“Young feminist groups are not only participating in the decision making process of grants, but also how the participatory grantmaking process is built, implemented and then rebuilt. The voices, perspectives, dreams and critique of young feminists activists remain our compass of how to ensure our work is relevant to their struggle and it will continue to guide us in adjusting our grantmaking model to respond to their realities” – Letting the Movement Decide, FRIDA’s grantmaking report 2017
In its first three grantmaking cycles (2012-2014), FRIDA awarded $437,000 in grants to 57 young feminist organizations. In the 2014 Fiscal Year, FRIDA made new grants to 25 new groups, and renewed funding to 22 former grantees, representing 46 countries. In that time period FRIDA received over 2,000 applications, vastly outnumbering early expectations. In 2024 FRIDA supported 203 grantee partners across six regions, spanning 103 countries with a total direct grantmaking sum of $ 2,972,071.30
FRIDA’s growth has been exponential – and – FRIDA’s growth has been meaningfully led by young feminists who have so willingly and open-heartedly engaged in FRIDA’s participatory grantmaking model and practice. Created by young feminist activists and their allies to fund brave activism, FRIDAs participatory grantmaking framework – in which the young feminist activists who apply for grants decide together who will receive funding – was the first application of this kind of model in a global context.
FRIDA’s funding model places decision-making in the hands of young feminists themselves as agents of change with the aim of shifting traditional power relations between funder and grantee. It also places a huge emphasis [and labour] on adapting and growing to reach young feminists outside the margins of geographic, social and digital privilege. Over the years, FRIDA has focused on improving outreach to make sure that FRIDA grantmaking strategies are able to reach young feminists where they are – geographically, socially and politically. One of the ways FRIDA has continued to invest in and improve its diversity and outreach efforts is through the co-creation, with FRIDA’s advisors, of regional and thematic funding strategies that guide us in facilitating an intersectional participatory approach for each of the regions where FRIDA funds. These tailored strategies help us understand what conditions we need to set up for certain communities to access FRIDA’s application process. We have simplified and improved our grantmaking, identified gaps, and have become more intentional in our communication and outreach process. This has resulted in larger numbers of radical young feminist organizers receiving support from FRIDA and recognizing FRIDA as a potential funder that can support their work.
In 2022 FRIDA published Resourcing Connections: Reflections On Feminist Participatory Grantmaking Practice – its second assessment and internal reflection on its participatory grantmaking model. Resourcing Connections attempts to capture all the pieces of FRIDA’s participatory grantmaking process and the vastness of the expertise and experiences of young feminists in the FRIDAverse. Beyond a participatory funding toolkit, it made a deep dive into an internal organisational reflection about the politics, principles, and values that are built into FRIDAs participatory grantmaking practice.
A participatory grantmaking process that involves young feminist organizers in staff; Advisory, grantee community, and in the young feminist collectives that apply for FRIDA funding, allows us to learn, co-create knowledge, and build on expertise and solutions together with feminist movements. We get to reflect and learn during each stage of the process, and this knowledge shapes and nourishes our programmatic work, how we plan, distribute and mobilize resources, and how we communicate our vision, commitments and learnings with the world. FRIDA’s participatory grantmaking process creates a space for learning, exchange and feminist movement connection.
FRIDA emerged from the collective vision of feminist activists across generations and from around the world who understood the urgent need for a fund that centres its mission around the experience, expertise and needs of young feminist organizers. FRIDA exists today because of the power of feminist organizers to dream up possibilities and transform them into being through collective visioning and action. The formation of a young feminist fund like FRIDA as a movement solution reminds us what is possible when feminist movements have the resources to lead, dream and decide along the many possible paths to liberation and justice.
Fifteen years ago, young feminist activists and their allies created something revolutionary – a feminist fund designed by and for their own movements. Today, FRIDA resources activists and movements in more than 100 countries across the global majority – embodying the power of collective care, community and participation. Your support ensures that this power continues to thrive, grow and inspire new generations. Join us in resourcing the next 15 years of young feminist power
