Resilience fund

Grantmaking programme:

Feminist activists have the vision and the power to transform the world. But they often lack the funding, supportive networks, and access to learning opportunities they need to maximise the impact they have and transform their communities and nations. Mama Cash’s mission is to fill that gap.

Mama Cash provides funding and accompaniment support to courageous and inspiring feminist activists worldwide. We make grants to groups and movements that have the conviction and tenacity to speak out, tell their stories and demand justice, no matter the obstacles. We are building the power and strength of the international women’s funding movement by supporting sister women’s funds worldwide. Leading their own movements:

We aim to put resources in the hands of activists who are advancing their own rights and building their own movements for social change. We prioritise groups led by people working together to address issues they experience directly, like domestic workers who are collectively organising for decent work, or trans people who are building a movement to secure bodily autonomy. The Resilience Fund: is our largest grantmaking program and will provide core, flexible grants to self-led groups, collectives and organisations of women, girls, trans people and intersex people who work to build collective power, claim justice and create, sustain or revive ways of living that are just and fair. Grants will be made with the intention of renewing for multiple years, whenever possible. Renewal grants to Women’s Funds will also be made from the Resilience Fund. Additionally, our accompaniment grants will continue to provide grantee partners with opportunities to strengthen their skills, knowledge and networks. The Community Committee (COM COM), Mama Cash’s participatory grantmaking decision-making body run for and by activists with experience in feminist movements, makes the decisions about who receives funding from the Resilience Fund.

Mama Cash Criteria for Funding from the Resilience Fund

Mama Cash supports groups and initiatives that:

1.Work from a feminist, women's, girl’s, trans and/or intersex rights perspective;

2. Are self-led by the women, girls, trans people and/or intersex people they serve;

3. Have the promotion of women’s, girls’, trans people's and/or intersex people’s human rights as their primary mission, and not just as the focus of part of their programmes;

4. Push for structural and fundamental change;

5. Focus on issues that are under-addressed and/or contested; What we do not fund:

• Groups whose mission and/or primary focus are not the promotion of women’s, girls’, trans people's or intersex people’s human rights
• Groups whose work focuses primarily on improving the lives of individual women, girls, trans people and/or intersex people without addressing the conditions that give rise to the injustices they face
• Groups that actively seek to deny the rights of certain women, girls, trans and intersex people, based on who they are, the work they do or on their position in society
• Groups whose primary purpose is development work, humanitarian assistance, or services, such as:
• Income-generating activities and credit programmes
• (In)formal education, literacy programmes and traditional skills training
• Providing social, legal or health care services
• Groups led by cis-men (with the exception of those led by trans men)
• Groups based in the Global North that are executing programmes in or are leading partnerships with groups based in the Global South and East
• Groups founded by, led by, or structurally or economically dependent on political parties, government agencies, or religious institutions
• Businesses
• We will only be supporting individuals through our new Radical Love grantmaking fund to be announced later this year. Academic research or scholarships Stand-alone travel grants (costs for travel can, however, be part of broader applications provided they are consistent with the group's mission and strategies)