To create the kind of high-impact progressive change we envision, the Funding Exchange (FEX) will make grants to organizations that work with and through other groups and individuals to create more impact than they ever could have achieved alone. The focus being, not so much, on building large infrastructures, but rather on building a strong organization and then focusing energies externally to catalyze large-scale change.
Building a broader social justice movement takes time and a stable local base of leaders and support. The progressive movement is needed most in places where there is little infrastructure of these sorts of local groups, and where local fund raising initiatives do not exist or are very small.
A grassroots organization’s local work helps inform its policy advocacy, making legislation more relevant. Advocacy at the national level can help a local nonprofit replicate its model, gain credibility, and acquire support and funding for expansion and additional impact.