Members-Only

Wednesday, June 10, 2026
10:00 am New York / 15:00 London

Strategic litigation is among the most consequential tools available to civil society for protecting human rights—yet it is extraordinarily resource-intensive, demanding sustained legal expertise, years of commitment, and financial reserves that traditional grant funding struggles to provide. This session will explore how the Good Law Project is built on a campaign-based fundraising model, mobilizing public support around specific high-profile cases to generate the unrestricted, flexible revenue that litigation work demands. We will examine the opportunities and limitations of this approach—including donor cultivation, reputational risk, the tension between public visibility and legal strategy, and the conditions under which such a model may or may not be replicable for other organizations. Participants will consider what lessons this case study holds for the broader field of human rights litigation funding.

Members-only event

Monday, July 6, 2026
10:00 am New York / 16:00 Amsterdam

NGOs are faced with incredible and seemingly insurmountable political and financial pressures at this moment. When organizations are operating in survival mode, it may be difficult for them to envision alternative ways of working. On the other hand, an existential crisis might be the best moment to reprioritize, reorganize, and re-envision how to resource NGO work. This roundtable will learn from the experience of TV Rain, a Russian-language independent media organization that was forced to flee their country and reconstitute abroad, losing key equipment, staff, and access to bank accounts. Leadership will share their experience, the continued challenges they face in rebuilding, and their experiments with alternative revenue streams in order to fulfill their mission. We will examine the role of urgency in organizational transformations and how to learn from failures. Participants will consider what lessons this case study may hold for organizations facing considerable political and financial pressures.

Public event

(date/time TBD)

This event will explore constituency-based giving models and alternative resourcing strategies emerging from social movements across Africa. Drawing on deep-rooted local traditions of collective giving—such as rotating savings groups, community tithing practices, and movement-led fundraising—the session will examine how these models are being adapted and formalized to sustain civil society organizations beyond donor dependency. We will discuss what makes these approaches culturally resonant and financially viable, and consider what lessons they may hold for organizations operating in other contexts seeking to diversify their resource base and strengthen community ownership of their work.

Members-Only

(date/time TBD)

This ARCS Roundtable will explore what advocacy NGOs can learn from the dramatic transformation of independent media over the past decade. The journalism industry faced a crisis of resourcing as a result of digitalization of media and outmoded past business models. Although some companies went out of business, others were able to adapt to changing structures. Faced with collapsing advertising revenues and the disruption of traditional distribution models, journalism organizations were forced to fundamentally reimagine how they resource their work—pioneering subscription models, membership communities, philanthropic-editorial hybrids, and reader-funded investigative units. We will examine how this paradigm shift in media offers a compelling analogue for civil society organizations grappling with their own funding pressures: over-reliance on grant cycles, donor concentration risk, and the limitations of project-based financing. The conversation will also surface the tensions and trade-offs involved, including how to preserve organizational independence and mission integrity while building innovative resourcing models.

Past Event

How can human rights and social justice NGOs collaborate with creatives and artists to broaden their resource base, reach new supporters and rethink what “resourcing” really means? 

This session will feature Artist Tomás Saraceno, who has been called "The artist ‘most likely to change the world’" (The Guardian), who will share his experience working with El Santuario del Agua (The Sanctuary of Water) in Argentina. It will also feature Coumba Toure, an artist and storyteller, and the founder of Kuumbati and Invisible Giants.

Moderated by Gastón Chillier, ARCS Roundtable Advisory Committee member.