The Governance of Turning Tides

Tenure security is, at its heart, about who gets to make decisions over lands and waters. We believe that same principle should extend to how funding reaches those places — who shapes it, what it does, and who it serves.

This conviction shapes how we are governed. We seek to be guided and held accountable by structures and processes beyond ourselves and our funders — not just to be participatory, but because it's the right way to move money if empowerment is the point. This commitment to power-sharing shows up in our co-leadership model, our Steering Committee, and our ongoing efforts to be shaped by advisory and decision-making structures in the regions where we work.

It's challenging. Living our values — power-sharing, equity, responsiveness — requires navigating real legal, fiscal, and management complexities. We haven't solved them. But we're learning, from others in philanthropy and from social movement partners working to shift how power flows with funding.