No straight lines – Transformations with young feminist organisers

FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund is the only youth-led fund focused exclusively on supporting young feminist activism to advance social justice movements and agendas across the globe.

FRIDA’s staff, advisors, grantee partners, Board and community members have sat on a variety of advisory and steering committees for INGOs and funders, providing input on programmatic initiatives, design of decision-making structures, organisational set-up and more. In particular, they have contributed expertise and guidance for International Non Government Organizations (INGOS) and funders who seek to begin or strengthen their work with young women, girls trans* and intersex youth.

Based on its work over nearly a decade, FRIDA is consolidating collective knowledge and expertise aimed at engaging INGOS, funders and other philanthropic actors in dialogue on how they can work with young feminist organisers for transformation. We present to you this publication, designed to be a guide and practical resource for INGOs and funders that have a genuine interest and commitment to support young feminist organising and movements.

Since embarking on this research, a number of important publications have emerged – Oxfams new Report ‘A Leap of Faith: Conversations with funders of women’s organizations’, AWIDs Report ‘Toward a feminist funding ecosystem: A framework and practical guide’, AWID and FEMnet Policy Brief on engaging NGOS and the CIVICUS research on youth led organisations. We offer this complementary analysis and reccomendations as a way to deepen your understanding of the opportunities and challenges of working with and for young feminist organisers (YFOs). We do not have all the answers, nor is this report complete, but rather we feel an important addition to the growing body of knowledge of this topic.

INGOs and funders are partnering with young feminist organizers in many different ways, with some directly funding groups, others funding womens funds or local organisations to directly support groups, and others including young feminist activists in their campaigns, local programs and staff teams. There are varying degrees of willingness and interest as well as institutional and organisational capacities to embark on this work. Needless to say, a one size fits all approach will not work for these support institutions nor will it suit the diversity of organizing within young feminist movements.

Frida therefore invites you to use this report as a reference for reflection on how your organisation can better support emerging collectives and organisations led by young women, girls and trans* and intersex youth. We hope it is useful in deepening existing work, challenging practices constructively or in navigating a new field if you are thinking of resourcing this work for the first time.