Feminist grantmaking is more than funding women's organisations — it's a comprehensive approach to philanthropy that centres gender justice, challenges power imbalances in the funder-grantee relationship, applies intersectional analysis to funding decisions, and holds funders accountable to the communities they serve. For funders interested in gender equity and for nonprofits seeking to understand gender-focused funders, understanding feminist grantmaking practice matters.
Feminist grantmaking applies feminist analysis to every aspect of how a foundation or funder operates:
Who receives funding: prioritising women's rights organisations, feminist collectives, and intersectional movements rather than mainstream organisations that address women as a secondary population.
Who makes decisions: ensuring women — particularly from the communities whose interests are at stake — have genuine power in grantmaking decisions, not just consultation.
How much is given: providing multi-year, flexible, core funding rather than project grants; recognising that women's rights organisations are chronically underfunded relative to impact.
What accountability looks like: being accountable to grantees and communities, not just to boards and donors; sharing power rather than exercising it.
What is funded: including advocacy, movement building, and systemic change — not just service delivery.
Mainstream philanthropy has historically underfunded women's rights — and feminist funders have been explicit about this critique:
Gender-blind giving: most philanthropic decisions don't consider gender at all — they fund "communities" or "populations" without asking how gender shapes different people's access to resources, power, and opportunity.
Funding service, not change: mainstream funders tend to fund service delivery (shelters, counselling, legal aid) rather than advocacy, organising, and systemic change — the work that changes the conditions producing inequality.
Funding women, not feminism: funding organisations that serve women is not the same as funding gender justice. Some large health and education funders serve women without challenging the structures that limit women's lives.
Undervaluing women's organising: feminist grassroots organisations — often with small budgets and predominantly volunteer-driven — are chronically undervalued by funders who prefer large, professionalised organisations with extensive reporting systems.
Feminist grantmaking that is genuinely intersectional recognises that women's experiences of gender oppression are shaped by race, class, disability, sexual orientation, age, immigration status, and other dimensions of identity. A gender analysis that doesn't account for race, for example, will miss how racial injustice compounds gender injustice for women of colour.
Intersectional feminist grantmaking:
- Prioritises funding for organisations led by and serving women from multiple marginalised communities
- Rejects a universal "women's experience" in favour of specific, contextual analysis
- Recognises that the most effective advocates for specific communities are usually members of those communities
- Addresses the intersection of gender with class — recognising that poor and working-class women face distinct barriers
Grantee input into priorities
Feminist foundations increasingly involve grantees and community members in setting funding priorities. Participatory grantmaking — where community members have decision-making power, not just advisory input — is a meaningful expression of feminist principles about power.
Accessible application processes
Mainstream grant applications are often lengthy, bureaucratic, and inaccessible for small, grassroots organisations with limited staff capacity. Feminist funders typically simplify application processes — shorter applications, phone conversations replacing written applications, and support for applicants navigating the process.
Long-term, flexible funding
Women's rights work — building movements, changing laws, shifting norms — takes decades, not years. Project funding creates constant distraction from mission. Feminist funders prioritise multi-year, flexible funding (often called "core" or "general operating support") that lets organisations focus on their work rather than grant administration.
Transparent and non-extractive relationships
Feminist grantmakers actively work to reduce the power imbalance in the funder-grantee relationship — sharing information about their priorities and processes openly, being honest about limitations, and soliciting honest feedback from grantees (including criticism).
International
- Global Fund for Women: international grantmaker for women's rights movements
- Mama Cash (Netherlands): supports feminist, women's, girls', and trans people's rights movements
- International Women's Health Coalition: women's health and rights globally
United States
- Ms. Foundation for Women: multi-issue women's rights funder
- Women's Funding Network: network of women's funds globally
- Native Women's Fund: Indigenous women's rights and leadership
Australia and New Zealand
- Women's Fund Aotearoa: NZ women's fund
- WIRE Women's Information Service (Victoria): women's advocacy
- National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW): policy research and advocacy
Feminist principles aren't only for dedicated women's funds — they can be integrated into general grantmaking:
Gender analysis in all grants: ask how gender dynamics affect every programme you fund, even if it's not explicitly a "women's grant."
Proactive equity: actively seek out applications from organisations led by women, particularly women of colour, rather than waiting for them to find you.
Proportionate reporting: calibrate reporting requirements to organisation capacity — don't burden small feminist organisations with corporate-level compliance.
Honest dialogue: create spaces for grantees to tell you what's not working — in their programmes and in your grantmaking.
Self-examination: regularly audit your own grantmaking for gender gaps — who receives your largest grants? Who is on your decision-making panels? Whose voices shape your priorities?
Tahua's grants management platform supports feminist foundations and gender justice funders — with participatory grantmaking workflow, equity reporting, flexible grant management, and the relationship tools that help funders work in genuine partnership with women's rights organisations.