The Sex Worker Donor Collaborative provides the following summaries and resources to amplify the movements that we fund. We are working to be accountable to the movement and wish to be transparent about our values. This FAQ is a small representation of all that we have learned from the sex worker-led movement, activist labor that is usually unpaid and often invisible. This FAQ is not meant to speak on the movement’s behalf. We are grateful for the opportunity to support a strong and resilient movement. We share these materials in an effort to improve an alignment of values between the sex worker-led movement and funders.
About the Sex Work Donor Collaborative
How are you collaborating with the sex workers’ rights movement?
We don't currently have a formal partnership with particular sex worker rights organizations or networks, but we learn about and communicate with sex workers, sex worker organizations and movements throughout the world through our members. We are currently exploring ways to more formally partner with and be transparent to the movement.
How can I get involved with the collaborative?
We invite all grant-making institutions who agree with our values and mission to join us as members, and any funder interested in learning more about developments in the sex workers’ rights funding sphere can join our listserv, where we share updates and opportunities.
Does the collaborative make grants or donate to organizations?
No, the Sex Work Donor Collaborative is a collaboration of funders which does not make grants or provide funding itself. We recommend that you visit our 'resources for sex workers' page to research funding opportunities.
Can you distribute information about my funding need to your membership?
We unfortunately do not have the capacity to respond to funding requests at this time. Instead, we recommend that you research funding opportunities by checking out the websites of potentially relevant funders, like those mentioned on our members page. We recognize that there is very limited funding for sex worker organizing and rights work and we hope growing our influence and membership will change this.
Can I share my resource/article/report/event with the collaborative?
Yes, please send helpful information that could inform our members and our work to us through the contact page or by emailing us at info [at] sexworkdonorcollaborative [dot] org.
How can I find out more about sex workers’ rights?
Please visit our resource page to learn more about the funding landscape and priorities of the sex workers’ rights movement.
About Funding Sex Work
What is sex work?
Sex work is defined as “the provision of sexual services for money or goods”, commercial sex is “the exchange of money or goods for sexual services” and sex workers are the “people who receive money or goods in exchange for sexual services, and who consciously define those activities as income generating even if they do not consider sex work as their occupation.” World Health Organisation and UNAIDS, 2011, “Technical Guidance for Global Fund HIV Proposals Round 11 Key Populations: Sex workers.”
Sex work is used by sex workers as the preferred term, rather than “prostitution”, as it recognizes that sex work is work. Prostitution, on the other hand, has connotations of criminality and immorality. Open Society Foundation, Understanding Sex Work.
Sex work, like any work, can be coerced or free, or exists in between these two extremes.
The list of organisations and governmental agencies that recognize that sex work is work is growing: SWDC Membership, Global Network of Sex Worker Projects, openDemocracy, Human Rights Watch, Open Society Foundation, World Health Organization, Amnesty International, Human Rights Campaign, UNAIDS, ACLU, Teen Vogue, New Zealand (Aotearoa) Ministry of Business, the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, CREA, International Labor Organisation (ILO)
What is a rights-based intervention?
Rights-based approaches, or interventions, recognize, defend, and promote the human rights of sex workers without denying the right to continue work. This could include leadership development and community organizing efforts by and for sex workers, rights-focused and rights-affirming education, outreach and services to sex workers, documentation and research on how to identify where rights are denied and improve access, public education to decrease stigma and discrimination, legal defense of sex workers, or legislative and policy advocacy to change laws to be more affirming of sex workers’ rights.
Interventions that are not rights-based can sometimes have the effect of limiting or reducing the rights of sex workers even further. These include efforts by non-sex workers to engage in what they describe as “rescuing” people from the sex trade without asking if and how they want to be rescued. Sometimes these rescue efforts include incarceration of sex workers “for their own good” so that they do not make contact with others involved in the sex industry and do not re-engage in sex work. Likewise, some social services programs can be coercive if they collaborate with law enforcement to offer services as the only alternative to incarceration.
Efforts to further penalize or target clients of sex workers, including public awareness campaigns that seek to reinforce stigma associated with the sex trade, can also make it harder for sex workers to access safe housing, safe working environments, stigma-free healthcare, and ultimately increases penalties for sex workers including arrest. Additionally, some services may refuse to prosecute third parties who may have harmed sex workers unless it is part of a plan to “exit” or end their work as sex workers.
A rights-based intervention is informed and led by those who have been harmed by the current systems and policies that infringe upon their human rights. A strong and visible sex worker-led movement supports those who are directly impacted and therefore best situated to advocate on their own behalf, analyze various strategies and policies, and improve their own safety and well being whether that is by improving their working environment, engaging in other work, or some combination. Stigma surrounding sex work often leads to devaluing the expertise and labor of sex workers themselves. A rights-based intervention seeks to reduce this stigma, and support sex worker-led organizing.
For a list see Defining Sex Works Rights Funding.
See also Sex Worker Rights are Human Rights and From Zero-Tolerance to Full Integration: Rethinking Prostitution Policies.
What is a rights-based approach to funding sex worker rights?
Rights-based approaches to funding sex workers’ rights presume the humanity of those involved in sex work and strive to strengthen the rights of those engaged in that work.
When we center the rights of an individual to make choices, including the right to migrate and right to work, then we are able to get clarity on whether a particular strategy or program or law impairs or enhances the rights of sex workers.
Funding strategies that are focused solely on addressing coercion and trafficking, without a rights-based approach, can lead to policies and laws that are harmful when applied to sex workers by increasing criminal penalties related to migration, workplaces, and access to social safety systems.
Rather than viewing all sex work as trafficking, or viewing all sex workers as coerced, or all sex work as inherently bad, rights-based approaches affirms the bodily autonomy of those involved in sex work by amplifying the voices of sex workers and honoring the expertise of leaders within the sex worker-led movement.
For a thorough analysis of this approach within the sex worker movement: International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific’s 2017 report Framework of Rights of Sex Workers and CEDAW.
See also Where is the Funding? Sexual Health and Rights Project (SHARP), Open Society Institute, SWDC’s Defining Sex Worker Rights Funding, and the Consensus Statement from the Global Network of Sex Worker Projects.