A case for movement building as community power

Gloria Mugabekazi

In 2025, social justice movements are facing a coordinated storm. Climate collapse is accelerating. Civic space is shrinking. Anti-rights forces are becoming more strategic and well-resourced. Feminist gains are being rolled back. Each crisis is urgent on its own, yet their interconnections are inescapable. Extractive economies drive both climate and gender injustice. Democratic erosion weakens climate policy; attacks on humanity and dignity spike in the wake of fascist regimes.

The challenge – and the opportunity – is that no single sector, campaign or organization can address these crises in isolation. What we need is the appreciation and realization that movements have existed and have been organizing long before “funding” and will continue to do so.

Movement building as a way of building community power is the intentional work of connecting people, issues and strategies into ecosystems to create sustained and systemic change. It goes beyond running a campaign or managing a coalition. Campaigns are time-bound; coalitions often gather around a single issue and have a timeline. Movements, by contrast, are living ecosystems. Diverse actors playing different roles – from visionaries to disruptors, healers to story-tellers – connected by shared values and a long-term vision of systemic change.

This is an excerpt of a blog. To read the piece in its entirety, head to the #ShiftThePower Treehouse.

By: Gloria Mugabekazi, an international development strategist working at the nexus of grantmaking, movement building and social justice. Gloria was a 2023 / 2024 #ShiftThePower Fellow.