Kindred Motes
Kindred Motes founded KM Strategies Group to help mission-driven institutions make better decisions when strategy, money, narrative, and public pressure are all moving at once.
His work sits across philanthropy, nonprofit leadership, communications, advocacy, and social impact strategy. He has advised organizations navigating campaign launches, fundraising growth, crisis moments, executive transitions, field positioning, and high-stakes public narratives.
KMSG’s model reflects a clear belief: serious work deserves senior judgment, practical execution, and advisors who understand the consequences of getting the work wrong.
The work is grounded in place and practice.
Kindred grew up in Somerville, Alabama, in a working-class family where organizing, labor, and community responsibility were not abstractions.
His career moved through human rights organizations, philanthropy, advocacy, and international social impact work before he founded KMSG. That experience shaped a firm built for the moments when organizations need both judgment and execution.
Kindred also leads The Etolia Fund, serves as Board Chair of the ACLU of Alabama, and teaches and lectures on social impact, philanthropy, communications, and nonprofit strategy.
"Most of what I do is, at its core, about building trust and deepening relationships."
I spent more than a decade working inside nonprofit, human rights, and philanthropic institutions before I started consulting. Across those roles, I saw the same problems being solved repeatedly with little shared learning between organizations. Working across institutions makes those patterns visible. A significant part of this work is taking what gets figured out in one place and applying it where it is needed earlier than anyone is able to name it.
Time inside organizations also clarifies where power sits. The people closest to the problem are usually the ones most equipped to solve it. The in-house team often knows exactly what is wrong; they do not always have the standing to say it without consequence. The grantee often understands the funder’s blind spot better than the funder does. A meaningful part of this work is making sure the people who already know the answer are heard inside rooms that have been ignoring them.
KMSG operates as an extension of the mission, not a vendor to it. That means treating funder dollars with the same accountability the funder would. It means telling a client the harder version of the answer when the harder version is the right one. It means declining work that does not fit. The advisory layer around social impact is full of firms whose practices created the problems they now charge to solve. This firm is an attempt to behave differently inside it.
The work has moved money, attention, and institutions.
A few markers from Kindred’s career and KMSG’s portfolio.
Read the full version.
A scrollable bio designed for media, funders, event hosts, partners, and organizations considering work with KMSG.
Kindred Motes is an award-winning social impact strategist, philanthropic advisor, and founder of KM Strategies Group, a boutique advisory firm working across nonprofit strategy, philanthropy, advocacy, communications, and mission-driven public engagement.
Across more than a decade of work in social impact, Kindred has led strategy, communications, and campaign efforts reaching more than 450 million people worldwide; helped nonprofits, NGOs, and foundations acquire more than 1.1 million new supporters; raised or leveraged more than $45 million for clients through KMSG since 2021; and advised or managed grantmaking teams with annual giving budgets of up to $30 million.
His portfolio spans 18 countries, including six low- and middle-income countries, with work connected to the United Nations, G20, COP26, U.S. Congress, and U.K. Parliament. Through KMSG, Kindred has advised clients and partners including the ACLU, Global Citizen, New America, The Tow Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Code for America, Girl Rising, Foundation for Louisiana, and Columbia Justice Lab.
His earlier roles include leadership and strategy positions at The Tow Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, Vera Institute of Justice, MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge, Control Arms, Southern Poverty Law Center, and REDRESS.
Kindred’s work has generated coverage in 17 countries and eight languages, including in The New York Times, Associated Press, Forbes, Financial Times, The Guardian, El País, Le Monde, Vox, The Times of India, Teen Vogue, NowThis, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Fast Company, and USA Today. His own writing and commentary have appeared in Fast Company, Alliance Magazine, Inside Philanthropy, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Reckon, and AL.com.
A native of Somerville, Alabama, Kindred is a first-generation college and graduate student whose work is shaped by Southern movement leadership, working-class communities, and the structural underinvestment facing the South and Appalachia. He is President and Co-Founder of The Etolia Fund, which has directed more than $150,000 in grants to date, prioritizing BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and working-class leaders and organizations.
Kindred also serves as Board Chair of the ACLU of Alabama and on the advisory councils of Harvard Business Review and Fountain House. He holds an M.A. with honors in International Relations from the University of Essex and a B.A. in English from Birmingham-Southern College, where he was a Harrison Honors Scholar.
He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Alabama, has guest lectured at institutions including Carnegie Mellon University, University of St Andrews, Hunter College, and the Robin Hood Foundation’s Blue Ridge Labs Social Impact Incubator, and has completed executive education through the London School of Economics and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
His digital and multimedia work has received Webby and Telly recognition. He was named a 2024 Power Player in Corporate Social Responsibility by amNY and PoliticsNY and has been featured by Associated Press, NPR, Forbes, Fast Company, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Montgomery Advertiser, Bham Now, and Affinity Inc.
Kindred has spoken, taught, or appeared in contexts including SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, University of Alabama, Carnegie Mellon University, University of St Andrews, Hunter College, and University of Essex.
Kindred Motes
Strategy with consequences.
Kindred’s work starts from a practical question: what decision has to change, who has the power to change it, and what evidence, relationships, or pressure will move them?
That orientation shapes KMSG’s approach across communications, fundraising, field strategy, and executive advisory work. The goal is not to produce a polished document that sits somewhere untouched. The goal is to help organizations move people, resources, and institutions toward a defined outcome.
That requires telling clients the truth earlier than is comfortable. It also requires knowing when a communications problem is actually a power problem, when a fundraising challenge is actually a trust problem, and when a strategy needs fewer priorities rather than more language.
Hear how this work shows up in practice.
Selected interviews on social impact strategy, philanthropy, Southern roots, and institutional responsibility.
Kindred Motes helps companies doing well make sure they’re doing good.
A conversation on Southern roots, social impact, and how institutions make decisions that affect real people.
Strategies for Social Impact with Kindred Motes.
A discussion of building KMSG, advising across sectors, and how strategy translates into action.
Kindred Motes, Social Justice Advocate and Entrepreneur from Alabama.
A conversation on social impact, growing up in rural Alabama, and the experiences shaping his approach to philanthropy, narrative, and institutional change.
Watch on YouTubeThese conversations reflect how I think in real time, not just how I write.
Bring us in when the stakes are as real as your impact. We're always ready to roll up our sleeves.
KMSG works with mission-driven organizations navigating moments where strategy, narrative, resources, and institutional choices need to move together.