Prospera International Network of Women’s and Feminist Funds brings together
44
dynamic, autonomous and diverse women’s funds from all over the globe.
Collectively, Prospera mobilizes quality funding to movements and groups in
172
countries.
75%
of Prospera members are based in the Global South and East.
Most of our collective funding goes to formerly colonized territories in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Tripled in revenue
from $71.2M in 2016
to $214.7M in 2020
We collectively gave a total of
15,631
grants to activists, organizations, groups and collectives in 172 countries.
Prospera Feminist Funding in Practice
Prospera member fund’s staff come from the same feminist movements they support. Because of our affinity and proximity, we understand local contexts and dynamics, and can reach groups and populations that are structurally marginalized, traditionally underfunded, and sometimes not formally constituted.
Funds are uniquely positioned to be innovative, flexible, and adaptable in finding creative ways to grant flexible resources wherever political and economic strife, health crises, and environmental destruction increase the challenges for reaching women, girls and trans people and their communities.
Women’s and feminist funds practice trust-based, democratic, and decolonial philanthropy which means activists are at the center of our work, where funds listen, see, and respond with intention to activist needs. Prospera member funds resource movements in ways that respond directly to movement agendas, needs, and contexts.
These resources are for the most part
Intersectional approach
Women and feminist fund members of Prospera recognize the plurality of movements and organizations.
This means being intentional about reaching women, girls, trans, and gender non-binary activists where they live, responding to their multi-layered needs, and the complex contexts that they navigate.
Women’s and Feminist Funds in times of crises
Survival is political
Women’s and feminist funds have demonstrated a unique capacity to reach and provide resources to structurally marginalized activists and organizations in complex contexts.
Given women’s and feminist funds’ ability to reach groups during multiple crises, Prospera members designated
On the cusp of the global Covid-19 pandemic, grantmaking by Prospera members mainly focused on:
Safety
Security
Resilience of their partners
Prospera:
The power of diversity
The Prospera network is an ecosystem of diverse funds that reach almost every corner of the world. Our diversity allows us to analyze the local, regional and global contexts and identify crucial challenges and opportunities underpinning gender justice.
Prospera in numbers
5 year trends 2016-2020
Prospera’s global reach
Grants to activists, organizations, groups, and collectives in 11 new countries and in a total of 172 countries around the world.
Revenue
During the 2016-2020 period, the network recorded exponential growth tripling its revenue.
77%
of whom are located in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe
Mobilizing
$622M
for women’s and feminist movements around the world.
Overall, the
network’s
collective revenue
grew by
Women’s and Feminist Funds’ Revenue Growth by region:
All Funds in the Network tripled their annual revenue from 2016-2020.
Through flexible and long-term funding, we acknowledge that movements and organizations are at the center of developing solutions with a lasting impact while ensuring financial security.
Top 10 women’s and feminist fund’s by average growth 2016-2020
Building institutional resilience
Members invested in their organizations, growing their staff, salary scales, benefits packages, care policies and the well-being of their teams.
Prospera Expenditures: 2016-2020
15,628
Number of Grants
$15,653
Average Amount Granted
172
# of COUNTRIES granted
To over
12,000
organizations
70%
more grants than in the 2010-2015 period
Prospera members granted $309M from 2016 to 2020, strengthening the feminist funding ecosystem and supporting movements through:
We are moving away from a place of scarcity towards one of abundance and collective sustainability with key investments such as Leading from the South, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, On The Right Track, and MacKenzie Scott gifts to our network.
Where does Prospera INWF’s money
come from?
Between 2016 and 2020, the network mobilized a total of
$621.6M
What would be possible if
Prospera members were fully resourced to support feminist movements?
What feminist transformations would be possible if all eligible applications made by movements to women’s and feminist funds were properly resourced?
A significant disparity remains between the need for resourcing feminist movements in the Global South and East and funding availability.
In fact, across the network, women’s and feminist funds were only able to support an average of
23%
of eligible applications
in 2020.
More than half –
64%
of eligible applications received by our members were NOT funded in 2020.
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