Isabel Allende Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Isabel Allende Foundation seeks organizations that empower women, secure their reproductive rights, and protect them from violence.
IP TAKE: While this foundation awards grants to some large international rights organizations, it leans toward smaller, grassroots outfits serving women in the areas of reproductive justice and economic empowerment. Recent grantmaking has also expanded geographically to include organizations serving women in developing nations across the world. This funder does not award many grants each year, and it does not accept unsolicited proposals. It does, however, provide an email address for the foundation’s executive director, Lori Barra.
PROFILE: Chilean novelist Isabel Allende established the Isabel Allende Foundation in 1996 in honor of her daughter Paula Frias, who passed away in 1992 due to complications from porphyria. The foundation, which is based in Sausalito, California, awards grants to organizations investing in “the power of women and girls to secure reproductive rights, economic independence, and freedom from violence.” The foundation funds two separate programs. Its Esperanza grants support organizations and projects in the areas of reproductive rights, women’s economic empowerment and gender-based violence prevention. A second program, the Espíritu Award, recognizes a single organization annually for “exemplary work in the Foundation's areas of interest.” Grantmaking prioritizes Chile and the state of California, but has broadened in geographic scope recently.
Grants for Women and Girls, Violence Prevention, Human Rights and Work and Opportunity
The Isabel Allende Foundation works broadly across its areas of interest but mainly limits funding to organizations that serve women in Allende’s native Chile or in her current home state of California. Recent recipients of the Esperanza grant include the Brigid Alliance, which provides travel funds to women seeking abortions; Love Welcomes, which helps refugee women earn money through the manufacture and sale of upcycled home products; and Too Young to Wed, which aims to end the practice for forced marriage for girls in Asia and Africa. Recent recipients of the Espíritu Award include Thistle Farms, which helps victims of human trafficking develop economic stability, and Sister Reach, which works to secure reproductive health and other services for women in Tennessee and other areas that are hostile to women’s reproductive rights.
Important Grant Details:
The Allende Foundation gave away about $1.7 million in a recent year. Esperanza Grants range from $1,000 to $10,000, while the Espíritu Awards ranges from $25,000 to $80,000. All grantmaking centers on women’s rights, with recent grantmaking focusing on reproductive justice and care in the U.S. The foundation, which traditionally supports organizations in Chile and California, appears to be broadening its geographical scope to include organizations operating in many developing nations in Africa, Asia and South America. For a broader sense of the types of organizations the Allende Foundation supports, explore its past grant recipients listings.
The Isabel Allende Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant requests or proposals, but general inquiries may be addressed to the foundation’s executive director, Lori Barra, via email.
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