When young women, girls, queer, trans and intersex youth come together, they can create lasting transformative change. FRIDA partners with young and emerging feminist led organizations to support them to make the most impact. The groups we support are dismantling patriarchy, addressing human rights violations, and overturning inequalities and co-creating new feminist realities.
The Grantee Partner Journey outlines and guides the range of support for FRIDA grantee partners throughout their time at FRIDA. FRIDA commits to support young feminist collectives for up to four years, allowing groups space and time to use FRIDA flexible funding to respond to the needs of their groups and communities while building their capacities to sustain themselves well after transitioning out of FRIDA.
FRIDA’s Grantee Partner journey offers financial and non-financial support to young feminist groups.
Using a participatory grantmaking model, our grants are awarded as flexible funds and support, which allows groups to define their own budgets and dedicate funds to where it is most needed. FRIDA grants are flexible, and make room for grantee partners to respond to their changing needs without feeling the too often burdensome and unrealistic pressure to stick to a specific project or activity. Listening to community needs, adapting, and re-strategizing is part of FRIDA’s culture, and that extends to every member of the FRIDA community.
Core, flexible funding has historically been the heart of the organisational support provided to young feminist organizers. FRIDA provides core grants and special grants to grantee partners. The core funding is the very first grant that every new grantee partner receives in the beginning of their FRIDA journey.
Aside from the core grant, FRIDA also supports young feminist groups with Special grants which they are eligible to apply for annually. Currently groups may apply for a Capacity Strengthening grant and a Risk Reserve grant. More information on all FRIDA grants may be found below.
All FRIDA grantee partners receive a core grant upon entry to the FRIDA community and upon renewal. Core grants are single-year grants which are up for renewal annually. All FRIDA core grants are largely flexible and can be used for project expenses or core expenses. For more information, please refer to FRIDA’s Grantmaking Policy. FRIDA trusts that grantee partners will make the best decisions about how to spend the grant to achieve the goals and mission outlined in their application. All grantee partners are required to submit a report every year as an official way to share updates with FRIDA.
Most grantee partners stay with FRIDA for up to 4 years. In their last year, all grantee partners are eligible to apply for a transition grant. This is a final core and extra-flexible grant that a group receives to support their sustainability during their transition process. FRIDA does not request a report about the Transition Grant offered to the grantee partners as a way to honor the trust built over the years of the funding relationship. Grantee partners are invited to remain engaged with FRIDA as Alumni members.
The Capacity Strengthening Grant is an additional support grant only available to FRIDA’s grantee partners up for renewal to strengthen their organizing by supporting the enhancement of their capacities, skills, and abilities. It may also be used to strengthen their knowledge on any group or self-identified priority, topic or work area, including but not limited to healing, safety and collective care, or attending safeguarding training or developing internal policies. Some groups use this grant for staff retreats.
The application for the Capacity Strengthening Grant is completed together with the Renewal Grant application and all interested groups will receive the CS Grant. The reporting of the CS Grant happens together with the Renewal Grant report.
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The Risk Reserve grant was born out of FRIDA’s commitment to enable grantee partners to decide how to respond to their unique and rapidly changing contexts. Instead of “evaluating” a crisis once it occurs, FRIDA is modeling a radical trust for grantee partners to decide how to best use this grant for themselves in the face of risks and crises. From our own experience, FRIDA also recognizes the importance of a risk reserve in safeguarding the wellbeing of a feminist organization. However, due to the urgent nature of risks in feminist organizing contexts, FRIDA does not have the infrastructure to efficiently and effectively process rapid response grants.
Similar to the core support grant, the Risk Reserve grant will be offered together with the renewal grant, and all interested groups can apply to the Risk Reserve grant via their renewal application.
FRIDA offers primarily online learning and linking opportunities for and between grantee partners, as well as direct budget support for the group’s sustainability through capacity development. The journey allows grantee partners to exchange knowledge and learning with FRIDA Advisors and Focal Point staff at varying levels throughout their journey at FRIDA and supports the building of networks for movements from offering guidance and support for movement building or grassroots organizing, to raising the visibility and leadership of diverse roles that youth and young feminist play in social justice movements.
Young feminist movements are spaces of significant knowledge and learning. As grantee partners move through the GP journey, the idea is that upon transition, their operations are sustainable and they can contribute to the growing global feminist movement.
It is from that lens that we aim to tap into the diversity of the FRIDAverse to build on those intergenerational linkages and transfer knowledge across young feminist groups. FRIDA Alumni members are former grantee partners who transitioned from a funding relationship with FRIDA to a relationship of continuous engagement and communication. They are, therefore, well placed to intentionally engage with new FRIDA grantee partners. FRIDA’s role in this program is limited to making introductions and encouraging grantee partners and Alumni members to communicate in the way, frequency, and closeness they deem fit. This is envisioned as a mutually-led and mutually accountable relationship in which they can set the expectations and tone of the liaison. Read more about the Alumni Sibling program here.
FRIDA’s Capacity Strengthening Webinars are interactive sessions designed to equip grantee partners with practical skills and knowledge aligned with their organizational priorities and the needs identified. The webinars are done in all FRIDA languages, co-created with input from grantees and supported by the Advisory Committee, ensuring relevance and alignment with FRIDA’s feminist principles. These sessions also provide a platform for grantee partners to exchange ideas, share experiences, learnings and build stronger networks across sub-regions and regions. The goal is to foster collective learning while addressing key capacity gaps, empowering grantees to amplify their impact and achieve organizational sustainability.
The peer learning spaces are created from the understanding that knowledge is precious when it is shared and that providing spaces for collective exchanges on contextual analysis, specific skills (digital security, fundraising skills) is essential for the sustainability and well-being of young feminist movements. The thematics of these spaces will be oriented by the feedback provided by Focal Points about identified challenges and interests of grantees, as well as the needs identified by the groups and expressed in the end of cycle reports. These spaces will be offered as a community building exercise to foster belonging to a wider community.
FRIDA organizes regional, international and thematic convenings to strengthen and encourage a community of learning between grantee partners, providing them with opportunities to create new skills, knowledge and networks. Click here to learn more about FRIDA’s convenings!
When groups are close to the end of their grantee partner journey at FRIDA, we start accompanying them through their transition process. This approach enables us to redistribute resources to other newly established groups while, at the same time, being intentional in supporting those transitioning out in a way that is sustainable, responsive to their journey, and focused on their autonomy.
FRIDA is committed to mobilizing financial and non-financial resources to ensure groups have a smooth transition and the groups have the opportunity to remain a part of the FRIDA community.
The Transition Strategy includes diverse programs, such as:
Acknowledging the ever-changing contexts and challenges young feminist groups face, we also keep flexibility and tailored support as core values and strategies.
In the final year, FRIDA hosts a reverse call for applications aimed at responding to the intent to connect and refer transitioning grantee partners to other donors and funders.
The reverse call for applications seeks to push the envelope in terms of broadening the political meaning of participatory grantmaking beyond just one initial stage of a funding relationship and also broaden the understanding of participatory grantmaking as it encompasses simultaneity of movement participation and donor mobilization. This reverse call for applications aims to flip the coin and think of participatory grantmaking not just as a process of finding, selecting, and welcoming potential new grantee partners, but also as a process of finding, selecting and connecting with potential new donors that support their sustainability. The process also acknowledges mutual trust and bidirectional accountability to the community of applicants to which FRIDA and grantee partners are accountable, and also to the community of donors to which FRIDA is also accountable. FRIDA, as an intermediary donor, sits at a junction where grassroots groups and international funders can together make sense of systemic change and feminist transformation at different levels. Read more about the Reverse Call for Applications here.
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