The challenges and prospects of financing in French-speaking feminist movements

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The second day’s activities kicked off with a plenary session on “financing the francophone feminist movement“.

The issue of funding for feminist organizations is a real challenge that considerably reduces their scope for action. Where to obtain funding, how to negotiate funding conditions while remaining true to organizational values, who are the backers? These are just some of the questions that need to be answered.

Participants of XOESE Forum 2023

The particularity of funding is that it is directly directed towards feminist organizations, without going through the State.

Despite the difficulty for feminist organizations in general to obtain funding, specifically French-speaking feminist organizations experience even more difficulties than English-speaking ones.

Most funding comes from private philanthropic foundations, private sector institutions, international aid from multinationals and income-generating activities from feminist organizations themselves.

As each donor has its own requirements in line with its objectives, it is up to organizations to find out in advance and, if possible, enter into discussions to find common ground. Organizations should also include in their funding applications micro-projects that support the resilience of their members.

Leaders of women’s organizations raise their fists to show they remain resilient

Following this plenary session, the participants returned to the rooms for the start of the hybrid sessions, where a number of themes were tackled, including the use of new technologies, financing, sisterhood for intergenerational feminism, sexology, etc.

The day was also devoted to the closing of the Warikow campaign launched six months ago, which has been implemented in 14 countries and reached around 200 people.