Watch: 3 ways philanthropists and INGOs can support feminist movements

Experts on philanthropy and gender equality work in global development say that feminist movements are starting to see the results of sustained pressure to provide more funding to feminist-focused and -led organizations — but that funding is still not flowing to those groups quickly enough. Connecting more donors to feminist causes is critical to addressing many other important issues, said Nidhi Sahni, a partner at philanthropic and nonprofit advisory firm The Bridgespan Group and the head of its U.S. advisory services. However, “people have historically put the funding that is for gender in this narrow bucket of women and girls, and then there’s everything else,” she said during a Devex Pro event Wednesday on funding feminist fovements. “But women and girls are part of the entire system.” Other speakers at the event included: Caroline Bakasa, a reproductive health technical adviser in Malawi for global health organization Population Services International; Jess Tomlin, a co-CEO at the Equality Fund, which is a feminist-focused organization; and Swatee Deepak, a representative of Shake the Table, which is an organization that connects philanthropists to groups focused on social and economic justice. Here are some key takeaways from the panel event: Funding grassroots groups Organizations that have historically had more resources have been able to share their stories and accumulate more resources as a result, Sahni said. So when donors look to support feminist movements, it would be helpful if they also direct money to grassroots organizations like feminist funds. “Feminist funds are such an awesome vehicle to get the money to the proximate leaders that are doing this work,” she said. She added that Bridgespan is encouraging donors to see feminist funds as a way for them to “give and learn with the community that the funds are actually bringing together.” Tomlin, of the Equality Fund, said feminist funds act as “intermediaries” and often distribute funding in ways that “really get to movements no matter what level they’re at — whether they’re sort of community grassroots organizations or whether they’re larger institutions.” Reassuring donors International NGOs can talk to donors to ease some of the “fear” they might have about providing more flexible funding for feminist movements to spend as they see fit, PSI’s Bakasa said, adding that this freedom is what feminist organizations need. That is a step toward creating more equality between donors and nonprofits working on the ground, she said. “The power-sharing piece is also real and quite big,” she said. “INGOs, we have that capacity at a higher level to be able to amplify those grassroots stories that are happening and bringing them up and creating that platform even for the local movement to feel they’re part of the game.” Sharing the wealth Donors must move away from the idea that different funding areas are in competition with each other, according to Deepak of Shake the Table. Deepak works with private and public foundations, as well as with wealthy families, to develop philanthropic funding strategies. There is such an “abundance” of wealth among high and “ultra high” net worth individuals that the aim shouldn’t be to “fund this instead of this,” she said. Sahni also encouraged donors to take a long-term view and provide more than incremental funding increases to feminist organizations. “Donors have to have that courage like feminist movements … to step into that space and figure out what different power structures need to change, what norms need to change,” she said. “Just getting girls in schools is not going to cut it … because there are norms where girls that go to school are still getting married off, they’re still being pulled out of school.” The Bridgespan Group and Shake the Table plan to publish a report on funding feminist movements in April.