Personal Reflections on the Fenomenal Funds Grantmaking Approach for Long-Term Organizational Strengthening of Women’s Funds

Phoebe So, Program Manager at Fenomenal Funds

Fenomenal Funds launched in 2019 to support the resilience of women’s funds members of the Prospera International Women’s Funds Network (INWF). But little did we know that a global pandemic would soon test their resilience and their supported movements in unprecedented ways. Their ability to prioritize and build their internal strength for the long term, even in the face of unprecedented challenges, affirms the power of unrestricted funding and trust in organizations to direct resources where they are most needed.

As a program manager at Fenomenal Funds, I have seen women’s funds persevere firsthand.  This piece shares my personal reflections on our journey to support women’s funds through participatory grantmaking that centers on their autonomy and self-determined priorities.

Providing Multi-Year Funding for Resilience during Uncertain Times

When COVID-19 hit in 2020, we recognized that women’s funds were facing multiple crises – the pandemic, war, economic downturn, natural disasters, and the closing of civil society spaces. Based on the recommendation of women’s funds in the Advisory Committee, the Fenomenal Funds Steering Committee quickly pivoted from a competitive grantmaking process to a non-competitive, trust-based approach, supporting what we call Resilience Grants. With solidarity as a core value, we aimed to understand their crisis-related urgent needs through a simple application process. All women’s fund members of the Prospera INWF were eligible, and any applicant would receive USD 75,000 for one year. 

A year later, when it was time for the next round of funding, women’s funds on the Advisory Committee acknowledged the ongoing struggle women’s funds in the global south faced. Most regions lacked access to vaccines and social safety net support. The Committee recommended extending the Resilience Grants to three years in 2021. Each women’s fund would receive USD 75,000 each year, USD 225,000 in total. Funds would have budgets with more flexibility and stability, which supports planning for both urgent needs and long-term goals.¹

The Committee believed continuing this non-competitive, trust-based approach would allow for a more open and honest exchange between funders and recipients. Women’s funds would know that they and their peer organizations would receive support, enabling funds to consider their true needs without the stress of a high-stakes competitive process.²

Participating funds reported that, unlike restrictive short-term grants, the flexible, multi-year support freed them to pivot programs and prioritize evolving community needs, such as: 

• hiring additional staff across programs, operations, and resource mobilization to meet rising demands;
• strengthening IT and digital security infrastructure, which is critical for online collaboration, especially in restrictive environments;
• and cultivating collective care for staff and movement partners, providing timely support to their stretched teams.

Strategic investments, like improved data systems and leadership development, also primed funds as more responsive partners over the long haul. But perhaps the most striking benefit was the opportunity for some smaller funds to improve their long-term sustainability by establishing financial reserves and conducting thorough financial health assessments. These improvements to internal systems, processes, and strategies allowed women’s funds to weather rising pressures and meet movements’ demands. 

Adopting a Participatory Approach to Grantmaking³

Established in September 2020, our Advisory Committee, comprising five women’s funds, two funding partners, and a representative of the Prospera INWF Secretariat, centers the voice of women’s funds in grantmaking decisions. 

For our 2021 grants, as we continued our flexible, non-competitive, multi-year funding approach, we further streamlined the application and reporting process, focusing on obtaining meaningful information and continuous learning. Women’s funds only needed to answer three questions regarding why, what, and how they would use the grants to strengthen their organizations. The Fenomenal Funds team also proactively scheduled online meetings with the women’s funds to enhance our understanding of their grant experiences in their local contexts, answer any questions they had about how we work, and create space for the funds to give feedback on the grantmaking process.

The Values of Participatory Decision-Making

The Advisory Committee members, representing funders and women’s funds, brought their experiential knowledge about the network, feminist grantmaking, and commitment to gender justice. Their first-hand wisdom of the priorities and challenges facing their peers was instrumental in guiding our work. 

The Committee conducted an intensive and iterative peer review process to ground funding recommendations in the realities of women’s funds, with a focus on fostering collaborative learning and support. After reviewing combined proposal and report sets, Committee members then participated in a group discussion to share perspectives, identify patterns and unique challenges, and synthesize insights to learn how this funding supported the diversity of women’s funds in their various contexts to respond to poly-crises.

The participatory review offered insights and resources for peer learning. For instance, the interim reports from the Resilience Grants revealed common concerns among diverse women’s funds regarding staff well-being during crises and also highlighted the varied strategies created to address them. These learnings informed the development of our second funding stream—Collaboration Grants.

The Committee’s peer feedback was shared with the funds as a reflection, respecting each fund’s self-determination and choice to use and apply what is helpful to them and suits their needs. Many women’s funds deeply appreciated the Committee’s peer review and recommendations. These interactions strengthened understanding, learning, and relationships among women’s funds across sizes, scales, and geographies, as well as between women’s funds and funding partners. 

Promising future

While our learning journey continues, women’s funds have provided valuable insights on how flexible funding can strategically strengthen key organizational capacities. We recognize that more data is still needed to understand the impacts of these investments fully and whether the emerging change will be long-lasting. 

The Fenomenal Funds model demonstrates what is possible when philanthropy embraces a feminist approach that provides core institutional support using participatory, trust-based methods. By trusting the voices of those receiving the funds, creating space for learning and reflection, and using an approach that nurtures connection, philanthropy has the potential to fuel real change—not as gatekeepers but as allied co-creators.

Our shared hope is that the learnings started here may help strengthen ongoing efforts to shift power and achieve resource justice for women’s funds and movements for years to come. If you want to learn more about our Resilience Grants, read our report Reimagining Power to Build Resilience. 

1.  Fenomenal Funds. (2023). Reimagining Power to Build Resilience (pp.25–36). Washington, DC: Fenomenal Funds.
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2. Fenomenal Funds. (2023). Reimagining Power to Build Resilience (pp. 8–11). Washington, DC: Fenomenal Funds.
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3. Fenomenal Funds. (2023). Reimagining Power to Build Resilience (pp. 18–26). Washington, DC: Fenomenal Funds. ↩︎