Rooted in Southern movement
The future we want
has deep roots in the South.
Southern Power Fund has raised over $40 million and redistributed $36 million through the relationships that sustain Southern organizing. Today, that infrastructure is ready to carry $100 million to the people protecting our communities, building shared institutions, and holding land for generations to come.
A record of redistribution
Since 2020, SPF has moved resources through Southern organizing relationships and organizations, getting funding to people who know their communities and are building for the long term.
01 The people and relationships behind the work
SPF brings movement organizations and funder allies together to move resources where they can strengthen Southern organizing.
Our movement leadership includes Project South, Alternate ROOTS, Highlander Research and Education Center, Southerners on New Ground, Agitarte, Taproot Earth, the Smile Trust, The Ordinary People Society, and People’s Advocacy Institute alongside our funder allies at Grantmakers for Southern Progress and Solidaire Network.
The people closest to the work help shape where resources go. SPF connects that knowledge with funding and shared infrastructure, so support can reach immediate needs while strengthening the work across organizations and generations.
02 Why this moment calls for more
Authoritarianism reaches into the everyday work of organizing: how people gather, how money moves, whose rights are protected, and whether our institutions can keep their doors open.
Across the South, movements are defending their communities while navigating attacks on rights, threats to nonprofit funding, climate disasters, and displacement. The pressure reaches the systems that make collective action possible.
Our response has to reach that deep, too. Movements need resources they can count on, legal and financial systems that protect their work, trusted relationships, and places to gather and build.
The people doing this work should be able to plan beyond the next emergency. Flexible, sustained support gives movements room to respond today and build the institutions that will hold tomorrow.
03 Three connected strategies
Protection, shared infrastructure, and movement-held land reinforce one another. Our approach connects the resources communities need in a crisis with the institutions and places that allow them to shape their futures.
Move flexible resources when communities face a crisis. Support legal defense, digital and physical safety, disaster response, voting rights, and the ability to organize.
So movements can respond when it matters and keep going after the immediate emergency.
Invest in shared financial knowledge, legal protection, collective decision-making, leadership development, and the relationships that connect Southern organizations and formations.
So resources can move, responsibility can be shared, and the work can withstand pressure and transition.
Resource movement-held land and the physical spaces where communities can gather, learn, care for one another, and practice self-determination. Support the stewardship that keeps those places in community hands.
So the next generation inherits places and institutions from which to build.
04 Strengthening the systems that carry more
The ability to hold and share resources grows through practice.
The Fortify the South Fellowship is designed as a year-long, movement-led learning cohort. It brings practitioners together to strengthen the systems and relationships their formations depend on.
Fellows bring that learning back to their organizations: budgets people can understand together, agreements that protect the work, and ways to make decisions and move resources with accountability.
When more people can carry the work, more becomes possible.
The infrastructure we’re building
Shared knowledge and sound systems for stewarding money.
The ability to receive and move resources with care and accountability.
Clear agreements and the knowledge to address risks early.
Practiced ways to make decisions, share authority, and work through disagreement.
Protected information, shared leadership, and plans to keep going.
An invitation to funders & partners
Invest in the people and institutions that will carry Southern movements forward.
Flexible, multi-year support gives communities room to respond to what is urgent and stay with what takes time. It sustains the relationships, shared systems, and places through which movement power grows.
We invite funders and donors to be part of this work: bring resources, bring partners, and help deepen what Southern movements are already building.
Talk with us about a commitment info@fundthesouth.org