International Nonviolence Training Fund (INTF)
Brief History 1994 – Present
The International Nonviolence Training Fund provides grants for nonviolence trainings. These trainings help people learn how to collectively use the theory and practice of nonviolent action as part of nonviolent campaigns or programs for social justice. INTF supports nonviolence trainings because they help people and organizations develop and improve the skills they need to confront systemic injustices. Trainings promote the exchange of ideas, information, and strategies, through which activists can become more effective at using nonviolent action in their struggles.
Created in 1994, the INTF was funded by donors who had a special interest in supporting nonviolence training internationally. The fund was overseen by the International Nonviolence Training Fund Advisory Committee (INTFAC) and was administered by the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute (AJMMI). One of the reasons for basing the fund with the Institute was A.J. Muste’s personal involvement in the 1960’s in the World Peace Brigades, a multinational group committed to training people to use nonviolent techniques. From 1994 through 2023 the INTF supported nonviolence trainings for groups actively planning or implementing nonviolent social change actions or nonviolent campaigns.
In December 2023 the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, which administered the INTF, decided to re-frame its international work “to focus on identifying broader efforts, such as organizing against anti-colonization.” It therefore decided to disband the International Nonviolence Training Fund. Since then a number of individuals that were members of the disbanded INTF Advisory Committee (INTFAC) have been looking for ways to continue this important work. They have seen that there is an on-going, perhaps even an increased, need to support training people in nonviolent skills for social change. These former INTF Advisory Committee members plan to restart the Fund as soon as new funds are raised.