Press Release
Antimonopoly Fund Publishes Report Breaking Down How $10 Million Invigorated the Antimonopoly Movement
09. 22. 2022
Antimonopoly Fund Provided Investments to Help Shift Policy, Research and Narratives around How Monopolies Impact Society
Washington, D.C. – Today, the Economic Security Project published “From Moment to Movement: The Antimonopoly Fund,” a report that details how the Antimonopoly Fund’s injection of $10 million into the field transformed the antimonopoly movement. By strategically funding organizations, campaigns, and research that filled gaps in the field and building out critical infrastructure, the Antimonopoly Fund strengthened the antimonopoly movement and helped challenge conventional policies that allow monopolies to concentrate economic power.
The report details how, starting in 2019, the Antimonopoly Fund invested in people who are fighting against monopoly power in technology, pharmaceuticals, and many more sectors where dominant firms have an overbearing influence over our economy and democracy. The report draws attention to how amplifying broad constituencies like workers, small business leaders, and racial justice advocates while also contextualizing the monopoly problem in lived experiences helped create the conditions for decision-makers throughout government to take action to rein in monopoly power.
The Antimonopoly Fund invested nearly $10 million in 122 grants and contributions to 81 individuals and organizations, in addition to the costs of operating the Fund. These funds helped launch five new organizations and eight new initiatives at existing organizations, as well as 26 new research projects exploring new ways of thinking about the monopoly problem. The Fund’s investment in the field is also unique in the sense that 59% of the groups who received funding for antimonopoly work had not previously received funding from participating foundations for this kind of work. To elevate the leadership of new and veteran antimonopoly organizers, the report profiles a few of the people leading in the fight from philanthropy, academia, think tanks, advocacy organizations, and more, shining a light on the power of cross-organizational movement building. You can read the report here and learn more about the Economic Security Project’s Antimonopoly work here.
“Over the past three years, the Antimonopoly Fund has invested $10 million into 81 individuals and organizations to take on concentrated corporate power and reinvigorate the antimonopoly field,” said Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of the Economic Security Project. “We’ve laid a strong foundation for antimonopoly action—and with this next phase of work, we can move closer to a fair, egalitarian, and democratic economy.”
“We launched the Antimonopoly Fund at just the right time to support a growing movement and secure wins that were once unimaginable. As monopolists across the economy continue to invest record-breaking resources—upwards of $210 million since 2021 alone—into halting proposed reforms that threaten their dominance, the stakes have never been higher.” said Becky Chao, Director of Antimonopoly at Economic Security Project. “The philanthropic sector needs to continue investing in the field to enable broad coalitions, savvy campaigners, and rigorous researchers to keep pushing the envelope and fighting concentrated power.”
“The greatest threat to monopoly power is distributed power, where a well-resourced field of advocates work across sectors with common purpose to build worker rights, corporate accountability, and an inclusive economy,” says Lori McGlinchey, director of Ford Foundation’s Technology and Society program. “For too long, the antimonopoly field has been both siloed and stretched thin, lacking sufficient resources to meet the challenges posed by concentrated power. Amidst a constantly shifting technical, political and economic environment, the Antimonopoly Fund is a critical space for philanthropy to come together and invest deeply into the field, and for the long term, to mount a sustainable response to the threat monopoly power poses to the fundamentals of democracy and a well functioning and fair economy.”