Using a participatory grantmaking model, our core grants are awarded as flexible funds and core support, which allows groups to define their own budgets and dedicate funds to where it is most needed.
FRIDA’s core grant has historically been the heart of the organisational support provided to young feminist organizers. Not only is this core, flexible funding the very first grant that every new grantee partner receives in the beginning of their FRIDA journey, but it is also the grant that is guaranteed in each step of the relationship. In other words, with every successful renewal process that a grantee partner undergoes, comes a core grant.
FRIDA’s core grant is flexible, and makes room for grantee partners to respond to their changing community needs without feeling the too often burdensome and unrealistic pressure to ‘stick-to-the-script’. Listening to community needs, adapting, and re-strategizing is part of FRIDA’s culture, and that extends to every member of the FRIDA universe.
FRIDA’s Funding + model was co-created with young feminist organizers, and as FRIDA grows, this process will continue to be evaluated, adjusted, and improved, ensuring that it remains relevant and directly responds to community needs.
Simply put, FRIDA’s Funding+ Model is about providing different types of support and resources to community members in addition to the core grant that they recieve. This model not only contributes to the sustainability of each grantee partner in all the beautiful ways they want to, but also supports them to stay connected with broader social movements. Overall, the Funding + model aims to contribute towards larger feminist movement building in a gloval context. Thus, the grantee partner journey takes off as they receive the initial funding–it is indeed a journey of learning, unlearning, exploring, exchanging and responding to changing needs in the community. Throughout this journey, groups have access to different networking, exchanging, and learning opportunities.
From supporting groups to increase their capacities, to networking or building alliances and strengthening cross-regional solidarity, FRIDA plays an active role in providing dedicated funding for grantee partners to thrive in the areas and ways groups would like to flourish.
In conjunction with the core grant provided to grantee partners after each renewal, FRIDA offers renewed groups a USD 2000 Capacity Strengthening Grant that supports the strengthening of their work. by enhancing young feminist organizers’ capacities, skills, and abilities as well as by supporting knowledge acquisition and access to tools concerning any group-identified priority, topic, or work area, including their own wellbeing and collective care.
The Travel Grant was created to support members of the community who want to sharpen their skills, deepen their knowledge, and share their ideas through leadership, advocacy, networking, and learning opportunities. The in-person gatherings, and events that the community attends with the support of this grant are spaces that grantee partners and advisors identify themselves as appropriate platforms for radical engagement and movement building. As young activists and organisers who work in the global south, the FRIDA community is able to use this grant as a means of bridging the distance, in literal and metaphoric ways, in order to inspire, be inspired and share lessons learned and connections made with their communities upon their return.
This grant supports any project or initiative in which more than one collective or organisation intends to work together to achieve a shared goal/s. The purpose of this grant is to create space for not only building solidarity and strengthening relationships; it also provides grantee partners and advisors with an opportunity to co-create innovative ways to support their communities, whilst expanding their ideas of how to best implement their visions as they support each other in growing and learning as young activists and organizers. Collaboration has the potential to be the spark that lights the fire of radical systematic change. This grant is one of the ways that FRIDA supports that mission.
Convenings can feel dream-like in their nature…a few days away from one’s normal routine to envision a more just world with like-minded individuals from different contexts. On the final day of a convening, the realisation that it will all be over soon looms, phone numbers are exchanged, and over time, the game-changing ideas that were discussed and planned for are at risk of never seeing the light of day due to lack of resources. The Post-Convening Grant is FRIDA’s answer to this. The purpose of the grant is to support ideas and projects that were discussed and emerged during FRIDA in person and virtual convenings, so that the amazing project proposals and collaborative ideas can manifest and connections made and relationships build can last. With this grant, organisations can continue their conversations, plan their collaborations and implement their visions.
We realise that fundraising and mobilizing resources is not always an accessible process to young feminists as it should be, so FRIDA provides specific Resource Mobilization tools to support grantee partners in their quest to learn more about the process and empower themselves to propel their organisations to greater heights. This grant aims to strengthen the skills and knowledge of grantee partners in the areas of resource mobilization, fundraising and relationship building. One of the primary goals of this grant is to build the confidence of young activists and organizers to develop their own expertise in the field of resource mobilization so that they become more sustainable organizations and diversify their income from multiple sources.
FRIDA recognises that our global context is an unpredictable one, and that there is a growing and ever-urgent need for funders to think about ways of supporting our communities when unexpected events with devastating consequences occur. The Community Resilience Grant offered in 2020 is an example of FRIDA’s efforts to provide specific support to grantee partners in their efforts to address and respond to global crises. Whilst FRIDA provides support in emergency situations through creating grants and emphasizing and enhancing grant flexibility, FRIDA is also committed to critically thinking about ways in which it can provide more emergency funding support to the community in the future.
The Accompaniment Program is designed to create a feminist and political solidarity model which is built on a commitment to equal, honest, and open communication.
The more opportunities to collaborate and co-create, the better! This program is designed to strengthen mutual connections, shared learning, experimentation, innovation and leverage knowledge and resources between young feminists that are part of the FRIDA community, over a two year period.
The Accompaniment Program is designed to create a feminist and political solidarity model which is built on a commitment to equal, honest, and open communication. In practical terms, this program is about pairing a grantee partner with an advisor, and having them lead a project of their choice over the course of the program. FRIDA employs a very ‘hands-off’ approach in the way that this collaborative effort manifests. While collectives(grantee partners) bring their unique perspectives and contributions, companions(advisors) play an active role in this learning exchange experience and both work side-by-side on the work plan they co-created. Both companions and collectives are encouraged to challenge the status quo of traditionally hierarchical mentor/mentee relationships and subvert problematic ideas about “expertise” by acknowledging oppression and privilege, and valuing each other as equally important holders of knowledge throughout the process.
The Online Learning Program allows grantee partners and advisors to access key learning opportunities through a series of webinars that are created solely to address the self identified needs of the community.
Whilst FRIDA dedicates time and resources to in-person gatherings, the organisation itself is a virtual office and the primary means of communication between FRIDA and its members is through online platforms. Not only is the FRIDA community working online, but we are learning online too! The Online Learning Program allows grantee partners and advisors to access key learning opportunities through a series of webinars that are created solely to address the self identified needs of the community. While some of these webinars target the overall FRIDA community, regardless of their location and context, others are more contextualized and address specific topics that have been raised by grantee partners, either regionally or thematically. While webinars have been a continuous practice within the organization, FRIDA is committed to deepening and expanding this work by exploring the possibility of developing and exploring different platforms which could contribute to building a stronger community and lay the foundation for potential intra-community support, solidarity and collaboration.
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.
The more opportunities to collaborate and co-create, the better! This program is designed to strengthen mutual connections, shared learning, experimentation, innovation and leverage knowledge and resources between young feminists that are part of the FRIDA community, over a two year period.
The Accompaniment Program is designed to create a feminist and political solidarity model which is built on a commitment to equal, honest, and open communication. In practical terms, this program is about pairing a grantee partner with an advisor, and having them lead a project of their choice over the course of the program. FRIDA employs a very ‘hands-off’ approach in the way that this collaborative effort manifests. While collectives(grantee partners) bring their unique perspectives and contributions, companions(advisors) play an active role in this learning exchange experience and both work side-by-side on the work plan they co-created. Both companions and collectives are encouraged to challenge the status quo of traditionally hierarchical mentor/mentee relationships and subvert problematic ideas about “expertise” by acknowledging oppression and privilege, and valuing each other as equally important holders of knowledge throughout the process.
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