In every major struggle that has won and grown – from the Civil Rights Movement to the Suffragettes, from farm workers to the trade union movement, from the church to the African National Congress – the movement has organised the money of its members. not only grants and wealthy philanthropists. The backbone of these movements was the regular, ordinary members who paid dues to fund the work.

​

Mass based membership movements are prolific in the United States and South Africa. In the UK, however, our third sector was predominantly built from wealthy people’s “largesse” rather than major modern struggles.

​

That gap - of organisations that are built from ordinary people’s money, with some exceptions such as trade unions and the religious congregations -  is a fundamental block on the development of movement infrastructure in the UK.  It means, amongst other things: 

​

• Most organisations’ funding is too precarious to build the long term, focused efforts to effect lasting change in our country.

• Our movement's agendas are often not owned by the people they belong to.

• Funder dynamics often limit an organisations’ ability to be radical, especially when taking money from the state.

• Organisations can choose to not be accountable to how funding is allocated and strategized to the people they are for.

• It disempowers ordinary people creating a transactional, charity-based model rather than having important conversations about what it truly takes to achieve meaningful change.

• Organising becomes less transformative and more focused on achieving outputs for funders, rather than goals for members.