Next in our series of posts about new Charitocracy nominees, we have nominee The Movement for Black Lives, nominated by donor jessica.e.pierce. M4BL is an ecosystem of individuals and organizations creating a shared vision and policy agenda to win rights, recognition, and resources for Black people. You can find their web site here. M4BL is a fiscally sponsored project of The Alliance for Global Justice.

A few words on Charitocracy

Firstly, for newcomers: here's how it works. Donors pool their monthly contributions, as little as $1. The cause with the most votes each month wins the pot. No matter how much or how little you contribute, each donor at Charitocracy gets one vote. This is where charity meets democracy. So please share this post (scroll down for social sharing icons) and ask your friends to join us and vote! That's how we spread the word and, as a result, grow the monthly pot. The bigger the pot, the bigger our positive impact on the world!

About nominee The Movement for Black Lives

Lately I've been doing a lot of listening and learning. I want to support our new nominees this month as best I can.

Recent events, especially the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and the weeks of national and international protests that followed, have gripped the world's attention. And there are an overwhelming number of organizations rising to this occasion, many of them nonprofits or with nonprofit fundraising arms. Whether organizing and supporting protests and other events, engaging the media and raising awareness in the general public, establishing legal defense funds, or setting policy agendas to end police brutality and so many other forms of systemic racial discrimination, they're all working to accelerate change. And they're getting tangible results! Police are being charged for murder and held accountable for excessive uses of force. Cities are reconsidering the status quo for their police forces, with defunding or outright abolition part of the conversation. And perhaps most crucially, people are talking about race. Out loud.

So where does M4BL fit into this picture? I see them as the broad movement's leadership hub. To use a football metaphor, M4BL is the quarterback pulling all the players into a huddle, gaining consensus on the next play, and then sending everyone off onto the field to execute a well-planned, coordinated action. They keep messages aligned to have the greatest reach and impact. They keep activities coordinated to maximize efficiency and visibility. They keep the entire movement headed in the same direction with the greatest momentum and strength in numbers.

This is what I've gleaned from my own research, but I'll go straight to the source for more details on the movement's positions:

About Us

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.

Who We Are

We are Abolitionist:

We believe that prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives.
We believe in centering the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized Black people, including but not limited to those who are trans and queer, women and femmes, currently and formerly incarcerated, immigrants, disabled, working class, and poor.

We believe in transformation and a radical realignment of power:

We build kinship with one another:

We draw from political lessons, grow in our leadership, and expanding our base to build a stronger movement.

We are anti-capitalist:

We believe and understand that Black people will never achieve liberation under the current global racialized capitalist system.

Our 5 Year Plan

Project 2024: Black Power Rising

Our movement and Black communities overwhelmingly are not currently in a position to set agendas to scale, control the institutions that affect our lives, or create mechanisms to mitigate harm. This assessment should not be interpreted as a failure of our social movements, but it does expose a critical gap. Over the next 5 years, we have created a popular strategy rooted in transformative goals that can impact the millions of Black people looking for direction and leadership in this moment. Chiefly, Black governance and ultimately positioning our communities to set agendas sits at the heart of M4BL Project 2024: Black Power Rising.

So please visit the page of nominee The Movement for Black Lives to vote for, like, or discuss this cause! And check out this 3 minute video explaining the work M4BL does and how they're uniquely organized: