2020 Grantmaking Highlights

2020 magnified discriminations and inequalities experienced across gender identity, race, class, immigration status, and geography in ways we have never seen before. Check out our 2020 Rapid Response Grantmaking (RRG) Infographic to see how UAF responded to the moment and stood by feminist activists!

2020 was a record-breaking year for Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism’s grantmaking. Some 2020 highlights include:

• We awarded the most grants, compared to any other year in our history deploying over 1.25 million to frontline human rights defenders.
• There was a 78% increase in the # of grants made and a 64% increase in grant dollars given out from 2019 to 2020
• Our grants supported organizations and activists across 36 countries
• To respond to the ongoing global pandemic, we rapidly expanded the grantmaking criteria to support Covid-19 needs starting in March 2020; Covid-19 grants made up 50% of our total grantmaking for 2020, with most of the support going towards mutual aid and community assistance
• The majority of our grants supported under-resourced and marginalized groups who were led by women, trans and non-binary community and organizations/groups that were nascent in their operations (1-5 years) and with annual budgets that are under $50,000 USD
• Together with the Urgent Action Fund Sister Funds, we provided a brief on how trends on women and WHRDs were impacted in the context of Covid-19
• In commemoration of Beijing +25, we made 23 grants to support feminist groups in all our regions to participate and engage in this space
• The majority of grantees who received security grants reported being safer and secure, increasing their capacity to manage risks and threats, and maintaining the continuity of their activism as the result of our grant support

This past year reminds us of what we can accomplish when we let women, trans, and non-binary activists lead the way! To see the full 2020 Rapid Response Infographic, click here.