Solidarity Fund Announcement
We are excited to announce the call for applications for the Solidarity Fund from 1 April – 30 April 2026.
The Solidarity Fund, hosted by Mama Cash, is a participatory grantmaking fund. From the design to the selection process, it was created in its entirety by women’s and feminist funds, for women’s and feminist funds.
Mama Cash knows first-hand that women’s and feminist funds are supporting some of the most innovative, courageous, and transformative feminist movements around the world. They are a key part of the infrastructure needed for feminist movements to hold the line, advance their agendas, and resist attacks and backlash.
In the spirit of radical trust and solidarity, the Solidarity Fund is a pot of funding made to support the organisational needs of women’s and feminist funds. It incorporates participatory grantmaking as a more equitable, just, transparent, and accountable form of grantmaking. This approach also seeks to cede power to women’s and feminist funds who are best placed to make the decisions that are best for our peers and thus strengthen the feminist funding ecosystem.
What does the Solidarity Fund support?
The Solidarity Fund intends to support the organisational needs for women’s and feminist funds in an area they identify themselves. Examples of how women’s and feminist funds have used the Solidarity Fund include: supporting leadership transitions, strengthening learning and evaluation systems, collective care for staff, developing financial resilience strategies, improving digital security, and much more. A Solidarity Fund grant cannot be used for regranting to the funds’ grantee-partners as this type of support is part of Mama Cash’s Resilience Fund.
The Solidarity Fund eligibility criteria
The Solidarity Fund is a fund for women’s and feminist funds. The funds Mama Cash support must have as their primary mission the mobilisation of financial resources to provide grants to feminist groups, collectives, movements, and individuals who are organising to defend and advance the rights of women, girls, and trans and intersex people.
Women’s and feminist funds interested in applying must first review and meet Mama Cash’s criteria. They are:
- Involved in both mobilising resources and grantmaking: women’s and feminist funds raise funds to provide grants and support to groups, collectives, and individuals that are organising to defend and advance women’s, girls, and trans and intersex people’s rights.
- Self-led: women’s and feminist funds must be led by the populations they seek to support. Those directly involved in/affected by the issues the fund is trying to address must be part of the fund’s leadership and decision-making;
- Feminist: women’s and feminist funds’ primary mission must be to support women, girls, and trans and intersex people in their efforts to uphold their rights. Women’s and feminist funds must also have a vision and strategy to challenge and transform unjust power structures;
- Autonomous: a women’s or feminist fund is not a programme of a larger entity and has independent decision-making power over their grants and resource mobilisation, or alternatively has concrete plans to become autonomous in the short to medium term;
Applicants are not required to be a member of Prospera – The International Network of Women’s Funds to be considered for funding; nascent and emergent funds are welcome to apply.
Women’s and feminist funds can apply for a Solidarity Fund grant individually or as part of a larger collaborative of eligible funds. Applicants may not submit more than one proposal: if they are interested in multiple collaborations, they will have to choose and submit (or be part of) just one idea. Prospera regional chapters are exempted from this rule, because they serve many funds.
Women’s and feminist funds who have previously received a Solidarity Fund grant are welcome to apply again.
How to apply
Mama Cash’s grant application window for the Solidarity Fund will run from 1 April – 30 April 23:59 CEST. All applications need to be submitted directly to the following email address: solidarityfund@mamacash.org
Women’s and feminist funds interested in applying can submit a written application form or a video recording form alongside a budget form. For the written application form, please download the brief proposal and budget application forms here:
For the Spanish or French versions of the application and budget form, please select your preferred language at the top of this page.
If you would like to write a grant proposal in another language and have it translated, please contact solidarityfund@mamacash.org
If you decide to submit a video, please follow the questions on the application form, as well as the budget form, and answer them in the video recording.
The grant amount for the 2026 Solidarity Fund will be €40,000 per grant for one year.
Decisions about the grants will be made through a participatory approach. Any women’s or feminist fund eligible for a grant is eligible to participate in this decision-making process. Women’s and feminist funds interested in reviewing the grant proposals need to indicate their interest no later than 14 April 2026 by sending an email to solidarityfund@mamacash.org. Please note that you do not need to submit a grant proposal to participate in the grant proposals review.
We encourage applicants to visit our Solidarity Fund webpage with Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about the Solidarity Fund and find answers to any questions you may have. If you have additional questions, please send an email to solidarityfund@mamacash.org.