Global Fund for Women

OVERVIEW: The Global Fund for Women supports organizations fighting for women’s economic and political rights, as well as the right for women and girls to be free from violence.

IP TAKE: This is strictly a grassroots and community-based funder. To secure grantmaking, your work must center fully on women or girls and take place globally rather than in the United States. This is a supportive funder that likes to work closely with its grantees.

While not the most accessible, this funder does provide opportunities for contacting them and letting them know about your work, so make sure your Organizational Profile, when you register with their website, communicates your goals and plan clearly in order to better stand out.

PROFILE: Anne Firth Murray, Frances Kissling, Laura Lederer, and Nita Barrow founded the Global Fund for Women in 1987 to “champion for the human rights of women and girls...by shining a spotlight on critical issues.” The fund’s grantmaking covers a broad range of critical women’s rights issues, which includes access to education, fair and equal wages, and ending violence against women in all forms. This funder conducts all grantmaking through a gender lens, evident across all of its programs: Freedom from Violence, Economic Justice, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights programs.

Grants for Women and Girls

The Global Fund for Women focuses its grantmaking on supporting grassroots, local, and community organizations that help to build strong and effective women’s rights movements. This funder awards grants to women-led organizations focusing on Freedom from Violence, Economic Justice, and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Its grantmaking covers a broad range of critical women’s rights issues such as access to education, fair and equal wages, and ending violence against women in all forms.

Grants for Work and Opportunity

The Global Fund for Women conducts grantmaking focused on women’s economic development and works to promote “a world where all women, girls, and trans people have a voice and choice in the work they do,” are “paid equal wages in safe and secure workplaces,” and can be “leaders and decision-makers in their work.” It currently prioritizes programs that promote the rights of domestic and garment workers, as well as rural, agricultural communities facing the economic effects of climate change. Past grantees in this space include Out of Circle Belgrade, Action for Rural Women’s Empowerment, and Society of Tribal Women for Development.

Grants for Global Health

The Global Fund for Women’s grantmaking for health centers on women’s health. This funder conducts related grantmaking toward “a world where all women, girls, and trans people have power and rights over their bodies and sexualities, and the resources they need to exercise those rights.” It works with organizations around the world that provide and advocate for “affordable, accessible, and high-quality health services,” “comprehensive sexuality education, services, and rights,” and “the right to safe and legal abortion.” Past women’s global health grantees include Catolicas por el Derecho de Decidir Argentina, Center for the Right to Health, Education as a Vaccine, and Medical Women Association of Nigeria.

Grants for LGBTQ

The Global Fund for Women’s grantmaking addresses a number of rights issues in the LGBTQ funding space across its grantmaking. It supports “groups who fearlessly demand sexual and health rights for LGBTQI communities in places where these rights are consistently denied.” Past grantees include Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, GAYa Nusantara, and Pink Life LGBTT Solidarity Association.

Grants for Violence Prevention

The foundation’s Freedom from Violence grants supports efforts to combat all forms of gender-based violence, including, but not limited to, “state-sanctioned violence women face under repressive governments,” “threats from fundamentalist forces such as Boko Haram,” and “intimate partner violence.” Past grantees include Anti-Violence Network of Georgia, Center for Women War Victims, and Coalition of Women for Peace.

Important Grant Details:

Grants generally range from $5,000 to $50,000. To learn more about the types of organizations supported by the Global Fund for Women, explore its informative grants database. This funder limits grantmaking to organizations working in Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. The foundation generally does not fund work in the United States.

The Global Fund for Women accepts applications by invitation only. Interest grantseekers must first register their organization with the Global Fund for Women by creating an Organizational Profile on its website. Groups whose work aligns with the foundation’s mission may be invited to submit an application.

PEOPLE:

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).

LINKS: