OVERVIEW: Mama Cash focuses its funding on women’s groups that mobilize for the rights of all women, including society’s most vulnerable women.
IP TAKE: This funder often supports small organizations and those that are not formally registered, so it is particularly good for grassroots grantseekers. Those seeking grants should not be deterred from applying to Mama Cash because of its location in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This is an approachable funder that also invests in organizations that find it difficult to raise grants from larger organizations. Highly accessible and progressive, Mama Cash is also approachable. However, grants are competitive, making this a challenging space to enter.
PROFILE: Based in Amsterdam, Mama Cash has been around since 1983. The idea for Mama Cash grew from a kitchen table conversation between its five women founders. They decided to establish “an international grantmaking organization that supports women and girls around the globe in their fight for equal rights.” The organization’s wide grant criteria embrace a multitude of women’s groups, including sexual and ethnic minorities, adolescent girls, trans people, indigenous women, low-income women, single mothers, women with disabilities, migrant women, sex workers, rural women and women who work in both the formal and informal sectors. The fund conducts its grantmaking through its Solidarity, Resilience, Revolution, Radical Love, and Spark funds.
Grants for Human Rights, Women and Girls
The fund conducts its grantmaking through the following focused funds:
- The Solidarity Fund works to support and strengthen women’s funds worldwide. Grants are €30,000 for one year.
- The Resilience Fund supports the “collective activism of women, girls, and trans and intersex people” globally. This is Mama Cash’s largest grant program and awards range between €5,000 – €50.000.
- The Revolution Fund is a participatory grantmaking fund that awards grants up to €10,000 to support funding requests that do not align with other funding areas.
- The Radical Love Fund is a participatory grantmaking fund that supports “the pioneering work of individual feminist activists.” Grants are €7,000.
- The Spark Fund makes grants of €5,000 – €7,000 to organizations centered on women, girls, and trans and intersex people in the Netherlands and on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten.
- Mama Cash typically awards general operating support grants rather than project-specific grants.
- Past grantees include the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Malawi Human Rights for Women and Girls with Disabilities, and the Palaung Women’s Organization.
Important Grant Details:
This funder is based in the Netherlands, so detailed information about the size and scope of its grantmaking is not available.
- Organizations with annual budgets below €200,000 are eligible to apply for a Mama Cash grant.
- The foundation accepts unsolicited letters of inquiry once per year and announces its submission deadlines toward the beginning of the year.
- Reach out to this funder via its contact page or call (+31) 20 5158 700.
PEOPLE:
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