RED UMBRELLA FUND LEADERSHIP TRANSITION
1 September 2023
Dear Community Members, Partners and Allies,
In July 2020 we wrote to you to introduce Paul-Gilbert Colletaz as our new coordinator, a sex worker and human rights advocate that has been firmly rooted in the sex workers’ rights movement for many years. Paul-Gilbert became the first community member to serve as Coordinator and this brought Red Umbrella Fund deeper into alignment with our values as a self-led fund.
Paul-Gilbert has led the fund into its most prosperous years of grantmaking, surpassing €1 Million in grants for the first time in both 2022 and again in 2023. He has also contributed to securing funding through 2024 as well as strengthened the sex worker leadership of the Fund in grantmaking and funder advocacy. It is from this position of strength that he has decided to step out of this role and leave Red Umbrella Fund in order to create an opportunity for our next step in deepening our alignment with our values.
In the next four months the International Steering Committee will be experimenting with new leadership models in line with our feminist principles (currently thought of as Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator) –and with the goals of prioritising recruitment from what is referred to as the Global South or Global Majority and ensuring the stability of the Fund. For this phase, it was decided with the International Steering Committee that the Coordinator role will temporarily be held by Alexis Wilson Briggs who has served as Programme Associate since 2019.
Red Umbrella Fund continues to work to remain in alignment with the global sex worker rights movement, in all its vibrancy, and to continue to improve our innovative, activist-led and participatory model. We strongly encourage those with sex work experience to consider the various job postings in the coming months and to share them widely with their networks.
We appreciate the support that has been provided by our donors to enable Red Umbrella Fund to undertake this transformation and hope that these commitments will be renewed and strengthened as we work to secure funding for 2025 and beyond.
While there has been much progress, the worldwide political and financial threats facing sex workers are only intensifying and the need for more funding to build empowered, resilient, and active sex worker-led organisations and networks could not be more urgent. For individuals and institutions interested in showing their support, your donations are welcome (contact us here or donate directly through our website).
We thank you Paul-Gilbert for his tremendous work moving Red Umbrella Fund into this new era.
In Solidarity,
Ankit Gupta & Hassna Uwingabe Murenzi
Co-Chairs of the RUF International Steering Committee (ISC)
