Resources from Funders and Allied Organisations Supporting Sex Workers’ RightsWe have organised the growing community of organisations supporting sex worker rights and provided brief introductions to strengthen the support available to the sex worker rights movement.
We have categorised them (funders, sex worker-led networks, and allied organisation) as well as created tags for key topics that intersect with our work.
Stella’s primary mission is “to improve the quality of life and working conditions for woman-identified sex workers, to educate the greater public on the different ways that sex work happens as well as about our lived experiences as sex workers, so that sex workers might also enjoy and benefit from the same rights to safety and security that are commonplace for other people.”
The Other Foundation is an African trust dedicated to advancing human rights in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people. Their primary purpose is to expand resources available to defend and advance the rights and well-being of LGBTI people in the Southern African region. They do this by working both as a grant-maker and a fundraiser.
For 25 years, Third Wave Fund has resourced youth-led, intersectional, gender justice movements to advance the community power, well-being, and self-determination of young Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC).” They provide a variety of funding opportunities including rapid response funding through the Mobilize Power Fund and host the sex worker-led Sex Worker Giving Circle.
“UHAI – EASHRI are philanthropic activists in a region where our identities as LGBTIQ+ people and as sex workers are criminalised through punitive laws, where governments actively shut down spaces for movement organising to end discrimination in access to services and healthcare, where societal and public opinion upholds exclusion from families, exclusion from faith communities and denial of basic rights such as access to dignified livelihoods, access to fair hearing and justice by law enforcement.”
Urgent Action Fund (UAF) provides Rapid Response Grantmaking and is part of a global consortium of Urgent Action Funds.Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights is a feminist fund that protects, strengthens and sustains women and transgender human rights defenders at critical moments.
Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights – Asia & Pacific (UAF-ANP) is part of the Urgent Action Fund global consortium. supports the resilience and resistance of movements led by women and non-binary activists in Asia and the Pacific by co-creating a safe environment for them to sustain their work and thrive. Guided by feminist values, individuals, organisations, and their communities are provided urgent grants and strategic support to strengthen their safety and well-being.They provide rapid response grants.
Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa) is part of the Urgent Action Fund global consortium. They work to support African Womn’s Human Rights Defenders, their organisations, collectives and movements to take actions that sustain their work and themselves before, during and after urgent situations. They provide rapid response grants.
“ViiV Healthcare Positive Action recognises the significant role that community workers (peer workers, volunteers, community health volunteers etc.) contribute to the HIV response.
“”The Positive Action (Global) 2020-2030 strategy works towards achieving healthy communities in a world free of AIDS and embodies our mission of leaving no person living with HIV behind. Positive Action (Global)’s mission is to be a transformational partner that champions people and communities to end AIDS. We do this through putting people and communities first, strengthening capacity and collaborating strategically.”” There are three open call funding rounds for Community Strategic Initiatives throughout the calendar year. The exact dates and specific funding priorities will be defined at the beginning of each year by the Positive Action Strategic Council.”
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund supports “the realization of human rights and social and economic justice for all people. Our work is rooted in respect for the dignity and worth of every human being and is informed by the following beliefs: Social institutions and structures should promote the full realization of human rights and human potential, and should be accountable to these ends. The rights of all people are advanced when the rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable peoples are protected. Social justice movements should employ means that are consistent with their ideals, and should give agency to the people whose interests they seek to advance. As responsible stewards, we must strive to maximize the impact of our charitable investments.”
Women’s Fund Asia is a regional women’s fund, committed to supporting women, girls, trans, and intersex people led interventions to enhance and strengthen access to their human rights. We envision a peaceful and egalitarian region in which women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s participation, leadership, and enjoyment of all their human rights is ensured and secure.
“The Women’s Peace & Humanitarian Fund is an innovative partnership empowering local women to be a force for crisis response and lasting peace.
We galvanize support from across the globe to support the efforts of women working on the frontlines of the world’s most intractable conflicts. From Jordan to Burundi, the Solomon Islands to Colombia, we aim to amplify the voices of women and support their vital work to prevent conflict, respond to crises, and accelerate peace in their communities.””
They provide funding including urgent or rapid response funding to sex workers’ rights projects and related civil society groups in specific contexts of conflict and crisis worldwide.”
XOESE, the Francophone Women’s Fund, is “a feminist foundation of public utility that aims to financially and technically support the implementation of initiatives of women’s organizations in French-speaking countries of the Global South. It was created on September 1st, 2015 and is based in Lomé, Togo.” Their website includes a list of sites with relevant information for activists in Francophone Africa.
