Grantmaking
Donor Organizing
Funding to Win
“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”
Donor
Learning
Peer
Engagement Community
Political
Education
Capacity
Building
The legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, Student Organizing Movement, and Healing Justice movement have deeply shaped and impacted the current landscape of organizing in North Carolina.
The Funding to Win Collaborative (FTW) was a participatory grantmaking program designed to move significant funds to Black-led movement work in North Carolina in a time when Black-led liberation work was — and continues to be — crucial to the survival and development of a multiracial democracy.
Its earliest seeds were planted in Durham in 2020, when We Are The Ones (WATO) emerged as a community-led response to proposals for more policing and surveillance in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Instead of more harm, organizers demanded safety, healing, and investment in community power. Out of that call, and through the partnership of the Cypress Fund, the Hive Fund, and the Partnership Fund, Funding to Win launched in 2022 as a statewide donor collaborative dedicated to resourcing Black-led movements across North Carolina.
By resourcing grassroots, Black-led, and accountable organizations working in both rural and urban areas of the state, Funding to Win invested in Black communities, who are heavily impacted by environmental racism, disaster capitalism, voter disenfranchisement, and the persistent legacy of Jim Crow.
Funding to Win Report
As we sunset this phase of the Funding to Win program, we embody the spirit of Southern tradition by pausing to reflect on what has been built, who has carried the work, and how we prepare the ground for what’s still to come.
This report is an invitation. Not to wade through charts and figures alone, but to join us on the front porch of North Carolina’s movement work, where stories are told, lessons are shared, and futures are imagined together.
Key Takeaways
Why We Launched
The urgent context and political motivations behind FTW
Four Phases of Growth
From Durham’s WATO fund to a statewide collaborative
Participatory Grantmaking in Practice
How we lived our values through process
Key Learnings
What we discovered about resourcing Black movements in NCA
Call to Action
How we can carry this work forward, together
Read the Report
As we turn toward the future, the next phase of our work will be guided by what we learned over the last five years: building lasting power requires both resourcing movements and reshaping philanthropy itself. We are committed to deepening our donor organizing and political education efforts, creating space for funders to learn alongside movement leaders, and cultivating a broader culture of accountability and solidarity. In this way, the close of Funding to Win is not an ending, but a beginning, one that promises a stronger, more intentional alignment between resources, relationships, and the movements carrying us all toward liberation.
History
The earliest seeds of Funding to Win were planted in Durham in 2020, when We Are The Ones (WATO) emerged as a community-led response to proposals for more policing and surveillance in Black and Brown neighborhoods. Instead of more harm, organizers demanded safety, healing, and investment in community power. Out of that call, and through the partnership of the Cypress Fund, the Hive Fund, and the Partnership Fund, Funding to Win launched in 2022 as a statewide donor collaborative dedicated to resourcing Black-led movements across North Carolina.
With an initial investment from the Z. Smith Reynolds foundation and Hill Snowdon Foundation and strategic support from Davis Squared Consulting, FTW launched officially in the summer of 2022.
FTW is guided by the following commitments:
1.
Rely on the expertise of Black organizers living and working in North Carolina.
2.
Support Black-led organizations by investing in sustained infrastructure around Black-led social change.
3.
Listen, learn, emerge.
Design Committee
In 2023, supported by Davis Consulting, FTW launched a design committee to design the governance and grantmaking strategy for the collaborative. Below is the 2023 design committee.
2024 Wisdom Circle
In 2024, Funding to Win transitioned the original design committee to a wisdom circle. Through the formation of a Wisdom Circle, NC-based Black movement leaders will serve as decision makers in the participatory grantmaking process, using their wisdom, experience, and expertise to decide where funds are best directed at this time. This is a community-led process, designed with trust and support of movement leaders at the heart of the process.
Building Together
Towards Liberation
FTW prioritized donor learning as a key component of our work, inviting funders to learn alongside Black leaders and grassroots organizers who are shaping transformative solutions in the Carolinas. By engaging directly with these movement builders, donors gain deeper insights into the lived experiences of marginalized communities and the complexities of systemic issues they face. This shared learning fosters a more informed and equitable approach to funding, ensuring that donor investments are aligned with community needs and contribute to building sustainable, long-term change.
Through FTW’s collective grantmaking approach, FTW educated donors on opportunities for deepening investments, shared learning, and support to allocate additional resources and funding to support Black-led social change groups. Funding to Win has historically hosted teach-ins, joy sessions and learning opportunities at various funder conferences to connect donors and build opportunities to build aligned solutions to advance our communities.
To learn more about FTW learning community and political organizing, drop us an email.
2024 Movement Partners
