Collective Future Fund Expands Multi-Year Grantmaking with Additional $3.4M Investment

Funding awarded to 29 grassroots organizations will advance survivor-led movements working to build power and end violence in all its forms

NEW YORK—Today, the Collective Future Fund (CFF) announced funding for 29 survivor-based organizations in the next phase of its multi-year grantmaking, totaling $3.4M over two years. The grants will support the healing and leadership of women and gender expansive people of color as they protect communities against an onslaught of attacks on human and civil rights, while advancing a new vision of safety and liberation through organizing, advocacy, and policy change.

“In the face of escalating and pervasive violence, survivors are developing new ways of resistance and leading us to a future grounded in safety, abundance, and dignity for everyone. It is their work that is dismantling interconnected systems of oppression and creating the transformative change required in this moment of political, social, and economic upheaval,” said Aleyamma Mathew, Director of the Collective Future Fund. “The solutions to the immense challenges we face will not be fully realized in a matter of a few years, but instead require time and resources to build. We urge philanthropy to better recognize this fact and to make investments in women and gender expansive people of color that reflect the power they have clearly demonstrated. Our collective future depends on it.”

Last year, after disbursing rapid response grants, CFF launched its first multi-year grantmaking effort to sustain survivor-leaders responding to multiple crises exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The funding came as many intersectional anti-violence organizations navigated dwindling philanthropic investment in the face of heightened need–an issue that long preceded 2020 and only continues to grow. The expanded docket announced today will provide these organizations with general operating support to plan beyond the most immediate crises, to align day-to-day work with their vision for the future, and to deepen relationships in the field that ultimately strengthen the movement to end patriarchal violence.

Today’s announcement follows the five year anniversary of the viral hashtag #MeToo, which ignited a historic conversation on the world stage about sexual violence and led to the creation of the Collective Future Fund as part of philanthropy’s response to this massive milestone. Since then, survivor-leaders have continued to demonstrate their power and centrality to other social justice movements, working in solidarity across communities and issue areas. Despite this, philanthropic investments remain stagnant, and CFF is now one of the only existing funds focused on ending gender-based violence in the United States. 

Central to CFF’s strategy is the recognition that all forms of violence are persistent, interconnected, and mutually reinforcing – whether systemic or interpersonal. All grantees in this docket, of whom 22 are previous recipients, are advancing a new vision of radical safety and liberation through strategies that confront state violence, workplace violence, and violence in specific communities. 

Among the awardees is Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, the first national women farmworkers’ organization in the United States created by current and former women farmworkers, along with women who hail from farmworker families. Alianza is composed of 15 member organizations in 20 states that are playing a leadership role in helping to end all forms of exploitation and abuse perpetrated against campesinas, most of whom are immigrants, guestworkers, or refugees. Another, Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence (RooT), is a Black and Brown, queer, grassroots-led initiative that offers transformative, collective healing and growth accountability spaces and workshops to address cycles of harm and violence.

Grantees include:

“Resistance against patriarchal violence, and healing through reclaiming our Indigenous ways of being is an everyday act for us as Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit, that often goes unnoticed. To receive this funding through CFF means we are seen, heard, and valued. This funding is life saving, and ensures that we can continue to grow spaces of healing and resistance against sexual violence,” said Founder and Executive Director of Waking Women Healing Institute, Kristin Welch.

“CFF has been a pioneer in recognizing and alleviating funding barriers for BIPOC organizations that are doing the cultural work of ending sexual violence. This is long-term work requiring sustainable support, and CFF is modeling how it is done,” said Aredvi Azad, Co-Executive Director, The HEAL Project.

“CFF’s donation empowers Matahari to continue fighting for the rights of domestic and restaurant workers in Massachusetts through labor and community organizing. Workers in these sectors, particularly immigrant and women of color, have historically been left out of labor protections and subject to extreme forms of violence, exploitation, and oppression despite playing essentials roles in our society,” said the team at Matahari Women Workers Center.

“The survivors who called for an end to sexual violence in the wake of #MeToo are the very same leaders who are now protecting communities across the country from attacks on their fundamental human and civil rights,” said Jennifer Agmi, CFF Collaborative Partner and Senior Program Officer at The Libra Foundation. “We are proud to partner with the Collective Future Fund to resource this life-saving, transformative work.”

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The Collective Future Fund brings together social justice movements, survivors, and donors to heal, resource, and mobilize towards a future free from all forms of patriarchal violence.