Solidaire Network

Solidaire Network is a US membership network of donors and foundation professionals that directs money toward left-of-centre social justice organising, and organises its own members to do it. It describes itself as an intergenerational and cross-class community of donor organisers, and its stated approach, Transformative Donor Organizing, treats wealth holders as a constituency to be organised in the same way frontline movements organise their own. Individual membership is aimed at people who can generally move $50,000 or more a year in giving, personally or through a family foundation, donor-advised fund or family office. Institutional membership serves foundation staff, who make up around 40 per cent of the membership. The network runs on member-driven structures: Solidarity Circles that members form around topics and run on their own schedule, regional hubs, biweekly virtual meetings called Beloved Fridays, a rapid-response giving listserv for member-led resource mobilisations, an annual in-person network gathering, and drop-in caucuses on philanthropic transformation. Alongside membership, Solidaire operates pooled vehicles including Building the Fire Fund, the Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund and the Leadership and Legacy Initiative. It reported revenue of $27.1 million in the year to June 2025.

How it works

Prospective members submit an interest form describing which category they fall into (individual wealthy donor or member of a high net wealth family, donor advisor or money coach, current or prospective foundation trustee, foundation staff, or philanthropy-serving organisation staff) and Solidaire's donor organising and philanthropic transformation teams follow up. Members then plug into whichever structures suit them: Solidarity Circles they can apply to join, a regional hub, biweekly Beloved Fridays calls, the rapid-response giving listserv and the annual network gathering. Members give directly to organisations they choose and can also contribute to Solidaire's pooled funds.

Typical member

Individual members are people with wealth who can generally move $50,000 or more in annual giving, whether personally or through a family foundation, donor-advised fund or family office, and who are aligned with Solidaire's stated values. Institutional members are foundation professionals: Solidaire says about 40 per cent of its membership works at foundations of all sizes. The joining form also names donor advisors, money coaches, current and prospective foundation trustees and philanthropy-serving organisation staff as relevant categories.

Solidaire sits at the activist end of the philanthropic network spectrum, and it does not disguise that: its published principles state that wealth is accumulated through exploitation and must be liberated, and its members have joined tax-the-rich lobbying days. Prospective members should read that as a genuine filter rather than positioning. The $50,000 annual giving threshold is meaningfully lower than the $1 million commitments asked by Women Moving Millions or the Synergos Global Philanthropists Circle, which makes it accessible to a wider band of donors, and the roughly 40 per cent share of institutional members means a good part of the room is foundation staff rather than principals. Two gaps stand out. Membership dues are not published anywhere on the site (the detail sits inside Canva documents linked from the membership page) and no member count is given. The organisation is financially substantial, with $27.1 million in revenue in the year to June 2025 against $15.5 million in expenses, but that figure covers its pooled funds as well as membership operations.

Editorial analysis by Peer Group Guide editors. It is separated from the record above and follows the editorial policy.