ADD International recently finalised its fourth strategic partnership; bringing the total amount of unrestricted funding for Mtiririko; our new strategy to channel power and resources to disability justice activists, to just under £4 million.

When I first joined ADD two years ago, this seemed like an impossible feat. So how did we get here? With the odds against us, I believe the success is a result of an intentional shift away from traditional fundraising practices, towards an activist approach that embraces justice, fairness, courage and solidarity.

Despite over a decade-long career in fundraising, I still struggle to describe myself as a fundraiser. Like many other fundraisers, I didn’t plan to be one. I came into this work because of a passion for racial and gender justice and hoped to find like-minded activists within INGOs. Instead, I discovered commercial mindsets, competition and exclusivity. Fundraising ‘deals’ were where you would find some of the dirtiest power imbalances; with most INGO fundraising success depending on your CEO’s membership of the ‘old boy’s club’. As a young woman of colour, trying to navigate these white power circles often felt crushing.

But in recent years, I have tried to ‘radicalise’ my fundraising job by bringing my personal commitment to fairness and justice into the work; values which were often incompatible with meeting fundraising targets.

In 2022, I joined ADD because of one line in the job description that read ‘this is not your typical fundraising job’ – and it’s not. ADD has created space to explore an alternative approach to fundraising or ‘fundseeking’ as we now say, marking a linguistic difference for our ethical, radical and values-driven approach. 

So, what exactly is this ‘new approach’? These principles attempt to sum it up:

• Fairness over competition. Competition is baked into our profession. So, deprioritising organisational growth and focussing on sharing resources fairly, is a significant mental shift. Our Fundseeking Team understands its role is finding money for the disability justice movement as a whole and that we will cease to exist once overlooked disability justice activists can access resources currently denied to them. Reimagining our role as advocates of funding justice, responsible for reconfiguring the unequal concentration of resources, is a powerful stance.

• Challenge over compliance. The funding system is deeply unfair. INGOs monopolise resources that could be shared with grassroots activists, leaders and movements who do this work as their life mission, not as a career.  Acknowledging this can feel uncomfortable because it is contrary to the donor-pleasing behaviour expected of ‘good’ fundraisers. But fundraisers might want to consider how playing into this role perpetuates an unequal funding system.

• Solidarity over transactions. There’s a growing number of people who share a commitment to intentionally using their power and privilege to create change from within the philanthropic system. As the FixTheFlow Fellowship showed me, grant makers and grant seekers are often doing the same ‘resource activism’ in difference contexts. When these relationships become values-aligned, we’re all able to move beyond transactional arrangements and superficial conversations to honest reflections that are a source of solidarity and strength. Then, we can build collective power to redistribute resources more equitably.

• Boundaries over fear – I have turned down partnerships and money because they felt too power imbalanced, transactional and unethical. I took this risk before any of the solidarity partnerships that we now have, were anywhere within our orbit. This felt scary. But I felt it was just as important to be clear about what we would no longer accept, as well as what we were striving for. It is highly uncharacteristic for a fundraiser to say no. But sometimes the cost of compromise is too high.

As I leaned into showing up in my fundraising capacity in this way, a few interesting things started to happen. One of the funders whose offer I declined, re-approached me asking for feedback on how they could be better. Another simplified their application process as they felt our conversations and strategy had already built trust and understanding. Another who had previously told us no, came back and told us yes, with more and multi-year funding.  While nothing happens in a vacuum, I do believe that when you show up with a different energy and mindset that encompasses all the above, you get different results.

In all of this, I recognise my own positionality. I work and live in London, English is my first language and as a British passport holder, I can travel to conferences and events to build connections and relationships with funders.  In an ideal philanthropic system, resources would be readily available to those at the frontline of tackling oppression who are often less visible, but most impactful. But until we get to a post-philanthropic future, I find some peace knowing that I am using my privilege consciously; doing what I can to get funding to places and people it currently doesn’t reach.

I am also not totally naïve. Alternative fundraising of this kind is not a silver bullet for a system in need of transformation, and I recognise that this approach has worked because it is an organic extension of ADD’s overall mission as a participatory grantmaker and may not be possible in all organisational contexts.

Navigating the world of wealth is hard and problematic, but I want other fundraisers to know that doing this work in alignment with your values is possible and arguably, more effective. There is also strength in numbers and together we can blur the artificial distinction between grant giver and grant seeker to focus on our shared values. Together we can find the strength to speak truth to power rather than be passive donor-pleasers; and together we can disrupt this unjust money maze and divert the funding flow to those demanding social justice.

If this piece resonates, comment below or get in touch as I’d love to discuss how we can create – or join – a community to explore these issues and build momentum to create more equity in the funding system.

Sabina Basi is Director of Funding, Communications and Transformative Partnerships at ADD International where her purpose is to engage with the philanthropic system to create a just and reparative flow of resources to disability justice activists in the Majority World.