This International Women’s Day, Alliance is spotlighting the work of those fighting for gender equality and justice within philanthropy and beyond. Our coverage is guided by an intersectional feminist approach – one that recognises how gender inequality is deeply intertwined with systems of racism, class, coloniality, disability, homophobia, and transphobia.

Each article encourages us all to think beyond feminist ‘buzzwords’ and instead consider how intersectional approaches can be used to support feminist activism and transformative philanthropy. Together, we can challenge systems of injustice, exploitation, and extraction, not only for today, but until we reach equality.

Global perspectives

What philanthropy can learn from Afrofuturism to end violence

Alexis Flanagan, Resonance Network.

What other ways of knowing can philanthropy embrace to imagine our future?

As we bear witness to the inhumanity of empire and grieve the reality of climate collapse, it is Black, Brown and Indigenous women and girls, and our trans, nonbinary, and two-spirit kin whose voices are guiding the path beyond violence. Read more…

Our struggle is one struggle, until the day that we are all free

Josephine Kamara, We are Purposeful

This International Women’s Day the stakes feel higher than they have felt in our living memory. The shallow activism of the girl-boss-ing lean-in generation never more hollow, redundant. Everywhere we look – from our small corner of the Continent – we see our people struggling against a tide that is so fierce, and so well financed, our very bodies, our very lives, the souls of our nations are at risk. Read more…

Defending the defenders: Funding for climate and gender justice

Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action

‘Above all, funders must become and view themselves as partners – with us, the Women Environmental Human Right Defenders (WEHRDs). This partnership can only thrive if funders genuinely grasp the context in which WEHRDs operate, recognise the multifaceted nature of the violence we confront, and develop strategies that not only work but are crafted with and for us.’ Read more…

Building a base of Black feminist power in philanthropy

Vanessa Thomas, Black Feminist Fund

As uncovered in our report, Where is the money for Black Feminist Movements, only 2 percent of all  development funding went to Black feminist organising in the Caribbean. Despite the power and history of Black feminist organising in the region, they are under-resourced and we want that to change. Read more…

Dasra 2024: Progress and action on menstrual health in India

Annmarie McQueen, Alliance magazine

Every month, 25% of girls and people who menstruate in India miss school because of their period. Hopefully one day, that number will be zero. This year the Dasra forum hosted a virtual session looking at the progress made in India’s menstrual health sector since they published their first report on the issue 10 years ago, and where we need to go from here. Read more…

Don’t Quota Me on This

Rena Greifinger, PSI & Maverick Collective and Kimberly Walker, PSI

Alliance editors asked us to comment on whether gender quotas should be implemented on foundation boards as part of the push for equality, we had to look at the question within a larger frame of how constructs of gender and power are playing out in the US right now. While we do believe that quotas mandating female representation within systems of power have been successful in political and corporate sectors, we do not believe they are the best path forward for philanthropy right now. Read more…

Interviews

Championing trans philanthropy with Antonia Belcher and Alexus D’Marco

Alexus D’Marco, UCTRANS and Antonia Belcher OBE is a trans businesswoman, advocate and philanthropist.

Around the world, trans organisations are protecting their communities from human rights violations, discrimination and violence. While the journey ahead is long, funding is fragile. More than half of trans groups globally have annual budgets of less than £7,500. And yet they are expected to challenge laws, advocate for change, and protect trans people in the most difficult of contexts. Read more…

‘If you care about social impact, you should not be ignoring African women’

Claudia Cahalane, Alliance magazine

At the age of 29, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes founded one of the few women-owned investment companies in Africa. With women in Africa recieving only a tiny amount of investment money, yet outperforming men on stock exchanges, she believes it’s her divine mission to flow capital to marginalised women entrepreneurs, who in turn uplift their communities. For International Women’s Day, Alliance speaks to Rhodes ahead of her second fund raise. Read more…

Coming soon…

Italian philanthropy’s quest to address gender-based violence, in next week’s Alliance extra

One woman is killed every three days in Italy, because of being a woman. In 2023, there were 120 recorded cases of femicide. There are calls for philanthropy to strategically utilise its resources, and exercise its freedom to experiment, aiming to address the systemic root causes beneath the symptoms, and promote transformative change.

Kit Muirhead is Partnerships manager at Alliance magazine