MADRE
/OVERVIEW: MADRE partners with local women’s organizations around the world to combat the negative effects of gender- and sexuality-based violence, climate change, and war on their communities and livelihoods.
IP TAKE: This funder prioritizes women-led, grassroots, majority Indigenous or Black organizations. Since it does not have a formal application process, the best way to attract its attention is to get involved as a member or donor.
PROFILE: MADRE is a women-led, women-focused foundation, established in 1984. The group’s original mission was to give aid and call attention to the plight of women in Nicaragua during the Contra crisis. The founders were inspired by their visit to Nicaragua on the invitation of a women’s group who had previously sued the United States in the International Court of Justice for its role in supporting the Contra rebels. Now, the foundation’s reach extends to Guatemala, Colombia, Haiti, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Kenya.
It partners with “community-based women’s groups worldwide facing war and disaster” to advance human rights by “meeting urgent needs in communities and building lasting solutions to the crises women face.” It provides grants, capacity building support, and legal advocacy in its three program areas: Ending Gender Violence, Advancing Climate Justice, and Building a Just Peace.
Grants for LGBTQ, Women and Girls and Gender-based Violence Prevention
MADRE’s Ending Gender Violence program area addresses types of violence that are used to “intimidate, oppress, silence and subjugate girls, women, disabled and LGBTIQ people across the globe.” It works to transform “harmful social norms, attitudes and cultural practices,” ensure access to “policy spaces from the local to global levels and leverage with decision-makers to change policies,” recognize “women’s solutions to end gender violence,” and reduce “stigma and discrimination.”
Past grantees include Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Wangki Tangni in Nicaragua, and Taller de Vida in Colombia.
Grants for Climate Change
MADRE’s Advancing Climate Justice program area partners with local women’s organizations to combat the effects of climate change, such as “food shortages, droughts, floods and diseases.” Its goal is to ensure that indigenous and rural women are “equipped with knowledge and resources to offer leadership and meet urgent needs in their communities” and have “the skills and access to participate effectively in climate policy decisions at the local, national and international levels.”
Past grantees include the Indigenous Information Network in Kenya, Proceso de Comunidades Negras en Colombia, and Zenab for Women’s Development in Sudan.
Grants for Global Security
MADRE’s Building a Just Peace program area works to “address root causes of conflict and advance rights through women’s participation in peace processes.” Its goals are to ensure that women in war-torn countries are “visible and powerful in peace movements locally and globally,” “meaningfully included in peace-building processes,” and “sought out as experts in peace-building, recognized and respected by local, national and international decision-makers.”
Important Grant Details:
MADRE’s grants generally range from $10,000 to $100,000. MADRE offers three types of support:
Its Grantmaking program funds “innovative and intersectional, grassroots strategies that meet immediate needs and create lasting change.”
Capacity Building support provides “training, tools, knowledge, infrastructure and strategic exchange opportunities to build skills and alliances” to the foundation’s community partners, supporters, policymakers, and other philanthropists.
Finally, the foundation’s Legal Advocacy program works to “bring community-based women into the global policymaking arena, enabling them to infuse local human rights struggles with the power of international law.”
MADRE does not have a formal application process, but it invites interested groups to bring their work to the foundation’s attention.
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