Funders, Networks, & Allies

European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance (ESWA) was formerly known as International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE). This sex worker-led network has a membership of 105 organisations across 35 countries of Europe and Central Asia. At national level, ICRSE supports sex workers’ self organisation though trainings, development of activities or strategic plan as well as submission to governmental consultations. At European level, ICRSE coordinates advocacy and campaigns and has been very active in building alliances with key European civil society networks across movements, and especially with migrants and LGBTI+ organisations.

“FIDA-Kenya is a premier women’s rights organization in Kenya that has offered free legal aid to over 3,000,000 women over the course of 35 years.

We are committed to creating a society that respects and upholds women’s rights with a mission to promote women’s individual and collective power to claim their rights in all spheres of life. FIDA-Kenya is a membership organization with over 1,400 women advocates and lawyers in Kenya.

We are an accredited institution and has observer status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). The submission of periodic shadow reports to the international and human rights agencies continues to provide space for advocacy at a higher level. The adoption of the Resolution on Women’s Rights to Land and Productive Resources by the ACHPR, Litigation of Women Land Rights before the ACHPR are critical achievements made by regional advocacy efforts.”

Fondo de Acción Urgente (FAU-AL) is “a regional feminist fund for Latin America and the spanish speaking Caribbean, which contributes to the sustainability and strengthening of activists and their movements, with quick and agile support in situations of risk and opportunity. We support the resistances, struggles and demands of the defenders in the transformation of injustice and inequality systems, putting feminist integral protection and care in the center” They are apart of the Urgent Action Fund global consortium and provides rapid response grants.

“Fondo Semillas is a non-profit feminist organization focused on improving women’s and trans* people lives in Mexico. We dream of a country where all women, indigenous, mestiza, black, young, migrant, heterosexual, lesbian, mothers, and students alike, can make their own decisions and have access to health services, education, a decent job, justice, and happiness.

To achieve this, Fondo Semillas:
* Mobilizes resources from institutional, corporate and individual donors, both in México and abroad.
* Works together with groups and organizations, providing them with financial resources, strengthening their capacities, and connecting them with other organizations, networks, and movements.
* Promotes and disseminates themes of the feminist agenda.
* Seeks to help organizations to carry out their work freely and safely, with a feminist perspective, even during emergencies.
* Establishes horizontal relationships with donors in order to achieve redistributive justice.”

Foundation for a Just Society (FJS) “advances the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people and promotes gender and racial justice by ensuring those most affected by injustice have the resources they need to cultivate the leadership and solutions that transform our world.” Learn more about what they fund on their website.

“Since 2007, Freedom House has been providing short-term support to human rights defenders, civil society organizations and survivors of severe religious persecution in some of the world’s most repressive and conflict-ridden environments. This assistance reaches frontline activists and civil society organizations at their moment of greatest need. It has helped them survive attacks, given them the means to resume their critical work, and in many cases literally saved lives.” They provide Emergency Assistance to Frontline Activists.

FRIDA provides young feminist organizers with the resources they need to amplify their voices and bring attention to the social justice issues they care about. We enable the support, flexibility and networks to sustain young feminist visions.

“Front Line Defenders was founded in 2001 with “the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs), people who work, non-violently, for any or all of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Front Line Defenders addresses the protection needs identified by HRDs themselves. In emergency situations Front Line Defenders can facilitate temporary relocation of human rights defenders.”

Front Line Defenders funds sex worker-led organisations through their Security Grants Program.”

Funders Concerned About Aids (FCAA) informs, connects, and supports philanthropy to mobilize resources to end the global HIV pandemic and build the social, political and economic commitments necessary to attain health, human rights, and justice for all. Their report Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS “captures data on close to 6,000 grants, awarded by 264 foundations in 15 countries, in an effort to identify gaps, trends, and opportunities in HIV-related philanthropy” and identifies a substantial decline in funding for “key populations” including an 11% decrease in funding for sex workers.

“Funders for LGBTQ Issues works to increase the scale and impact of philanthropic resources aimed at enhancing the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, promoting equity, and advancing racial, economic and gender justice.
Funders for LGBTQ Issues is a network of more than 75 foundations, corporations, and funding institutions that collectively award more than $1 billion annually, including approximately $100 million specifically devoted to LGBTQ issues.”

GATE is an international advocacy organization working towards justice and equality for trans, gender diverse and intersex communities. Rooted in our movements, we work collaboratively with strategic partners at the global level to provide knowledge, resources and access to UN mechanisms and bodies.

The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) is an Alliance of  more than 80 non-governmental organisations from Africa, Asia, Europe, LAC and North America. “GAATW sees the phenomenon of human trafficking intrinsically embedded in the context of migration for the purpose of labour. GAATW therefore promotes and defends the human rights of all migrants and their families against the threat of an increasingly globalised labour market and calls for safety standards for migrant workers in the process of migration and in the formal and informal work sectors – garment and food processing, agriculture and farming, domestic work, sex work – where slavery-like conditions and practices exist.” 

The Global Fund is a partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. As an international organization, the Global Fund mobilizes and invests more than US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 100 countries. In partnership with governments, civil society, technical agencies, the private sector and people affected by the diseases

Global Fund for Women offers “flexible feminist funding and support to fuel collective action and create meaningful change that will last beyond our lifetimes.Over the course of 30+ years, Global Fund for Women has supported feminist movements and grassroots organizers to end civil wars, get female Presidents elected, and secure laws giving new protection to millions. Today, building on historic wins and the latest research, we are doubling down on supporting movements. By shifting towards a movement-led approach, Global Fund for Women will harness and fuel rising people-power globally to increase their impact and accelerate change.” Information about their grantmaking is available on their website.

Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) exists to uphold the voice of sex workers globally and connect regional networks advocating for the rights of female, male, and transgender sex workers. NSWP is a membership organisation – members are local, national, or regional sex worker-led organisations across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Northa America and the Caribbean. Their languages include English, Spanish, Russian, French, and simplified Chinese.