Mama Cash Foundation

Mama Cash is the oldest international women’s foundation in the world and one of two in the world that is exclusively dedicated to advancing women’s human rights globally. For 25 years, Mama Cash has played an important role in advancing the human rights of women in Europe and around the world and in building stronger and more sustainable communities. Since 1983, Mama Cash has granted over €30 million to approximately 6,000 women’s groups around the world. In the last four years alone, almost €10m in grants were made to groups in 122 countries.

Mission

To mobilise resources from individuals and institutions and makes grants to women and girls’ human rights organisations and initiatives.
To help grantees to build the partnerships and networks needed to successfully defend and advance women and girls’ human rights globally.
To help to realise the dreams of women and men who want to provide financial resources to strengthen women and girls’ human rights movements.

Geographic Focus

International

Programme Areas

Mama Cash Foundation’s activities include:
– Grantmaking
– Accompaniment
– Influencing philanthropy
– Learning for change
– Special Initiatives

Grantmaking
Grantees of Mama Cash focus on injustices that would otherwise go unnoticed, that need to be challenged and that demand courage and vision to change. Mama Cash’s grantees create and build upon strategic opportunities to bring about change at the community, national, regional and global level.
Thematic portfolios:
– Body: bodily integrity and autonomy
– Money: economic justice
– Voice: agency and participation
– Women’s Funds: access to a feminist resource base for organising women, girls, and trans people

Accompaniment
This includes providing and facilitating trainings, asking questions that help grantees link their activities to long-term objectives and connecting grantees to each other and to other funders.

Influencing philanthropy
Mama Cash commissions research, initiate conversations and ask questions that encourage foundations and governments to provide support to women, girls and trans people.

Learning for change
Mama Cash is committed to understanding how social change happens through their Learning and Evaluation framework, developed in collaboration with donors and grantees.

Special Initiatives
Mama Cash supports women’s, girls’ and trans people’s rights beyond their four grantmaking portfolios, usually in collaboration with other organisations or funders that promote human rights activism. They are currently involved in two special initiatives: the Red Umbrella Fund and the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders.