The Solidaire Network is a left-of-center donor group for advancing race and gender-based causes. It is fiscally sponsored by the Tides Foundation and supported in part by the Proteus Group, left-of-center “pass-through” funders that obscure the identities of donors. [1] Because of this, the Solidaire Network is not required to—and doesn’t—disclose donor identities nor executive compensation. It frequently collaborates with the Movement for Black Lives, a far-left organization that calls for “radical” wealth redistribution, federal job guarantees, and is severely anti-law enforcement. [2]
As of 2017, it claimed over 130 donors and funders across the United States. [3]
History
The Solidaire Network was founded in 2013, by a small group of wealthy activists who were inspired heavily by the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011. [4] One of its co-founders, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, nicknamed “Occupy’s heiress” in an interview in Salon, assumed the role of executive director. [5]
According to an interview with the left-leaning Invested Impact blog, the Solidaire Network began with the single goal of aligning already-existing giving. [6] Soon after, however, its pooled fund, “Movement R&D,” was created to support innovation in currently small-scale movements.
Two other fund types were later developed, the first being the September 2016 “Aligned Giving Fund,” in which Solidaire donors concentrate their additional donating—on top of that given through the pooled fund—specifically for the Movement for Black Lives. [7]
Its other fund is its “Emergent Fund,” established after the outcome of the 2016 elections and intended to quickly get funds to activists in need within 1-5 days of them being requested. [8] The Emergent Fund operates in partnership with the Women Donors Network, the Threshold Foundation, and the Democracy Alliance, and the Proteus Fund maintains the Emergent Fund. [9]
In November of 2018, Leah Hunt-Hendrix was succeeded by Rajasvini Bhansali, Solidaire’s current Executive Director. [10]
Present Activities
Its Movement R&D Fund is predicated on its donors giving a minimum of $10,000 each year, which is then distributed out to nonprofits that are decided upon by a 9-person Giving Committee. [11] Solidaire Fund’s annual report from 2016 indicates that $625,000 was given out through the fund that year. [12]
The Aligned Giving Fund doesn’t have a designated personal requirement, but rather, a collective requirement: $1 million a year for five years, all going to key organizations within Movement for Black Lives. As of 2016, the Aligned Giving Fund had 41 members commit a total of $695,000 a year, for a five-year prospective total of $3.475 million. [13]
Finally, the Emergent Fund operates through a “listserv,” or an email system that alerts members to activists in dire need. In 2016, it doled out $805,200 through this method. [14]
Leadership
The current Executive Director of the Solidaire Network, Rajasvini Bhansali, played a key role in advancing the Black Lives Matter Global Network. In the eight years prior to joining the Solidaire Network, Bhansali was Executive Director of Thousand Currents, a funder and incubator of nonprofits that supported Black Lives Matter as it attempted to expand. [15]
Though the Solidiare Network does not disclose the salaries of its officers, April 2017 job postings for the position of “Project Director” indicated that compensation for that position could range from $80,000 to over $110,000, “based on experience.” [16]
Finances
Publicly available filings from 2016 show total revenues of $741,739 and total expenses of $654,833. [17]