News

Emergent Fund News: One Year, $3.4 Million, What’s Next?
In 2016, WDN co-founded Emergent Fund to move rapid-response resources with no strings attached to communities under attack by federal policies and priorities. Led by an Advisory Council of organizers, Emergent’s participatory model enables them to respond to communities’ needs more quickly and efficiently than traditional philanthropy, dramatically increasing resources moved to the frontlines in […]

Understanding Defund the Police: Contextually, Historically and Strategically
For many of us, defunding the police is a new idea. How do we help more people in our lives understand what defund means? How can those of us who are new to this demand deepen our understanding of what frontline organizers are calling for? This piece written by WDN staffer, Kathryn Snyder, uses her […]

7 Takes on the Disinformation Pandemic
Mural entitled “Disinformation” by Kevin Ledo. Photo by @urbanmuralhunter and cropped into landscape format. Disinformation is a powerful weapon, we’re now seeing the widespread results of that. We collected seven personal takes on disinformation from our members and staff, as well as the movement leaders and experts who will be speaking at the upcoming […]

What Can We Do to Uplift Birth Justice?
In June and July of 2021, we hosted a series called Uplifting Birth Justice. With 15+ speakers and partner networks, this unprecedented series taught us that the fight for birth justice requires all of us. Now is our chance to transform institutions and improve outcomes for birthing people around the world. What Can We Do to […]

How WDN’s Grantmaking Is Building Trust
The trust-based philanthropy movement, championed by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, is about “redistributing power – systemically, organizationally, and interpersonally – in service of a healthier and more equitable nonprofit sector.” The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project encourages funders to adopt “six key principles which include: multi-year unrestricted funding, streamlined applications and reporting, and a commitment to building […]

Investing Now for Long-term Impact: Grantmaking Update
We are proud to share an update about our collective grantmaking. At WDN we are moving more than $4.2 million in funding to 44 powerhouse organizations in this grantmaking cycle. Thanks to the collective investment of this network, we are able to continue mobilizing critical funding to support the work of our grantees across the […]