"In response to this "defund and dismantle" strategy, movements urgently need a "defend and build" strategy by leveraging catalytic investment as a framework and tool-a term used in the for-profit sector to mean early-stage funding for projects that are perceived to be high-risk. Catalytic investors absorb risk and losses with the aim of identifying successful interventions that can have a reverberating impact for a field."
"Translated into movement terms, catalytic funding means resourcing bold, experimental, and community-led models that may not have immediate returns but hold the potential to transform systems. While communities have long sustained themselves through mutual aid networks, cooperatives, and other grassroots survival models, such efforts cannot by themselves match the scale of today's threats, especially as they are also being targeted."
Progressive movements face an unprecedented assault on infrastructure through politically motivated investigations, the weaponization of counterterrorism laws, and a projected $81 billion nonprofit funding loss over the next decade. These tactics destroy movement capacity by targeting funding, cutting off resources, and overwhelming organizations with legal, reputational, and regulatory assaults. A "defend and build" response calls for catalytic investment that absorbs early risk to incubate bold, experimental, community-led models with systemic potential. Grassroots mutual aid and cooperatives provide resilience but cannot alone match the scale of current threats. Authoritarian opponents and right-wing actors have used disciplined capital strategies and early philanthropic seeding to build enduring social and political power.
Read at Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
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