The Solidago Foundation was founded in 1996 to fund innovative and effective grassroots organizing across the social, racial and environmental justice movements. Today, it supports the work of visionary organizers working to empower voters and create a more just and durable democracy.
Everything we do is anchored in our fundamental belief that when communities claim their collective power and work together, they can create lasting and truly transformative change.
HISTORY
Solidago has awarded more than 3,600 grants, totaling millions of dollars, to nearly a thousand organizations and projects. WTe have funded fights for clean air in Virginia coal country, fair wages for immigrant janitors in Minnesota, criminal justice reform in Ohio, and stellar community organizers in Georgia in 2020 who turned out record numbers of New American Majority voters at the polls. Since the beginning, we have seen our role as that of an ally, supporting communities most affected by inequities to build power and create deep, systemic change.
CURRENT GRANTMAKING
In response to escalating assaults on our democratic system, we are now exclusively supporting civic empowerment work, particularly in communities most impacted by systemic injustices. Our grantmaking funds voter engagement, voting rights, voter protection, and democracy reform efforts in key states, along with select national organizations that support and amplify this grassroots work.
THEORY OF CHANGE
We believe in the power of grassroots organizing and movement building. We believe the strongest organizing:
- Centers people impacted by structural inequities
- Fosters community organizations and movement building networks
- Is informed by a critique of systems of oppression
- Reflects a deep understanding of the political landscape
- Is creative and collaborative
- Brings people together, including across race and class
- Offers a transformative, unifying vision for change
We believe in the power of progressive philanthropy to help strengthen grassroots organizing. We believe the most effective philanthropy:
- Works in close partnership with groups that center people most directly impacted by structural inequities
- Engages in relational strategic grantmaking
- Is nimble and responsive
- Is willing to support innovative approaches that have not been tried before
- Can identify and uplift emergent best practices in grassroots organizing
- Is committed to help connect individual organizing efforts to existing and nascent movements and movement infrastructure