that funding to organizations in the South. The fund seeks to move quickly, but also with an eye on a long-term strategy to build up the infrastructure of Southern power — and not just rely on rapid-response, immediate crisis funding. 

The fund hopes that over the long term, this work will allow organizations in the South to be prepared and resilient for the "socio-economic, cultural and climate crises already slated to come."

Underinvestment in the South

There are a number of reasons for philanthropy's structural underinvestment in the South. Chief among them, according to Wendy Shenefelt, steering committee member and director of cultural organizing at Alternate ROOTS, is that Black, brown and Indigenous-led organizations tend to be underfunded, and many organizations in the South fit that bill. "Those are not the folks who are going to get the big dollars," Shenefelt said. 

Another reason for the lack of investment is the paternalistic idea that Southerners need outside guidance. "It's the historical lens that we Southerners don't know what we're doing or have to take our cues from the big cities," Shenefelt said. This sentiment is often applied to other groups that are largely represented in the South, including rural Americans and Black Americans. 

"It's almost like what brought us together is trust and what prevents the resources from coming into the South is trust," Guilloud said — or rather, a lack of it. "The funders and funding institutions don't always trust Black and brown and Indigenous leaderships and front-line leaderships to know how to manage, hold and resource our movements."

Shenefelt also gave a third possible reason for philanthropy’s lack of attention to the South. People in the South, she said, are good at taking care of one another. She cited as an example being able to move small amounts of money to do things like providing $200 to families during ice storms so they can find a warm place to stay. 

"I think when we show how strong and resilient we are, folks are like, 'Oh, they're fine.' And so I think that also feeds into this myth that we don't need those big dollars," Shenefelt said.

The Southern Power Fund is trying to address all three of those challenges, and as it does so, one of its big advantages is the bargaining power that comes with being a collaborative. A single organization may not have much power when speaking with large funders about how much money it requires, but the fund as a group representing an entire region has a great deal more leeway to make a case for more support. 

"We're trying to get ourselves out of the, 'We're scrappy and we can do it on a budget [mindset]’,” Shenefelt said. "It's like actually, the resources need to flow freely to the front lines, and to be able to say that as a formation with people backing you up… I think that's been huge for some of our smaller organizations that would not have been able to operate in the same way because we're stronger as a formation than we are as standalone organizations."

Intervene, fortify, grow

The Southern Power Fund doesn’t consider itself a traditional grantmaker, nor does it think of the money it distributes as “grants.”

"These are funds that we're getting to the ground, but we want to make sure that we're flipping the language, that we don't consider what we're giving to be ‘grants’," Shenefelt said. "This is support that's getting to the front lines." 

While the Southern Power Fund isn’t backing actual political candidates or campaigns, and though its four anchor organizations and its major funders are 501(c)(3)s, Guilloud and Shenefelt were nevertheless quick to point out that they consider the fund a “political” project. “It is not a grantor. It is not set up to be a fund that lasts forever. It's a collaboration that's a political project to move and redistribute money into the front lines,” Guilloud said.

The fund, she added, is also meant to intervene and disrupt some of the dynamics in philanthropy by shifting philanthropy out of the driver’s seat and putting decision-making power in the hands of frontline and grassroots organizations.

To that end, the Southern Power Fund has three strategies for moving funds: “intervene,” “fortify” and “grow.” To intervene, the fund distributes general operating support, taking a trust-based approach. Instead of winnowing through grant applications, it gives twice a year based on recommendations from people and organizations that have already received funds and is constantly expanding its circle of relationships. 

The fund started by giving out what it calls "we see you money." As Shenefelt put it, "All of a sudden, an organization might receive a phone call that says, 'Check your email. You've just received this money.' I've been privileged to be able to be on the end of some of those calls and say it as they have just gotten a decline letter from a funder after they've spent three months trying to get their paperwork together to apply for a very small amount of money.”

The money comes with no strings attached. There are no reporting requirements and the steering committee does not dictate what organizations need to do with the funds.

The second strategy — fortify — involves annual support to build up infrastructure and strengthen collaborative efforts. The third strategy — grow — is meant to both move resources quickly during immediate crises, such as winter storms or attacks on Black trans organizations, for example, while also balancing long-term investments such as land purchases, housing, community land trusts and infrastructure development.

"As Southern movement leaders staying as close to the ground as we are, we want to watch for those turning points, watch for climate crises that we know are going to happen, but also watch for the social crises that happen in these types of moments, especially as hostilities rise, as global genocide and wars increase," Guilloud said. "We want to be able to move with our people but also within that political moment and framework."

As for civic engagement and election-related support, the fund is taking its cues directly from the ground. It will not be deciding on what kind of voter education, voter mobilization or voter protection work to support. Rather, the organizations that it supports will make those decisions with the fund providing the necessary backing. 

“Don't contract”

As U.S. funders confront a history of structural underinvestment in people-of-color-led organizations, rural places, front-line organizations and others, confronting underinvestment in the South should also be part of that picture.

"We know that philanthropists and folks who are working with money are always watching the landscape for what is stable and what is unstable. We are saying invest in Southern movements because we can stabilize the front lines, we can build a ground that is safe, protected, defended and stable, but we need to be resourced to do that," Guilloud said. 

Shenefelt added that it's crucial to build trust across all aspects of philanthropy so that those working on the ground can contend with and address rising authoritarianism. "This is not a time to be afraid or to contract," Shenefelt said. "That's what I think our challenge is to philanthropy: Don't contract. Don't leave us here now. Don't abandon and pull in. Don't isolate. Don't freeze… Let's be bold together."