Because feminist activism does not only happen in organisations, collectives or groups
Launched in August 2022, the Radical Love Fund is Mama Cash’s newest participatory grantmaking fund. The Radical Love Fund is designed to support the pioneering work of individual feminist activists. The fund supports individuals whose work is connected to feminist movements and contributes to feminist social change.
Social change is secured through movements, but not all activists hold formal positions within them.
Many individual feminist activists are doing visionary movement work, without occupying formal positions in any organisation or institution. This is particularly true of activists who may be pushing the boundaries of feminist activism, or who lack the types of privileges that facilitate access to a formal role or employment within an organisation.
Most funders still provide support almost exclusively to groups and networks.
The health and strength of feminist movements depend on a variety of actors, including individuals. Funding individuals, however, is often avoided as individuals are sometimes seen as less accountable to funders or movements. This perception must be challenged, because funding individuals contributes to the strengthening of feminist movements that our changing our world.
Eligibility Criteria
- Work from a feminist, women's, girls, trans rights and/or intersex rights perspective
- Self-led by the women, girls, trans people and/or intersex people they serve
- Push for structural and fundamental change
- Focus on issues that are under-addressed and/or contested
- Receive a nomination from Mama Cash
- *Demonstrated significant personal and/or professional experience in feminist communities and movements they are part of
- *Be engaged in work that will advance the agenda of the movement(s) they are a part of
Frequently Asked Questions
The Radical Love Fund supports individual feminist activists who are coordinating or catalysing projects such as:
- consciousness-raising personal-political work,
- creative enterprises,
- learning and documenting feminist histories and realities,
- facilitating networking that strengthens bonds across other groups or movements,
- building just realities and futures through practice and sharing, and
- other visionary feminist work
Radical Love grant-recipients will be part of a year-long fellowship. In their year as fellows, they will be invited to share and learn from each other’s work before and during their Radical Love Fellowship.
In addition, Radical Love Fellows will be given opportunities to share and showcase their work to the broader Mama Cash community.
Any individual feminist based anywhere in the world, that:
- Identifies as a woman, girl, trans person or intersex person;
- is directly affected by under addressed and/or contested issues in their context;
- has demonstrated significant personal and/or professional experience in the feminist communities and movements that they are part of;
- is engaged in work that will advance the agenda of the movement(s) they are a part of; and
- is engaged in work that pushes for structural and fundamental change.
Activities that coordinate or catalyse feminist activism. A few examples of the rich variety of work by individual feminist activists that would be eligible under the Radical Love Fund:
- personal-political work;
- creative and artistic endeavours;
- learning and documenting feminist histories;
- building bridges across groups or movements; and/or
- articulating and sharing imagined realities and futures.
We understand feminism as being very multifaceted, but at its core we see it as activities that address or combat sexism and patriarchal gender norms (relating to sexuality, class, ethnicity, race, migration status, disability and so on) with the aim of ending inequality and injustice.
No. The Radical Love Fund is entirely nomination based. Nominations are exclusively made by current Mama Cash staff members, Board members of Advisors. Even though nominators can nominate anyone they believe fit the criteria, they are advised and encouraged to only nominate individuals whose work they are already familiar with. Mama Cash Advisors, staff and Board members cannot nominate themselves, nor colleagues, partners and/or relatives.
Please note that it is not possible for Mama Cash to respond to requests from individuals looking to be connected to members of our staff, Board or Advisors for the purpose of soliciting a nomination.
The screening and shortlisting of applications is conducted by the Radical Love Governance Committee (RadCom). It is composed of two (2) Mama Cash staff members and five (5) Global Advisory Network members. The final decision to award a Radical Love grant is made by Mama Cash’s Global Advisory Network.
All Radical Love Fund fellows receive a one-time grant of €10.000 euro. The fellowship period will last one (1) year and is renewable, if needed, for up to a second year with no additional funding. In 2023, eleven (11) fellows were selected to receive a Radical Love grant
Please check back on this page for an announcement of when nominations will be accepted for the Radical Love Fund in 2024
If you have any additional questions about the Radical Love Fund, contact us here.
Nomination – All Radical Love Fund applications are nomination based. Currently, only Mama Cash staff members, Board members and Global Advisory Network members can nominate an individual activist for a Radical Love Fund grant.
Online application – Nominators submit an application on behalf of their nominees, in any of our five working languages, via this online nomination portal.
Screening – The Radical Love Governance Committee (RadCom) screens all nominations to ensure that they meet the Radical Love Fund’s eligibility criteria. The RadCom may, if needed, request additional information from the nominee directly. At this time, a nominee may also be asked to provide written endorsements from third-party organisations or individuals who are familiar with the nominee’s work.
Shortlist – Following the screening phase, the RadCom will receive all the information received – from the nominator’s online application, the nominee’s additional information and/or third-party endorsements – and decide on a shortlist of applicants.
Award – The shortlisted applicants will be anonymised and shared with The Global Advisory for final decision-making. Advisors are invited to rank the shortlisted applicants via an online voting process. The top ranked shortlisted applicants are consequently offered a Radical Love Fellowship grant.