OUR VISION
We envision a just society that is truly democratic and participatory; where everyone is given opportunities to live, work, play, create, interact and think with dignity, in a culture of respect and love; a society that is economically and ecologically sustainable, where people have global purpose, true interconnectedness, and appreciation for their diversity.

Changemakers' role in manifesting this vision is to assure that the people and organizations working for social and economic justice at the grassroots level are well funded and are included in philanthropic decision-making. In order to ensure a strong progressive philanthropic sector that will support positive social change beyond our lifetime, we must build its infrastructure now.

OUR MISSION
To this end, Changemakers' mission is to transform the values and practice of philanthropy in order to assure a more equitable and accountable distribution of resources for creating positive social change.

In other words, Changemakers works within the philanthropic sector to shift WHERE money is directed -- to address root causes of social and environmental problems -- and HOW it is given, urging individual donors and philanthropic organizations to become more accountable, strategic, inclusive, collaborative, democratic, and creative.

UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS OF OUR WORK
Changemakers is grounded in the assumption that philanthropy - individual and institutional support of nonprofit organizations - can have a huge influence on creating long-lasting social change. When we say social change, we mean the changing of attitudes and institutions such that they cease to create the very problems that charity tries to alleviate. Philanthropy can affect social change not only by directing money to social change strategies, but also by utilizing processes and practices that are true to social justice values (ie, being inclusive, accountable, creative and strategic).

Our belief is that this great potential of philanthropy is not being met. Statistics reinforce this belief, indicating that less than 3% of foundation giving goes to social change, and that miniscule levels of funding go to support people of color, women, LGBT people and others who have carried the brunt of social injustice in the United States. By transforming the philanthropic sector, we expect to not only increase the amount of philanthropic dollars supporting social change, but also to ensure that the practices of the philanthropic sector do not perpetuate inequities. We believe philanthropy can become a force for uniting us across our differences.

To gain some perspective on how Changemakers' work fits into the larger movement towards social justice, please click here (*.pdf format) to view a map which depicts the partners involved in 30 years of building the infrastructure for funding social change.

OUR STRATEGIES
We approach this work through 3 key strategies:

1. Building the capacity of organizations practicing and promoting community-based social change philanthropy.
    
2. Expanding the resource base for the ideas, people, strategies and organizations that are addressing root causes of social and environmental problems and building movements for positive social change.
    
3. Transforming the practice of philanthropy to be democratic and inclusive, empowering people closest to the problems and most aware of the solutions to guide the use of philanthropic resources.