Movementum

This concept is the result of a Better Giving Studio month-long collaborative sprint focusing on Equitable Curation which you can learn more about in this article. You can read the brief for more context and to see who was on the team.

Why BGS is Excited

Curation shows up in many forms – from the list order on donation platforms to the choice of which nonprofit is highlighted at the supermarket check-out stand. In each case it involves making decisions around which organizations to include or disinclude – a moment of advantage and power. The below concept was developed to help reduce inequities in giving sector curation which you can learn more about in the NCRP Equity in Philanthropy Guide and Lessons from GiveList.

• It helps donors understand how individual organizations fit into the big picture of impact on the cause.
• It provides a way to support organizations working together.
• It creates opportunities for causes, campaigns, and organizations to define themselves and their successes.

The Opportunity

Nonprofit organizations that are small, new or BIPOC-led can struggle to get the donor attention and dollars they need to make the impact they envision. And often there are many different organizations focused on a common cause. If they could band together, align on messaging and goals, and amplify their voice, they could increase their collective impact for the cause they care about.

The Concept

Movementum is a hub for small organizations to connect, coalesce, and create movements. Once on the hub, organizations form a coalition focused on a shared cause. Movementum guides them through the process of creating their movement with online tools that help them align and take steps to reach their goals. 

The process starts with participants defining the coalition. From there, online tools allow them to build consensus asynchronously, review work, and vote on decisions. Movementum’s templates help the coalition move fast and ease the barrier of digital literacy among organizations. In any movement, no one organization can control everything. This is reflected in the shared ownership structure of all of Movementum’s tools. 

Action-oriented tools engage coalition members and the public. They showcase organizations, content, progress toward goals, and prompt people to take the specific actions most needed to keep forward movement. Power-sharing tools make it easier for coalition members—who are often distributed across geographies—to make decisions and follow progress within the group. Visualizing the coalition creates transparency and can inspire more support for disparate communities.

Movements evolve over time. And the participants, ideas, materials and goals need to adapt with them. Movementum can help keep everyone in the coalition moving in the same direction – including donors. By educating donors about how each organization plugs into the larger cause, donating becomes more simple and values-aligned.

What Do You Think?

Are you working on something similar? Have feedback to give us or insights that we should know about related to this exploratory concept? Did you test out this idea, and how did it go? We’d love to hear from you! Please write us a note at [email protected]