By: Natisha S. Jordan aka Benu Ma’at
There’s a viral take floating around lately that goes something like this: “The Black Panther Party wasn’t a 501(c)(3). They didn’t need grants. Therefore, relying on grant funding is a trap that kills true liberation.”
It’s a seductive narrative. It feels radical. It feels pure. But as someone who has walked the halls of a large non-profit and now works the front lines with small grassroots groups, I have to tell you: this is a dangerous oversimplification.
It ignores the complexity of our history and erases the survival strategies of countless Black and Brown organizers who used every tool available – including the ones the state handed them – to feed their people.
The Spark: Why the Panthers Inspired Me
I’ll be clear about my own starting point. The Black Panther Party is my north star. Their “Survival Programs” were not just charity; they were political acts of defiance. Free breakfast for children, community clinics, armed patrols against police brutality – they showed me that organizing isn’t about waiting for permission. It’s about seeing a need and filling it with your own hands.
That spirit is why I first became a community organizer. I wanted to be in the trenches, building those programs myself. I believed then, as many do now, that the only “pure” way to serve was outside the system entirely.
The Realization: The Trap of the “Big” Non-Profit
But reality hit hard when I moved into the world of large, established non-profits.
I quickly learned that while the mission might be noble, the machinery is often rigid. We spent hours complying with funder mandates that had nothing to do with what the community actually needed. We chased metrics instead of impact. We diluted our language to make donors comfortable.
I realized something painful: I was helping to build the cage, even when I thought I was trying to break it. The bureaucracy wasn’t just slowing us down; it was strangling the very innovation and urgency that made movement work effective in the first place.
The Pivot: Choosing the Grassroots
So, I made a choice. I left the safety of the large institution. I didn’t leave to stop working; I left to change how I worked.
I shifted my focus to small, grassroots organizations. These are the modern-day inheritors of the Panther spirit. They are the neighbors running pop-up kitchens without a board meeting. They are the artists turning vacant lots into galleries. They are the organizers fighting for housing justice without a 50-page strategic plan.
And here is where the narrative about “grants vs. revolution” falls apart.
These groups need resources. They need gas money for food delivery. They need rent checks so they don’t get evicted. They need supplies for their youth programs. Often, they can’t get these things through direct donations alone because the scale of their struggle is too big.
Grant Writing as a Weapon, Not a Surrender
This is why I am now a grant writer.
Some might ask: “Aren’t you selling out? Aren’t you becoming part of the system?”
No. I see my role differently. I am a translator.
The Black Panthers didn’t have grants not because they rejected resource mobilization, but because the state denied them the option. They were forced to rely on mutual aid and bold, risky fundraising. Today, we have a different landscape. We have foundations. We have government contracts. We have 501(c)(3) structures.
To say we shouldn’t use them because “the Panthers didn’t” is to ignore the tactical advantage we have now.
My job is to take the raw, urgent, revolutionary energy of these small communities and translate it into the language the gatekeepers understand. I use empathy – the true secret weapon of any good grant writer – to ensure that a foundation sees not just a “project,” but a vision.
I write proposals that secure the oxygen these grassroots groups need to keep burning bright. I am not trying to turn them into bureaucracies. I am trying to give them the fuel to stay independent, to stay autonomous, and to keep doing the work they love without starving.
Beyond the Binary
The truth is, there is no single path to liberation. There is a spectrum.
- On one end, you have the radical autonomy of mutual aid, operating outside the system.
- On the other, you have institutionalized non-profits, sometimes bogged down by compliance.
- And in the middle? Strategic hybrids. Groups that know how to navigate the system to fund their radicalism.
Dismissing grants entirely is a luxury only those who haven’t seen the hunger can afford. It ignores the real-world math of running a soup kitchen or a legal defense fund.
The Black Panther Party taught us to be bold. But they also taught us to be practical. They fed the children because they understood that you cannot free a mind if the stomach is empty.
So, let’s stop pretending that taking a grant makes you less radical. Let’s stop pretending that rejecting the system is the only way to save it.
Instead, let’s get to work. Let’s grab the resources that are available, fight the power within the constraints we face, and ensure that every organization – big or small, funded or unfunded – has the means to build the future we deserve.
Because at the end of the day, whether you’re feeding kids through mutual aid or securing a grant to build a permanent clinic, the goal is the same: Survival. Dignity. Liberation.
And that’s a war worth winning with every tool in the box.
