A Movement Takes Hold and Flourishes

In the early 1970s, a group of young people--with consciences shaped by Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, and armed with inheritances from the Pillsbury Baking Company, Sunbeam Bread, and DuPont--created a group of institutions that laid the foundation for an entirely new kind of philanthropy.

Recognizing that traditional philanthropy often creates a dynamic of dependency and control, these new philanthropists chose to alter it not only by giving away money, but also by foregoing control over grantmaking decisions. They created a half-dozen "alternative" foundations around the country, each grounded in grassroots social justice movements and committed to community-activist control of grantmaking, and funding organizations working to shift the power in society. This unique approach has made the Funding Exchange a leader in social justice movements.

In 1979, these six foundations-Bread and Roses Community Fund, Haymarket People's Fund, Liberty Hill Foundation, McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, North Star Fund, and Vanguard Public Foundation-created the Funding Exchange (FEX) to consolidate their growing resources and provide a national office to further advance the alternative philanthropy movement. The motto of these foundations and their national office became Change, not Charity.

Inspired by a steadfast, forward-looking vision, the Funding Exchange has been "first on the scene" in supporting countless movements as they emerged. In fact, FEX and its member funds have provided lead funding for organizations in virtually every contemporary movement for progressive social change. Our grantees:

• Led the battle against domestic violence.
• Propelled the movement for lesbian and gay civil rights.
• Helped to launch the environmental justice movement.
• Organized against globalization long before it became a buzzword.
• Began the living wage campaigns that led to a national movement.
• Led education and youth projects on the cutting edge of social change.

FEX worked with a handful of donor-activists to shape a donor-advised program that would be another vehicle for funding grassroots organizations. This funding model played a vital role in supporting organizing for liberation struggles, justice movements around the globe, and community movement building for racial, economic, gender and sexual orientation justice throughout the United States. Bringing community activists and leaders in philanthropic decision-making together created a crucial shift to the power of grantmaking and benefited front-line communities in their struggle to effect systemic change.

Over the past 29 years the Funding Exchange has grown from those first six founding funds to fifteen member foundations across the country, who give away over $15 million annually. The Funding Exchange remains committed to its goal of funding grassroots social and racial justice movements, and to its unique partnership of activist and donors dedicated to changing inequitable social systems. Our vision is to build a permanent institutional and financial base to support progressive social change.