Equality Fund: Sustaining Funding to Women’s Organizations in Developing Countries

This project aims to increase the enjoyment of human rights by women and girls and the advancement of gender equality in countries receiving official development assistance (ODA). The Equality Fund creates a sustainable and predictable source of grant funding for women’s rights organizations and movements in developing countries. It does this by: mobilizing receiving and managing financial contributions from governments individuals philanthropic foundations the private sector and other donors and; generating additional financial resources through gender lens investing including gender lens impact investing in line with the overall goals of the initiative. The financial returns from these investments contribute to the sustainability of the initiative over time while gender lens investing contributes to gender equality outcomes. Project activities include: (1) granting funding to women’s rights organizations as the primary activity; (2) fundraising; (3) gender-lens investing; and (4) activities related to the design and build of the Equality Fund. The women’s rights organizations receiving grants from the Equality Fund are civil society organizations in developing countries that have a primary and overt mandate to advance women’s rights gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. The implementing organizations are the Equality Fund World University Services Canada and the Toronto Foundation. The contribution agreement covers 15 years.

The expected outcomes for this project include: (1) enhanced capacity of selected women’s organizations in ODA countries to advance gender equality and empower women and girls; (2) enhanced collective action by selected women’s organizations and movements in ODA countries to advance gender equality; (3) enhanced capacity of the feminist funding ecosystem to effectively fund women’s organizations and movements in ODA countries; (4) sustained flow of funds to support Equality Fund grant-making; and (5) increased use of gender lens investing as a strategy to deliver positive returns and support greater gender equality.