OVERVIEW: The Women First International Fund supports women and girls, global development, refugees, human rights and LGBTQ causes in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and India.
IP TAKE: Women First changed course in 2025 and now operates a flexible three-year model. Current economic-empowerment grants provide up to $45,000 over three years, alongside organizational strengthening and peer learning. The prior system of Opportunity, Investment and Leverage grant programs has been replaced.
This is an accessible and supportive foundation focused on gender justice that aims to grow its grantees’ impact through a variety of measures in five countries. It is also transparent about how it works, what it expects from grantees and how it hopes to collaborate with organizations. Grants are highly competitive. This funder does not run an application program, but if you believe your organization is a good fit for Women First, don’t hesitate to reach out to learn more their partnerships.
There’s also a noteworthy opportunity for grantee alumni: current partners nearing the three-year mark can remain in the network and may obtain alumni funding, technical assistance or access to collaborative regional initiatives, though Women First does not publish an external application process for these opportunities.
PROFILE: The Women First International Fund, formerly the Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund, was established in 1969 by a group of members of the International Federation of University Women to promote the empowerment of women and girls globally. Based in New York City, the fund was initially named for Virginia Gildersleeve, who founded the IFUW and served as Dean of Barnard College. The organization shares a theory of change, being that “Women First believes that when women gain economic power, they transform their own lives and strengthen entire communities […] Research shows that when women have resources and agency, household income rises, access to health care improves, daughters stay in school, and domestic violence declines as power dynamics shift.”
The organization currently supports organizations in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and India. The fund conducts all giving through a gender justice lens. The new model has four interconnected pillars: Economic Empowerment Grants, Organizational Strengthening, Collective Learning, and Philanthropic Field Influencing. Women First says it generally works with small, emerging, women-led organizations with annual budgets below $50,000.
Grants for Women and Girls
Women First “envisions a world where gender equity prevails, and where every woman and girl has the power to thrive.” The Fund’s grantmaking strategies all occurs through a gender lens that support women-led organizations at the grassroots level.
- Economic Empowerment Grants program offer women-led groups flexible, multi-year funding of up to $45,000 over three years for initiatives that improve financial literacy, generate income and create pathways to economic power.
- The FAQ cites entrepreneurship, savings and credit, small-business growth, and access to education and healthcare among common partner activities.
- Women First prioritizes locally founded, women-led organizations emphasizing economic empowerment, sustainability and gender equity.
- Recent grantees include Rural Women Upliftment Society, Trans Youth Initiative and Thadhani Foundation
- Organizational Strengthening Grants support grantees with strategic planning, financial systems, impact measurement and sustainability planning.
- Women First states that its “approach turns short-term wins into lasting impact by equipping leaders with the systems, skills, and stability they need to thrive.”
- A partner organization is Her Initiative in Tanzania.
- The Collective Learning program organizes annual peer-learning sessions and cross-country exchanges. Its recent work included a cross-regional convening of formerly incarcerated feminist leaders from East Africa and Latin America.
- Voice & Influence Building work involves the push for more flexible funding and to put grassroots leaders into international decision-making spaces, including UN forums.
- Broadly, by concentrating on five developing nations, the fund facilitates networking, convening, and learning opportunities between it’s grantee partners, which is critical for catalyzing and sustaining local movements. The fund also believes that this focus allows it to “be more present in the places we have grantee partners, and to collaborate with other national and regional stakeholders.”
Economic empowerment serves unambiguously as Women First’s funding anchor; however, refugees, LGBTQ+ communities, rural women, formerly incarcerated women, Dalit and Indigenous women and other marginalized groups are populations or intersections within it:
Grants for Global Development, Human Rights and Refugees
Women First’s global development grants appear to focus on sustainable agriculture, women’s health and reproductive services, and entrepreneurship.
- One past grantee Uganda’s Kyamuduma II Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Society Ltd., helps rural farmers build their capacity and manage finances wisely. Another Ugandan grantee, Zaam Community Health Development Organization, provides health services to underserved children and adults, including maternity and pediatric care.
- And in Kenya, the fund has given to the Nafisika Trust, which used funding to run a prison entrepreneurship program and reduce the rates of recidivism in the Nairobi area.
Elsewhere, women First’s human rights funding significantly overlaps with its grantmaking for refugees and LGBTQ rights.
- Some of this work encompasses health-related work, education, employment and women’s safety, among other issues.
- In Malawi, the fund has supported Solidarity of Refugee Women for Social Welfare, an organization that runs educational and vocational programs for refugees, and is a repeated recipient.
- Another human rights grantee is India’s Vasantham Pengal Sangam, which works broadly to support health, education, employment and safety for the poorest citizens in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Grants for LGBTQ
Women First’s grants for LGBTQ focus on trans women, bisexual women and lesbians’ economic empowerment, safety and health.
- This extends to LGBTQ refugees. The Fund also invests in LGBTQ advocacy, research, and education to build LGBTQ movement-building support.
- One grantee, Kenya’s Kodera Women Group, provides a safe space for women to discuss issues regarding transgenderism.
- Another Kenyan grantee, Women Working with Women, works to ensure the security and rights of lesbian and bisexual women in Kenya through advocacy, research, capacity building and health services.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, this funder awarded just under $1 million in total grants. Beyond economic empowerment grants, which are awarded in amounts of $45,000 over three years, the international scope of this funder’s giving renders tax records clean somewhat noisy on the recipient level.
- This funder prioritizes women- or LGBTQ-led organizations and takes a hands-on approach to its grantmaking and support.
- Grantees tend to be small, startup organizations with budgets of $50,000 or less.
- In addition to “flexible funding,” grantees receive technical and strategic support and resources from Women First International.
- This funder does not currently accept applications; Women First has not posted the timing or format of its next intake.
- Sign up for the organization’s newsletter at the bottom of the site for information about emerging opportunities.
- Women First’s current grantees page is currently unavailable while the organization redevelops its website.
- General inquiries may be directed to Women First staff via email or telephone at (212) 213-0622.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS:
Last updated on