FRIDA emerged from the collective vision of feminist activists across generations and from around the world who understood the urgent need for a fund that centers its mission around the experience, expertise, and needs of young feminist organizers. FRIDA exists because of the power of feminist organizers to dream up possibilities and transform them into being through collective visioning and action. From the beginning, FRIDA wanted its funding practices to nourish the sustainability and vibrancy of feminist movements, looking for tools and practices that already lived within feminist movements. Community-informed and -led decision-making processes have always existed across intersectional social justice and community organizing, reshaped and refined by generations of organizers challenging power-over approaches and centering the vision of those impacted by decisions. Recognizing that feminist activists need funding mechanisms receptive to the diversity of feminist organizing and built to resource movement connections—requiring a different approach from traditional top-down philanthropy—feminist movement created their own funding mechanism supporting the connection, agency, and autonomy of feminist organizing within the feminist movement ecosystem. FRIDA recognizes that feminist organizers need resources flexible enough to move with them, change direction when needed, and support diverse strategies accompanying visions for transformative change, and that financial resources won’t be effective in isolation from other non-financial support. As a self-led fund created by and for young feminist activists, FRIDA is attuned to young feminist organizers’ needs for funding that holistically supports their sustainability and well-being, creating a grantmaking model that mirrors feminist values of solidarity, accountability, exchange, and caring connections through participatory grantmaking practice.
Why it matters: FRIDA demonstrates that effective funding for feminist organizing requires mechanisms created by and for movements themselves rather than traditional top-down philanthropy, centering the experience, expertise, and needs of young feminist organizers who are often under-resourced. By developing participatory grantmaking that mirrors feminist values of solidarity, accountability, exchange, and caring connections, FRIDA shows that how resources are distributed is as important as the resources themselves, with community-informed and -led decision-making challenging power-over approaches. The fund’s recognition that feminist organizers need flexible resources that can change direction and support diverse strategies, combined with non-financial support for sustainability and well-being, reflects understanding that transformative change requires funding mechanisms receptive to the diversity of feminist organizing and built to fortify movement connections rather than impose donor priorities.
