Community Voices Blog

Data in Dialogue: People with Disabilities

By Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, published December 3, 2018

People with disabilities make up 15% of the global population, yet received just 3% of the grant funding captured in our 5-year analysis of human rights funding trends. Diana Samarasan from the Disability Rights Fund (DRF) says it’s not enough: “If we’re going to provide funding that is equitable to the population, then people with… Read more

Girls to the Front: A snapshot of girl led organizing

By Esther Lever (Senior Officer for Influencing at Mama Cash) and Ruby Johnson (Co-Director at FRIDA), published October 11, 2018

Girls are not the future, they are the present. Today’s girls are organizing in incredibly courageous and creative ways that philanthropic and international development actors are struggling to catch up with. Around the world, girls are spearheading important fundamental systems change work and resisting closing space in their communities and on the frontlines of protests,… Read more

Data in Dialogue: Latin America

By Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, published October 9, 2018

“Shifts from a few large donors can have significant ramifications,” explained Artemisa Castro Félix of Action in Solidarity Fund (FASOL). Human rights funding from funders included in our trends analysis[1] dropped by 12% between 2011 and 2015 in Latin America, while most other regions saw increases. We asked three funders based in the region about… Read more

How Global South funds are evolving the field of international philanthropy

By Maria Amália Souza, HRFN Steering Committee Co-Chair and Co-Founder at CASA Socio-Environmental Fund

With HRFN’s conference in Mexico just a month away, I want to share why I am so excited for the upcoming convening! It is the first time HRFN is holding a conference outside the United States, and it’s symbolic that members chose to cross the border to a land of amazing cultures and history. Although… Read more

Data in Dialogue: Migrants and Refugees

By Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, published August 22, 2018

What was the context for migrants and refugees?[1] Aryah Somers Landsberger of Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) explains that two major refugee crises prompted US foundations to support more work related to migrants and refugees between 2011 and 2015: unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America and the Syrian refugee crisis. Sarah Sommer… Read more

Data in Dialogue: Children and Youth

By Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, published July 11, 2018

Twenty percent of the human rights funding captured in our five-year trends analysis targets children and youth. This is considerably more funding than any other population we track receives, with the exception of women and girls (23%). However, advocates say the funding share is disproportionate to the amount of attention the human rights community gives… Read more

Data in Dialogue: Sub-Saharan Africa

By Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, published June 25, 2018

Almost half of the human rights funding for Sub-Saharan Africa is awarded to organizations outside the region.[i] Jeanne Elone of TrustAfrica is surprised and dismayed by this statistic: “It’s sad that the trend continues to be funding western-based organizations to do work in Africa.” Jeanne agrees international organizations can play a role in amplifying the struggles of… Read more

The Stories We Can and Can’t Tell: Five Years of Mapping Human Rights Funding

By Anna Koob (Knowledge Services Manager), Foundation Center and Rachel Thomas (Director of Research Initiatives), Human Rights Funders Network

Advancing Human Rights, a partnership between Human Rights Funders Network and Foundation Center, in collaboration with Ariadne and Prospera, is one of the most ambitious quantitative research projects to date focused on human rights philanthropy. The five years of data featured on the research hub captures almost 100,000 human rights grants from 1,193 funders located… Read more

Data at the Intersections: Advancing environmental and climate justice using a human rights lens

In February, in San Francisco, a group of funders gathered for a day-long discussion of funding trends in human rights. The discussion offered opportunities for a deeper dive into funding shifts, what they mean and what we, as funders, can do to advocate for funding growth where it’s needed. Those of us who use a… Read more

From Dark Ages to Enlightenment: A Magical Tale of Mapping Human Rights Grantmaking

By Mona Chun, Executive Director at Human Rights Funders Network, published April 4, 2018

Once upon a time, back in the old days of 2010, human rights funders were sitting alone in their castles, with no knowledge of what their peers in other towers and castles were doing – just the certainty that their issue area, above all others, was underfunded. Each castle also spoke its own language, making… Read more