Movement Strategy Center

MSC has been funded by major left-of-center funders including the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, and it manages more than $15 million in regrants on behalf of left-of-center grantmakers each year. ^{3 4 5 1}

Background

The Movement Strategy Center was founded in Oakland, California in 2001 by Taj James of Full Spectrum Labs, Kristin Zimmerman of the group Root. Rise. Pollinate!, and Lisa Russ, a self-described social-justice consultant. The organization obtained tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service in 2004. ^{6 7}

From its founding, MSC oriented itself toward what it labeled “transformative movement building,” an approach asserting that organizing efforts should change not only laws and institutions but also the personal habits and beliefs of activists. The organization has tied its internal culture to so-called mind-body practices, including a regimen it calls the “60/40 Stance” developed by an MSC mentor, and it has cited “radical interdependence and love” among its operating values. ⁶

Activities

A primary activity of the Movement Strategy Center is providing fiscal sponsorship, allowing organizations and campaigns that lack their own tax-exempt status to receive tax-deductible contributions and grants through MSC’s nonprofit structure. The organization stated that it supports projects centered on and led by what it terms BIPOC (Black, indigenous, and people of color), women, and LGBT activists, and that it pursues “local and national organizing” through a network-centered model. ^{1 7}

The group operates a program it calls the “Movement Strategy Network,” described as a cohort of organizations that receive seed funding, fiscal sponsorship, and advisory services. MSC has hosted numerous fiscally sponsored projects since its founding, among them Proximate, a left-of-center media outlet launched in October 2023 that reports on philanthropy, investment, and government spending “through the lens of money”; the HEAL Food Alliance, a coalition pursuing left-of-center food and agriculture policy; and the Brown Boi Project, a gender-identity advocacy group. MSC has also fiscally sponsored the STEM Funders Network. ^{8 9 1}

MSC has additionally functioned as a regranting partner for foundations, redistributing grant money to grassroots recipients. The organization stated that it manages more than $15 million in foundation regrants each year to nonprofits, communities, individuals, and contractors. MSC also operates a donor-advised fund, a vehicle through which donors can direct contributions while retaining advisory influence over disbursements. ^{10 11}

A prominent environmental project of MSC was the Reinvest in Our Power campaign, a project of the Climate Justice Alliance that urged left-of-center groups to divest from conventional energy companies and channel the proceeds into cooperatively owned “regenerative economy” ventures through a loan fund called the Financial Cooperative. ^{12 13}

The center has also opposed the use of nuclear energy. A January 2015 report produced jointly by MSC criticized nuclear energy and carbon capture technology as examples of “false solutions” to the challenge of creating low-carbon and carbon-free energy sources. The same report praised the work of left-leaning advocates in India opposing nuclear power and zero-carbon hydro-electric dams. ¹⁴

MSC also helped launch the anti-hydraulic-fracturing network Stop the Frack Attack in 2013 with a $25,000 grant from the Chorus Foundation. ¹²

Funding

The Movement Strategy Center has been supported by an array of established left-of-center foundations. The Ford Foundation awarded MSC six-figure grants annually from 2022 to 2024, including $600,000 total in 2024. ³ The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has provided support to MSC’s Equitable Intermediary Fund. ⁴ The Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation funded MSC’s expansion of fundraising services to its sponsored projects across multiple years. ⁵

Related Organizations

The Movement Strategy Center operates a separate lobbying and political advocacy arm, the Movement Strategy Center Action Fund, a social-welfare organization whose contributions are therefore not tax-deductible. The Action Fund’s listed officers have included MSC founder Taj James as treasurer and Carla Dartis as executive director. ¹⁵