WELCOME TO Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens...

WELCOME TO

Funding the Future of Women’s Rights: Where is the Money for the New

Generation of Women’s Rights Initiatives?

Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program

AWID

1

Session Presenters

Lindiwe Bardill AWID Young Feminist Activism ProgramSanushka Mudaliar AWID Young Feminist Activism ProgramAna Adeve Jovens Feminitsta de SP e REDLAC, Brazil Purity Kagwira Resource Centre for Black Women, KenyaRasa Erentaite New Generation of Women’s Initiative,

Lithuania Nadine Moawad Meem Collective, Lebanon

2AWID Session Slide

Where is the Money for Young Women’s Rights Work?

These findings are based on responses to AWID’s 2008 ‘Where is the Money?’ online global survey about funding for women’s rights work

The survey contained 13 questions designed to gather data and perspectives from women’s rights organisations that “Work with Young Women Under 30 as a Main Target Group”

Note: These findings reflect the responses to the survey and are NOT representative of AWID’s views

3AWID Session Slide

The Survey Results

Does your organisation work with young women under age 30 as a main target group?

1032 Women’s Rights Organisations answered the 2008 ‘Where is the Money?’ survey

61% Said YES WE DO (633 WR Organisations working with Young Women)

25% Said NO WE DON’T (258 WR Organisations DO NOT work with Young Women )

7% Said NOT SURE (72 WR Organisations)

7% Unknown 4

AWID Session Slide

Regional Distribution of Survey Sample

5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

17.1%

30.6%

18.6% 18.2%

11.5%

3.2%0.8%

Regional Distribution of Survey Sample

Region

% O

rgan

isat

ions

wor

king

with

you

ng w

omen

AWID Session Slide

What was the reason that your organisation started to work on young women's rights?

N=553 Organisations (check all that apply) % of Orgs.

Because we recognized that young women’s rights needed specific attention in our context

76%

Because young women started to get involved in our organization and pushed for this to be a core issue

29%

Because we wanted to expand our youth programs 23%

6AWID Session Slide

Approaches to working with young women

Please mark the item that best describes your organisations work with young women (check all that apply):

40% said “We seek to involve young women in our wider programs/activities that target all women”

39% said “We integrate young women in leading roles within our activities”

37% said “We run programs that target young women as beneficiaries of our activities”

22% said “We seek to include young women in our youth programs/activities”

(Where N=633 orgs./check all that apply)

7AWID Session Slide

Age and Leadership

Who Manages these Organisations?From a total of 615 organisations: 57 organisations (9%) are completely managed by young women

167 (27%) are mostly managed by young women

301 (49%) have a few young women in managerial roles

83 (13%) organisations do not have any young women in managerial roles

7 (1%) do not know

8AWID Session Slide

Activities

The top three activities that organisations undertake with young women are

Leadership training for young women (including mentorship activities) (72%)

Providing information and skills-building for young women (70%); and

Mobilizing young women to affect social change (66%).

(Where N=624 orgs/check all that apply)

9AWID Session Slide

Other Significant Activities Include:

Advocacy on issues affecting young women (61%)

Campaigning on young women’s rights issues (54%)

Creating spaces for young women’s networking activities and knowledge exchange (50%)

Building young women’s activist networks (48%)

Providing legal representation to defend and uphold young women’s right (46%)

Conducting research on thematic issues related to young women (40%)

10AWID Session Slide

Where is the Money for Young Women’s Rights?

How much money do organisations have?

Where does the money for young women’s rights work come from?

What are the main challenges organisations face mobilizing resources specifically for work with young women?

What activities related to young women are the easiest/most difficult to raise funds for?

What should donors do to support young women’s rights work?11

AWID Session Slide

Grants Received by Organisationsthat Work with Young Women: 2007

12

74%

25%

1%

Grants Received in 2007: Organisations that Work with Young Women (N=633)

YesNoNot sure

AWID Session Slide

If you add up all the grants and other income sources in 2007 what was total organisational income in US dollars?

$1000 or less

$1001 to $5000

$5001 to $25000

$25001 to $50000

$50001 to $100000

More than $100000

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

9%

11%

21%

14%

9%

21%

9%

9%

18%

12%

10%

24%

Overall Revenue in US Dollars: 2007

% of Total Survey Organisations (N=1017)

% of Organisations Focusing on Young Women (N=633)

Percentage of Organisations

Tota

l Inc

ome


Total Budget for Young Women’s Work: 2007

$1000 or less

$1001 to $5000

$5001 to $25000

$25001 to $50000

$50001 to $100000

More than $100000

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

10.7%

12.3%

24.2%

10.6%

6%

4.1%

Total budget set aside for young women in 2007: US Dollars

Percentage of Organisations

Tota

l Bud

get


Where are the funds coming from?

Sector Percent of grants in 2007: Organisations working with young women

Percent of grants in 2007: All organisations

Bi/multilateral agencies 13.7% 16.1%

Private foundations 1.6% 2.4%

INGOs 7.4% 8.0%

Women's Funds 16.4% 15.0%

Corporate philanthropy 0.0% 0.1%

Individual giving 0.3% 1.2%

Faith-based organization 0.5% 1.4%

Family foundations 2.2% 3.6%

National/local government 2.5% 5.2%

Other organizational resources 19.0% 24.9%

Unknown/no grants received 36.3% 22.0%

Total 100.0% 100.0%

AWID Session Slide

What are the three main challenges you face mobilizing resources specifically

for your work with young women?


Resource Mobilization Challenges: work with young women

1) Scarce Resources for Women’s Rights Work

Respondents offer the following reasons:There are no funding agencies or donors who support young

women’s rights work

Resources are available, but funding does not cater to the type of work that needs to be done e.g. ‘movement building with young women’

Fierce competition for the limited resources available and lack of cooperation amongst NGOs working on young women’s rights

(Where N=417 Orgs/1224 Suggestions)



2) Organisational Capacity Specifically fundraising capacity is limited by: Poor quality of organisational resources and infrastructure

Small number of staff

Limited skills in- General fundraising and resource mobilization - Financial management- Communications- Proposal writing and development

3) Access to Information about Donors who Fund Work with Young Women 18

AWID Session Slide

4) Donor Funding PoliciesSpecifically respondents say that donors: Do not trust that organisations working with young women can

manage funding, especially small or newly established organisations, or organisations run by young women

Prefer small grants such as project and activity based funding instead of the long term or core funding that is needed

Only fund certain thematic areas or agendas

Place burdensome reporting requirements on funding

Many respondents also mention long delays in receiving promised funding & funding promises that are not fulfilled



5) Young Women are not a Priority for Donors

Respondents report a lack of interest from donors in funding:

a) young women’s work in general

b) specific areas of work important to young women such as sexual and reproductive rights and education



Respondents report that this makes it hard to justify the importance of young women’s work to donors.

This ‘invisibility’ is related to: Factors limiting the participation of young women in the movement (see

slides 13-15) including traditional social and cultural norms

Lack of coordination and networking between organizations working with young women

Lack of awareness amongst women’s rights organisations or donors about young women as a sub-group of the women’s movement

Little research or published information on the specific needs of young women or the issues they face


6) Invisibility of Young Women in the Women’s Movement


Dialogue with Donors

What should Donors do to support the work of young women in the

women’s movement?


What Should Donors Do to Support Young Women’s Rights Work?

Learn More about Young Women

Respondents request that donors: Increase their understanding and awareness of the needs, interests

and priorities of young women

Engage in research on the needs of young women in the women’s movement and the situation facing young women in different contexts

Share with each other experiences and best practices about funding young women’s work

Listen to young women and those that work with young women

Base funding decisions upon what young women need, know and experience in their specific contexts



Develop More FlexibleFunding Schemes

Specifically, funding that:

reflects the specific contexts and circumstances faced by young women

Is simpler to access and manage

Includes core functions and administration



Prioritize Young Women as a Main Target Group

Donors should: Increase the amount of their budget allocated to young women’s

work

Expand funding programs to include special programs for funding young women

Create separate funds specifically for young women’s work

Encourage women’s rights organisations to include a young women’s component in their work



Get More Involved, and Not Just Financially

Work in partnership with organisations to assist in the writing of funding proposals

Engage in regular and ongoing communication

Maintain personal contact during the grant period through donor field trips or visits

Assist organisations fulfil monitoring and evaluation expectations


The Global Fund for Women: A Case Study of Funding for Young Women’s Rights Work (2008)

Some Highlights….. Donors do face challenges in identifying, tracking, and funding these

groups

Young women applicants tend to have fewer sources of support, making operational support especially important for these groups

Many of young women’s rights groups are newer and smaller. Small grants become an increasingly important source of funding as these groups begin to grow and gain access and legitimacy in the funding world.

Flexibility in funding criteria is necessary to support these groups, including providing funding to groups that are not yet registered NGOs.

Grantee networking and fundraising capacity building tools such as fundraising handbooks are particularly helpful for in assisting new groups to grow and build their capacity.


WELCOME TO

Funding the Future of Women’s Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Women’s Rights

Initiatives?

Presented by The Young Feminist Activism Program

AWID

28

Strategies to Overcome Resource Mobilization Challenges

Networking activities between women’s rights organisations that work with young women

Development of organisational capacity

A directory of donors funding young women’s work

Continued dialogue with donors

Make the case for funding young women’s right’s work


Strategising Together:

What else should be done?

How can we work together?


THE END

Funding the Future of Women’s Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation

of Women’s Rights Initiatives?

Thank You For Your Contributions

31

WELCOME TO Funding the Future of Womens Rights: Where is the Money for the New Generation of Womens...

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