The Sex Work Donor Collaborative does not make grants directly. It is part of our mission to provide a platform where sex workers and donors can share information and learning, and where sex workers can engage donors as allies.
Join our Movement Outreach Listserve
Please join here if you are a sex worker or ally in the movement and you would like to receive updates from the SWDC. We will share information about our events and funding opportunities from our members. This is not a discussion-based listserve. If you are interested in connecting with the global sex worker rights movement, please contact or consider joining the Global Network of Sex Work Projects.
Below is information about how to apply for funding from each of our member organizations, all of whom make grants to sex worker-led organizations. If you need support other than funding for your advocacy, please contact coordinator@sexworkdonorcollaborative.org
Aidsfonds
We work to improve the health and well-being of sex workers. To this end, we give funding for advocacy and empowerment activities and ensure the availability of sex worker-friendly services. We involve sex worker-led organisations and networks in improving the provision of tailored HIV services and advocating for their human rights.
Geographic focus: Global Contact information: Anke Groot, Agroot [at] aidsfonds [dot] org
The Harm Reduction Futures Fund at AIDS United seeks to reduce the health, psychosocial, and socioeconomic disparities experienced by people who use drugs. To that end, this pooled intermediary fund utilizes participatory grant-making strategies and invests in evidence-based and community-driven approaches to prevent the transmission of both HIV and viral hepatitis, reduce injection-related injuries, increase overdose prevention and reversal efforts, and connect people who use drugs to comprehensive prevention, care and treatment, and support services.
Geographic focus: United States and territories
Process: Funding opportunities under this initiative generally open annually in the fall, welcoming proposals from syringe services programs for direct service or harm reduction organizations for advocacy projects. The Harm Reduction Futures Fund does not accept unsolicited grant proposals at this time. Open application periods are announced on AIDS United’s website and social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn), and shared through community networks. Harm Reduction Futures Fund currently prioritizes BIPOC-led and -serving organizations as well as those in jurisdictions of high need and low resources, particularly where syringe access faces significant legal barriers and/or restrictive policy environments.
AJWS's Sexual Health and Rights (SHR) portfolio focuses on Adolescent Girls and Young Women, LGBTIQ+, and Sex Workers. We focus on community-led, feminist, and rights-based activism to increase their access to justice and support. Access to Justice and Support can include community-driven strategies (e.g. paralegal programs to improve access to legal defense or community centers for collectivizing and politicizing communities) or be through State institutions (eg. strategic litigation to decriminalize sex work or advocacy with the government to put in place trans health service guidelines). We support our partners to strengthen their organizations and social movements to enable collective action to achieve rights that enable justice and support. AJWS makes grants in 18 countries in the Global South, of which 8 have an SHR focus (Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Uganda).
Geographic focus: Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Liberia, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Uganda Contact information: Sophia Naide, snaide [at] ajws [dot] org
AmplifyChange provides grants to hundreds of civil society organisations (CSOs) across the world. They advocate for improved policy and action on the most neglected Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights issues.
Geographic focus: Africa, South Asia and Middle East Contact information: liz dot tremlett [at] amplifychange[dot] org
The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is the only philanthropic organization working exclusively to advance LGBTQI human rights around the globe. We support brilliant and brave grantee partners in the U.S and internationally who challenge oppression and seed change. We work for racial, economic, social, and gender justice, because we all deserve to live our lives freely, without fear, and with dignity.
Housed at The Center for Cultural Power and fiscally hosted by the Amalgamated Foundation, the Constellations Culture Change Fund & Initiative seeks to build collective power among BIPOC Artist Disruptors, Culture Bearers, and cultural strategy organizations working at the intersections of art, culture and social justice to accelerate a shift in worldview from domination to liberation, collaboration, care and interdependence. We envision creating a world where power and culture are distributed equitably, sovereignty and self-determination are honored, and humans are in alignment with nature. As an intermediary activist-led fund and initiative rooted in movements and organizing, we believe in redistributing resources that have been stolen from our indigenous and ancestral communities and agitating for more and better quality (which means long-term and flexible) dollars overall.
Geographic Focus: Constellations has a place-based strategy to support regions of the country where BIPOC Artist Disruptors, Culture Bearers and cultural strategy organizations are historically under-resourced due to generational extraction. We are supporting work in the following regions of the United States of America: Southern Border Region, The South, Midwest, Non-continental United States, and Indigenous communities (Sovereign, Tribal and Indigenous Nations and Territories).
As a leader in the global AIDS community, the Elton John AIDS Foundation is committed to overcoming the stigma, discrimination and neglect that prevent us from ending AIDS for everyone, everywhere. We focus on the most marginalised populations that are often left behind and excluded from mainstream HIV response efforts, including young people, people who use drugs, sex workers, and LGBTQ+ people. As a grant-making organisation, we create bespoke partnerships and announce opportunities for funding while carefully monitoring and evaluating the impact of all projects with our grantees. We aim to build love, compassion, and dignity for those with or at risk of HIV by harnessing local expertise, advocating for justice and equality, and supporting innovative solutions.
Emergent Fund is a queer women of color-led, movement-aligned participatory grantmaker with intersectional, collective liberation values. We fund rapid response and emergent organizing led by frontline Black, Indigenous, and organizers of color with trust-based, no-string-attached grants. A nationally recognized philanthropy culture disruptor and praxis leader, Emergent Fund challenges power in who we fund as well as with how we fund. Our 100% people of color and Indigenous decision-making Advisory Council and our grantees all come from directly impacted communities committed to building movement and transforming crisis into change. Emergent Fund supports the work of communities under threat to build their own reality: the one that would emerge on the other side of crisis with a powerful new vision for what comes next. Typical grant size is: $10,000, all unrestricted, no-strings-attached, no reporting required dollars (c3 and for compliant c4 purposes)
Geographic focus: The US and US colonized territories, including Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands and Guam *Organizations must have 501c3 or 501c4 tax status, or a fiscal sponsor in order to be eligible.
Process: Our monthly grant cycle closes on the 3rd Thursday of every month. Our activist-led advisory council makes decisions on the 4th Thursday of every month. Grantees are notified about the decision of the advisory council within a week, and can expect a grant in hand as a mailed check or ACH transfer between 5 days up to 2 weeks. Additionally, Emergent Fund proactively conducts outreach and offers expedited no-application/low-burden rapid response grants to identified frontline groups in the wake of major movement rapid response catalyst events.
Emergent Fund Grants Support: Organizing that supports emergent strategies which help communities respond to unanticipated, time-sensitive threats or extraordinary shifts (opportunity or crisis) in political conditions. This includes resisting new or amplified threats, building power to move a proactive agenda, and creating communities and cultures of care. Organizing that leverages “moveable” or “pivotable” moments to disrupt, heal, and build towards long-term social justice and economic justice in a political and social climate that seeks to dismantle such efforts. Organizing which explicitly dismantles, abolishes, and replaces systems of state violence, oppression and harm, driven by a clear intersectional power analysis and vision for collective liberation.
Marginalized, criminalized, divested from, or “high-risk” issue areas, strategies, geographies, and communities excluded from resources because of who they are and the type of work led.
Contact information: Email: info [at] emergentfund [dot] net
At the Equality Fund, we support women’s rights organizations and feminist movements working to build a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Our goal is to complement and accelerate the vibrant expansion of our sector, increasing overall investments in women’s rights organizations and feminist movements working from the grassroots level to the regional and global stage. We provide resources and accompanying support to organizations across intersections of feminist work to advance women’s rights and gender equality. To this end, we prioritize organizations that: address issues that are under-funded or contested; and, are led by women, youth, girls, and non-binary people most at the margins and facing multiple forms of discrimination (including but not limited to Indigenous women, women with disabilities, lesbian, bisexual and trans (LBTQI) populations, and sex workers).
At the Equality Fund, our goal is to sustainably shift resources—and power—to women’s rights organizations and feminist organizations so they can advance their own priorities and agendas for lasting change. In order to realize this vision, we are working to build new and better philanthropic practices that are rooted in feminist values and support and nurture feminist change.
Geographic focus: Middle East, Asia and The Pacific, Central and South America and Eastern Europe, and eligible countries in the Caribbean community: Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana , Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname Contact information: hello [at] equalityfund [dot] ca
Fondo Semillas is a feminist fund based in Mexico. We work together with groups, collectives and organizations, providing them with financial resources, strengthening their capacities, and connecting them with other organizations, networks, and social movements. In our Work Program, we support organizations that defends Sex Workers rights, by sharing knowledge on labor and human rights, doing de-criminalization work, and also providing access to health, sex education and justice.
Geographic focus: Mexico
Contact information: programas [at] semillas [dot] org [dot] mx
FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund provides young feminist organizers with the resources they need to amplify their voices and bring attention to the social justice issues they care about. We enable the support, flexibility and networks to sustain young feminist visions.
Geographic focus: Latin America and the Caribbean; Central Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central and North Asia; South, West Asia and North Africa; West, East, South and Central Africa; South, South East, East Asia and the Pacific. Contact information: proposals [at] youngfeministfund [dot] org
We fund women, trans, intersex, and gender non-conforming sex worker-led groups in LAC, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, MENA, and Asia-Pacific. Our grantmaking investments will focus on supporting feminist organizations that utilize the following strategies:
1. Develop innovative, accessible, and affordable health, rights and justice information and services for LBTQI people and/or sex workers 2. Reduce the stigma and criminalization of LBTQI and/or sex worker communities through increased community awareness of health, rights, and justice, and the impact of discrimination on people’s autonomy, health, and safety 3. Advocate for legal and policy change which will allow LBTQI people and/or sex workers to access health, rights, and justice information and services as a human right 4. Strengthen organizational capacity and increased leadership of LBTQI and/or sex worker-led organizations to advocate for LBTQI people and/or sex workers rights and justice and ensure health, rights and justice for all people, including by forging new feminist alliances, such as with climate justice organizations 5. Develop resistance strategies and healing justice work of LBTQI people and/or sex workers most impacted by increasingly repressive environments 6. Strengthening self and collective care practices and promoting healing justice within your organization, networks, and movements 7. Using technology for safety and security, advocacy and communications, knowledge and memory, or development of technology infrastructure, design, and access 8. Educate LBTQI drug users and sex workers about harm reduction and provide them with related services in an accessible, non-judgmental and non-stigmatizing manner
Geographic focus: Anywhere that isn’t the United States Process: Fill out a profile here, and then reach out to grantsinfo [at] globalfundforwomen [dot] org
Hispanics in Philanthropy
Since 1983, we’ve been leading the largest transnational network strengthening Latinx leadership and influence, and driving philanthropic resources into the community to build a better world.
Geographic focus: The United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean Click here to learn more!
Human Capability Foundation
The HCF's primary focus is in India and on the following issues: Women's Education and Empowerment, Youth Education, Mental Health & Disability Rights, and Labour Migration. This list is not exhaustive and the HCF emphasises the need for working at the intersections of different issues, in order to achieve greater impact, inclusivity, and scale.
The HCF does not accept unsolicited applications for funding. Instead, we identify potential grantees through recommendations from advisors in India and the UK, as well as through our own fieldwork and research. We then invite applications from these organisations.
The ITF funds trans-led groups working to benefit the trans community and contributing to trans movement building. We provide core support grants of $10,000 - $50,000 USD. The ITF funds globally and will support groups in all regions of the world. In order to be eligible, organizations must be trans-led and have an operating budget under $100,000 USD.
Geographic focus: Global
Process: The ITF has an annual call for applications for trans-led organizations each year that opens in October and closes in December. The application and guidelines are available on the ITF's website. Contact information: info [at] transfund [dot] org
ISDAO is an activist-led fund dedicated to building a West African movement that advocates for sexual diversity and sexual rights through a flexible approach to grantmaking and strengthening a culture of philanthropy committed to promoting human rights and social justice.
Geographic focus: West Africa
Process: Open call for proposals and participatory grantmaking led by LGBTIQ communities.
1. Work from a feminist, women's, girl’s, trans and/or intersex rights perspective 2. Are self-led by the women, girls, trans people and/or intersex people they serve 3. Have the promotion of women’s, girls’, trans people's and/or intersex people’s human rights as their primary mission, and not just as the focus of part of their programmes 4. Push for structural and fundamental change 5. Focus on issues that are under-addressed and/or contested
Geographic focus: Global
Process: The grant application window for the Resilience Fund typically opens in February. The Resilience Fund is our largest grantmaking program and will provide core, flexible grants to self-led groups, collectives and organisations of women, girls, trans people and intersex people who work to build collective power, claim justice and create, sustain or revive ways of living that are just and fair
At New Moon Fund, we envision a society where people have freedom, rights, and access to necessary building blocks for determining their own future. Our focus is on serving people who have lived experience in the sex trade, in particular women and LGBTQ individuals. New Moon Network advances the field of sex worker rights by fortifying direct service and advocacy networks, strategic re-granting, incubating piloting programs, and fostering informed philanthropy. Our mission is to secure rights and opportunities for people in the sex trade by building awareness, attracting resources, and seeking to address the highest priority needs toward community wellbeing.
Geographic focus: United States
Process: New Moon Fund is not accepting unsolicited grant proposals at this time.
Red Umbrella Fund provides funding to sex worker-led organisations and networks that are based in any country, registered or unregistered, and led by people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. We provides flexible core funding to support the general coordination, functioning and strengthening of a group, organisation or network and its members. Core funding can be used to cover self-identified needs of the grantee partner including registration costs, rent, salaries, advocacy, (peer-led) capacity building, membership meetings, activities, etc. Our funding is flexible, therefore grantees can adjust their plans during the grant.
Geographic focus: Global
Process: Applications open in June and close in late July and the Application Guidelines are reviewed every year by Red Umbrella Fund’s sex worker-led International Steering Committee. Applications Guidelines are available in English, French, Russian, and Spanish, and you can change the language of the website on the top right-hand corner of the webpage. Organisations can stay up-to-date on news from Red Umbrella Fund (including when the Call for Applications is launched) on the website as well as on Red Umbrella Fund’s social media platforms: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Contact information: info [at] redumbrellafund [dot] org
Third Wave Fund is a US-based national fund that supports and strengthens feminist and gender justice activism led by young women of color, trans, intersex, gender non-conforming, and queer youth. Our focus is on efforts that advance the political power, well-being, and self-determination of communities of color and low-income communities in the US.
The SWGC, a program of Third Wave Fund, is a US-based, national, cross-class, multiracial, multilingual, intergenerational giving circle made up of a group of Fellows who are women, queer, and trans folks with current or past experience in the sex trade. The Fellows make all high-level funding decisions and funding recommendations. We fund work that is led by and for people with current or previous sex work or sex trade experience, and we prioritize work led by people most directly impacted by oppression.
Geographic focus: Applicants must be based in the United States and/or US territories, including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Process: Our application opens in April-May of each year, in which we ask groups to submit a brief screening application. From there, Fellows invite groups to be interviewed by the cohort. Final decisions on who receives funding are made in the month of July, and groups are informed of the Fellowship’s decisions shortly thereafter. We offer grants in the amounts of $15,000 and $25,000 per year for two years, and all groups that make it to the interview stage receive $500 in recognition of the time and labor that went into their application. Groups can stay up to date on the open call for applications on Third Wave Fund’s Instagram and Twitter, and by signing up for our listserv.
The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF) is a progressive, feminist organization rooted in the principles of anti-colonialism and anti-racism. The SLF was created with the express purpose of supporting community-led and community-based organizations working at the intersections of HIV and human rights at the frontlines of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The way we work and partner is guided by the knowledge that the expertise needed to cut the AIDS pandemic off at its roots is found at the community level. The SLF’s community-led partners centre the experiences and needs of women, children and youth affected by HIV, LGBTIQ individuals, grandmothers, people living with HIV, and survivors of gender-based violence. Since 2003, we have partnered with more than 335 grassroots organizations on 2100 initiatives in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
We are proud to support organizations led by and for sex workers.
Geographic focus: Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe
Process: At the present time, our budget is fully committed to over 125 organizations across 15 sub-Saharan African countries and we are not assessing proposals for new partnerships.
Contact information: info [@] stephenlewisfoundation [dot] org
UHAI - East African Sexual Health and Rights Initiative (UHAI EASHRI)
Founded for and by our movements, UHAI is Africa’s first indigenous activist-led fund supporting people, leaders, and organizations from Sex Worker and Sexual and Gender Minority communities in Seven Eastern African countries namely: Burundi, (The) Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Our focus is to be an innovative, accessible, inclusive, and responsive activist-led fund, working to achieve equality, dignity, and justice for Sex Workers and Sexual and Gender Minorities across Eastern Africa, while also being actively involved in Pan African movements. UHAI are activists’ resident in a region where our identities are criminalized; where public opinion on sexual and gender diversity is adverse; and where our governments actively shut down spaces to organise, and efforts to preserve life and health. UHAI are activists organising to address poverty, violence, and disease; and to ensure education, employment, and housing are accessible to all, without prejudice. To meet these ends, we fund through an inclusive and participatory approach where the communities fighting oppression and injustice daily make the determination of our grant awards.
UHAI funds and grows Sexual and Gender Minorities and Sex Worker organisations so that they are financially and technically capable to undertake sustained organising and advocacy for change. Our participatory grantmaking approach enables us to contribute to social change by ensuring that our communities are at the funding decision-making table guided by their lived human rights struggles.
Geographic focus: Burundi, (The) Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. We also support Pan-African organising at the Continental level.
Process: Dates for Calls for Proposals for the Peer Grants Committee (PGC) vary throughout the year. We encourage our communities to regularly check our Social Media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn) and Website for updates. Currently, PGC Calls for Proposals are broadcasted in Q2 and Q4.
Urgent Action Fund’s Rapid Response Grants resource the resilience of human rights and gender justice movements by supporting the security and advocacy interventions of activists when a swift response is needed. Specifically, Rapid Response Grants offer quick, flexible funding to respond to security threats or unexpected advocacy opportunities experienced by women, transgender, or gender non-conforming, activists and human rights defenders.
UAF was established to provide support to women and trans human rights defenders/activists or organizations led by women or trans activists when an unexpected situation arises that requires an immediate and time-urgent response to uphold human rights.
Geographic focus: Canada, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Russia, The South Caucasus, Turkey, United States, and Western Europe. Applicants from other parts of the world should apply to one of our Sister Urgent Action Funds. To apply for support in Africa, write to: proposals [at] uaf-africa [dot] org To apply for support in Latin America & the Caribbean, write to: apoyos [at] fondoaccionurgente [dot] org [dot] co To apply for support in Asia or the Pacific, please click here.
Process: Urgent Action Fund accepts applications in any language using online, text, and mobile funding applications 365 days of the year. We respond to applications within 24 hours of submission. Decisions are usually made within 1-10 business days. (Translation needs may increase the time to decide.) Once a grant is approved, funds can be wired within 24 hours to 10 business days, dependent on need.
UAF’s grants do not exceed US$8,000. The final grant amount awarded is determined by the UAF staff. We provide two types of Rapid Response Grants: Security Grants - The safety and security of women or trans human rights defenders/activists/organizations are threatened as a result of their human rights work. Security grants are up to 3 months. Opportunity Grants - An unexpected moment or opportunity for advocacy or mobilization that may result in advancements for women and LGBTQI’s rights, such as changes in legal decisions, policy, and laws, or a shift in public attitudes and practices. Opportunity grants are up to 6 months.
Grant Eligibility: Must be women/trans-led, have a women or trans human rights focus, address a specific event or situation your organization is responding to is unanticipated, and actions must happen quickly to be effective. Actions must be implemented within 3-6 months of approval of an application. Additionally, the group has to have the support of others involved in women’s human rights or related fields, locally or globally, and organizations must have an operating budget size of less than $1 Million.
Contact information: Email - proposals [at] urgentactionfund [dot] org or urgentact [at] protonmail (encrypted email – more secure) SMS/text message: +1 415-496-6365 Office phone: +1 415-523-0360 Mail: Urgent Action Fund, 2601 Blanding Ave Suite C, #155 Alameda, CA 94501
Women’s Fund Asia is a regional women’s fund, committed to supporting women, girls, trans, and intersex people-led interventions to enhance and strengthen access to their human rights. We envision a peaceful and egalitarian region in which women, girls, trans, and intersex people’s participation, leadership, and enjoyment of all their human rights is ensured and secure. WFA funds rights-based work with self-leadership of women, girls, trans, and intersex people across 18 countries in Asia.
Geographic focus: South Asia - Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan Southeast Asia - Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam East Asia - Mongolia
