FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund helps young feminist organizers all over the world overcome barriers to resources and create the sustainable, just world they envision. FRIDA provides women, girls, and trans* youth with the tools they need through resource mobilization, grantmaking, capacity building, and knowledge sharing. FRIDA’s collective action fund is housed at the Tides Foundation, enabling the activist organization to collect and deploy donations from a diverse array of sources. Tides also administers FRIDA’s grants from start to finish, ensuring that its mission is carried out efficiently and thoughtfully.

FRIDA’s grants are made to groups that advocate for feminist causes – from LGBT rights to reproductive justice – worldwide, which means that their support can be subject to complicated international philanthropic policies. At the same time, their funding also flows in from a variety of countries. At the outset of its partnership with Tides, FRIDA needed a partner who could manage international due diligence for both incoming and outgoing grants, ensuring that all guidelines were communicated and followed. With its extensive experience in global grantmaking, Tides provided a natural home for the extensive reach of FRIDA’s impact. As with all of its grantmaking partnerships, Tides is in constant communication with FRIDA’s staff, providing a clear, seamless experience for grantees.

Alongside issues of international complexity, the nature of FRIDA’s mission means that its grants must often operate with a great deal of cultural sensitivity; many nations around the world put significant restrictions on progressive efforts for LGBT and women’s rights. With this in mind, Tides helps FRIDA craft its grantmaking language for each specific cause and geography.

As the first and only youth-led fund supporting young women, girls, and trans*youth in the Global South, we rely on Tides’ dedicated services in ensuring much-needed funds are reaching small, emerging but creative and dynamic groups and initiatives that often go unrecognized and under-resourced. Furthermore, Tides provides us a mechanism for partnering with other like-minded philanthropists and foundations who believe in the power of young feminists. With Tides’ support, we’ve been able to mobilize and distribute over 700,000 USD over four years to over 90 grassroots activist groups in over 60 countries. This partnership ensures the global feminist movement is more sustainable with renewed energy and diverse leadership, helping to achieve a more just and peaceful world.

Devi Leiper O’Malley, Co-Director, FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund

While FRIDA’s expanding philanthropic reach is an achievement in itself, the organization’s impact goes beyond the direct reach of its grantmaking. Building on its growing community of activists around the world, FRIDA has organized three regional and three global convenings for grantees and young feminist activists, offering key opportunities for relationship building and capacity building that isn’t easily accessed by grassroots activists. The gathering helped connect feminist changemakers across religions and cultures, giving them a chance to share resources and strategies.

With tactical support from Tides, FRIDA has also increased its own organizational capacity. Previously incubated in another feminist organization, it has become an independent entity, more than doubled its international staff, and updated its database systems. This has strengthened its ability to effectively vet potential grantees and support new initiatives. To date, FRIDA has supported 150 different groups of young feminists in over 80 countries, awarding $1.3 million throughout five grant cycles. New impact areas have arisen, too; in response to gaps in its grantmaking, FRIDA has begun to focus on climate justice as a feminist issue.

FRIDA’s bold commitment to women, girls, and trans* activists requires a flexible, experienced partner who understands and embraces the challenges of pushing for progress within a wide range of cultural and legal constraints. Working side-by-side with Tides, FRIDA can trust that its collective action fund and grantmaking are in the best possible hands, allowing its team to focus on identifying and amplifying the most promising voices in young feminist organizing.