Over the last decade, the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) convened a series of discussions around funding for the feminist movement. Through analysis and discussion, they developed and refined the concept of a funding ecosystem that emerged from a vision of funding aligned to the principles and values of feminist movements. 

In Toward a Feminist Funding Ecosystem, AWID maps out the current funding system and illustrates why resources are not getting to women’s rights organizations. The report shows that women’s funds are the primary mechanism that successfully moves funds directly to feminist movements. In all other cases, feminist movements catch only a few drops of the financial flows. It also imagines what a new vision of feminist funding could look like, and discusses what each actor in the ecosystem would need to do to create an abundantly resourced feminist funding ecosystem.

By reimagining and modeling what a relationship of equal power between private philanthropy and women’s funds looks like, Fenomenal Funds is contributing its efforts to building a feminist funding ecosystem. As we progress and learn, we will offer insights that can benefit and influence the whole ecosystem.

Most importantly, Fenomenal Funds is making investments in women’s funds, so that they have the infrastructure and resilience to be central actors in the ecosystem. As a result, women’s funds can play an even greater role in getting more and better resources to feminist movements.