Community Voices Blog

Pausing Our Global Research Project

Friends,  Due to the concerns in response to our global research project, we’ve decided to pause the survey to examine our methodology and impact.  The unbiased nature of the survey is, by no means, a representation of our values at HRFN.  We apologize for any harm that the content of our survey caused and we…

Adaptability and Learning Are Core to Enhancing Human Rights Outcomes

By Salima Namusobya at the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)

For more than 15 years, I have worked as a lawyer and advocate for human rights in Uganda. As the executive director of an organisation that mostly relies on grant funding, I was thrilled to learn that grantmakers in the field of human rights had embarked on an introspective process to align their grantmaking practices…

Crisis at the Capitol: Human rights in the era of White American extremism

By Kellea Miller, HRFN Deputy Director

I watched in shock. I watched in fury. I watched in sorrow.   Yesterday’s riots at the United States Capitol brought home a reality that will be familiar to many in HRFN’s global family.    It is not sanctimony or an abstract respect for governance that brings tears to my eyes. As a network of…

“The Takeover of Congress Did Not End on January 6” — Mariano Aguirre

The unprecedented riots, which took place at the US Capital on January 6, sent shock waves throughout the world. And as we try to understand the magnitude of such an attack on our democracy, Mariano Aguirre warns that “white collar authoritarians will continue to work in the United States, and other countries, to impose extremist…

LitTalks Worldwide- Charlas inspiradoras: Voces globales sobre las elecciones de EE.UU

LitTalks: América Latina y el Caribe en el foco.  Evento en español con interpretación simultánea en inglés Diciembre 9, 2020 Miércoles, 10:00 – 11:30 AM ET: América Latina y el Caribe Transmisión en directo por Facebook live en español : 🎥 TNP  Transmisión en directo por Facebook live en Inglés:🎥 HRFN El resultado de las elecciones…

LitTalks Worldwide- Series : Global voices on the U.S. Election

Latin America and the Caribbean in Focus In Spanish, with simultaneous interpretation into English December 9th, 2020 Wednesday, 10:00-11:30 AM EST   Latin America and the Caribbean   Live broadcast on Facebook live in English:   🎥 HRFN  Live broadcast on Facebook live in Spanish:  🎥  TNP The outcome of the U.S. elections raises high…

The ethics of resource mobilisation: Confronting the discomfort

By Maria Alejandra Rodriguez Acha, Co-Executive Director at FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, and Kinga Wisniewska, Resource Mobilization Manager at FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund

It is no mystery to those of us in international human rights philanthropy that the mobilization of resources to support social movement and grassroots organizing involves uncomfortable contradictions we have to deal with. We often need to access resources where they are most available in order to provide support. This tends to be in sources…

Human Rights Funding Principles Offer a Road Map to Strengthen Philanthropy

By Lesley Carson at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund

When I think back to the first time I had the chance to meet with a program officer about a funding application from a well-known New York-headquartered human rights foundation in 1998, I can easily recall the pit in my stomach—I dressed in my best shoulder-padded suit (no judgment) for the meeting. To obtain a…

The New HRFN. Get to Know Us

Letter From Our  Executive Director: Funders, Members, Friends, When HRFN was established 26 years ago, it was founded on a simple premise – that by collaborating, sharing strategies, and discussing field-wide trends, grantmakers could ensure philanthropy was effectively resourcing human rights efforts and movements worldwide. Since our inception, HRFN members have done tremendous and vital…

Crises require care: It’s time for philanthropy to walk the talk on social justice

By Maria Alejandra Rodriguez Acha, Co-Executive Director at FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund; Mbali Donna Khumalo, Program Officer at FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund; and María Díaz Ezquerro, Co-Manager of Programs at FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund

The current crises brought to light and amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the unveiling of entrenched anti-black racism, have exposed a core fragility of the philanthropic sector: the lack of alignment between our internal organizational cultures, and our external missions of supporting social movements and grassroots groups to tackle the causes of…