Power, participation and transformative change – how funders can help

Add to this the failure of schools to educate on political literacy and this paints a picture of the state of the barren, chemical ridden soil that grassroots groups are working with to try and grow movements. [...] There is a tension between the level of ambition of small grassroots organisations and their capacity to deliver on it, due to funders not recognising the depth of soil preparation required to support seeds of activism to emerge. [...] There is a tension between being able to move at pace in the external campaigns world and the time needed to build the power of the community to do it. [...] Insufficient understanding of impact has been one of the most dominant challenges underpinning the JRF grassroots mobilisation programme, and is reflective of the early days of transition that the organisation was in. [...] One question we might like to ask ourselves is; ‘Do we as funders and large influencing organisations have the same definition of social change as people on the ground who are harmed most by the status quo? If not, how might this be contributing to holding the problem in place.’ We offered the strategic influencing support with a view to creating impact in the way that we understood it at the time.