Collective Future Fund

Monday marked the beginning of our journey to South Africa, where we are attending the global Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum, and collaborating with our grantee partners to gather with South African activists. Together, we are embarking on an exploration of what feminist transnational solidarity looks like in practice, and how we might build together toward ending gendered, sexualized, and racialized violence. Our team, alongside a delegation of grantee partners, donor partners, and Advisory Council members, attended the SVRI Forum opening plenary and workshops. We also took time to ground ourselves with a meaningful visit to the Iziko Slave Lodge in Cape Town. Through these activities, we’re learning, reflecting, and building stronger connections. Stay tuned this week for updates as we continue this vital work! #CFFAtSVRI #SVRIForum24

?? Gender-based violence is one of the biggest threats facing women, especially women of color. Globally, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence—usually at the hands of someone they know. Despite how prevalent this issue is, efforts to address it continue to be severely underfunded, and women are paying the price. Collective Future Fund is working to change that.

Monday marked the beginning of our journey to South Africa, where we are attending the global Sexual Violence Research Initiative Forum, and collaborating with our grantee partners to gather with South African activists. Together, we are embarking on an exploration of what feminist transnational solidarity looks like in practice, and how we might build together toward ending gendered, sexualized, and racialized violence. Our team, alongside a delegation of grantee partners, donor partners, and Advisory Council members, attended the SVRI Forum opening plenary and workshops. We also took time to ground ourselves with a meaningful visit to the Iziko Slave Lodge in Cape Town. Through these activities, we’re learning, reflecting, and building stronger connections. Stay tuned this week for updates as we continue this vital work! #CFFAtSVRI #SVRIForum24

This week, our team is headed to Cape Town for the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum, the largest global conference on sexual violence. We’re excited to participate alongside a number of our collaborative donor partners and grantee partners, including a delegation of CFF staff and all five members of our newly formed Advisory Council. ?? We’ve been focusing more on deepening our networks of solidarity — across borders, across strategies, across sectors. This is especially front-and-center this week as we mark the 7th anniversary of our grantee partner metoo. International, because the #metoo movement is a prime example of how the local is global and the global is local. Follow our journey here! #SVRIForum24 #CollectiveFutureFund ??

Our approach as a grantmaker is to resource a diverse safety- and survivor-justice movement ecosystem. This movement ecosystem is made up of a wide range of strategies and intersecting issues. When woven together, they move toward a shared horizon of creating safety and liberation. The rays of the sun show the diverse movements and issues that are part of this future. In the broader ecosystem around this scene, the natural elements also represent other roles to play in this movement, including the rain barrels that represent resources and funding for this movement.

On the 7th anniversary of #MeToo, we honor its evolution from a powerful U.S. based social movement to a transnational movement uniting survivors across borders. As a pooled intermediary feminist fund, we are honored to have been born out of a moment of convergence of #metoo with other social movements, with the purpose of resourcing organizations that are building transformational approaches to safety and survivor justice. In alignment with the vision and leadership of our grantee partner metoo. International, we believe it is truly possible to end sexual and gender-based violence worldwide. We especially want to take a moment to honor the trailblazing contributions to this movement of Tarana Burke and her team. It is only together as survivors that we can truly hold a vision for a future where everyone can live in collective safety, with shared abundance, joy, and power.

?? We're thrilled to announce the renewal of our grantmaking to 50 core grantee partner organizations, totaling $6 million in general operating funding over the next two years! ?? We're honored to support movement-building organizations addressing gendered, sexualized, and racialized violence through policy, advocacy, organizing, direct support, and healing for survivors. Our funding supports a diverse mix of organizations—from small to large annual budgets, local to transnational—especially those historically under-resourced. Learn more about our grantmaking and see the full list of our 2024 grantee partners here: https://ow.ly/X9HC50TJgyF Together, we're building a stronger ecosystem to end violence and create safety and survivor justice for all. #CollectiveFutureFund #FutureFreeFromViolence

Today we recognize Latinas Women's Equal Pay Day, highlighting the wage gap that persists for Latinas. Together, we must advocate for equity and justice in pay for all women. We want to highlight our Latine/a/o/x grantee partners advocating for LatinX women. Alianza Nacional de Campesinas is the first national women farmworkers’ organization in the U. S. created by current and former women farmworkers, along with women who hail from farmworker families, with a core focus on ending gender-based violence experienced by farmworkers. Colectivo Ilé es una organización antirracista y decolonial con un propósito de educar para lograr erradicar el racismo y todas sus manifestaciones. A través de la organización comunitaria, talleres y procesos educativos, Colectivo Ilé procura rescatar una historia no distorsionada que fortalezca las identitdades raciales. VidaAfrolatina is an emerging international women’s fund that mobilizes resources and connects them with Black and Afro-descendant women-led organizations in Latin America that address sexual violence. Selected through a participatory process, these organizations provide culturally relevant healing experiences in their communities and launch initiatives to reduce and, ultimately eliminate sexual violence. #LatinasEqualPayDay"

This week at IWPR's Power Summit in Chicago, our ED Aleyamma Mathew joined Sonya Passi of FreeFrom, and Raymond Ampil of Fondation CHANEL, to explore how we ensure sustained investment in ending gender-based violence. Many activists across immigrant rights, racial justice, and climate change are also vital to GBV work. We must recognize the intersectionality of these movements and address the biases that limit the understanding of GBV. One way to address this is by having robust portfolios that incorporate GBV in racial justice and other issue areas.

I got to spend a day with some of my favorite people in the world last week thinking collectively about how we can all work to end GBV at the Free Futures Gathering hosted by Ford Foundation and The Meteor last week. And an extra special highlight to share the stage with Aleyamma Mathew of Collective Future Fund and Monica Ramirez of Justice for Migrant Women as we discussed, from our various vantage points, how to better resource the movement to end violence with joy, trust, and a commitment to one another and our shared goals. With much thanks to Monica Aleman Cunningham for bringing us together for this important conversation.