Decision-making in grantmaking processes is often done in closed boardrooms, far away from communities that are at the forefront of intersecting crises. Traditional grantmaking usually follows a top-down approach where donors (often from the Global North) decide what the objectives and impacts of a given program will be and who will be the main beneficiaries of the funds. This often protects the status quo, sidelining those who are most impacted by sociopolitical issues and funding cuts. Despite this traditional and top-down approach, more and more international non-government organizations are challenging this status quo such as FRIDA, Mama Cash, and Prospera International, three intersectional feminist organizations that work with grassroots women, girls, trans, and intersex groups by providing them with grants and resources to advance their causes and fight for gender justice through feminist participatory grantmaking (FPG).

In feminist participatory grantmaking (FPG), communities are treated as active partners who can provide significant insights, expertise, and lived experience that support more effective decision-making, promote robust conversations, and foster mutual accountability (Evans 2015; Villanueva 2021). FPG recognizes that justice in philanthropy requires redistribution of power in decision-making and recognition of community-based knowledge as a legitimate source of evidence, and not just an afterthought.

FPG deepens our understanding of diverse perspectives and realities and how to most effectively support feminist organizers across political, social, and economic contexts (FRIDA, 2022). In these critical times, where civic spaces are shrinking and progressive movements are being met by increasing backlash by right-wing groups, many public and private donors are shifting their priorities to other “urgent” agendas. FPG becomes even more pivotal as vulnerable communities are being pushed further to the margins. Feminist funding models hold the key in ensuring that these marginalized voices are prioritized and heard in crucial decision-making processes.

Speakers:

Erika Sales  is the Programme Officer for Environmental Justice at Mama Cash, the oldest international fund for feminist activism. She gained her strong background in advocacy, monitoring & evaluation, programme management, research, and resource mobilisation from various work contexts. Her passion for feminism, gender, and partnership building are evident in her volunteer and work experience at the Women and Gender Institute (WAGI), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), and the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW). Erika holds a BA in International Studies from Miriam College in Quezon City, Philippines and MA in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of the Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague, Netherlands.

Jessica Horn is a feminist activist, writer, poet, and an advisor on women's rights with Ugandan and Malian background. Her work focuses on women's rights, bodily autonomy and freedom from violence, and African feminist movement building. She is also a leader in philanthropy. Jessica Horn was named as an African woman changemaker by ARISE Magazine and as one of Applause Africa's "40 African Changemakers under 40". She joined the African Women's Development Fund as director of programmes in October 2015. In 2021 she was appointed Regional Director of the Ford Foundation's East Africa office based in Nairobi, the first African woman to hold this position since the office opened in 1963.

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