Resilience and Collaboration: Lessons from the Fenomenal Funds Initiative
A learning report by KIT Institute on the outcomes of a feminist funding model
- Authors
- Anne Karam, Ana Victoria Portocarrero, Rebecca Rosario Hallin, Camilo Antillon
- Publication year
- May 2025
Feminist movements globally are navigating complex and increasingly hostile environments. Civic space is shrinking, authoritarianism is rising, and resources for rights-based organising remain scarce and difficult to access, especially for those at the margins of mainstream funding ecosystems. Yet, at the same time, feminist movements continue to be at the forefront of innovation, resistance, and social change. To be able to rise to new opportunities and strategically respond to fast-changing contexts, feminist organisations must be supported in building their resilience – not only to survive turbulence, but to adapt, grow, and lead.
As the Learning Partner to Fenomenal Funds, KIT Institute worked alongside initiative stakeholders between mid-2023 and early 2025 to co-create and implement a participatory learning process. Our role focused on documenting outcomes and drawing learnings from the lived experiences of the women’s funds participating in the Fenomenal Funds initiative, through feminist and participatory methodologies.
The primary purpose of this report is to document and analyse the outcomes of the Fenomenal Funds model, with a particular focus on how it contributed to organisational resilience and collaboration among the participating women’s funds. It aims to offer concrete insights into what happens when women’s funds receive multi-year, core, flexible, non-competitive, non-regrantable funding— particularly in the context of shared governance and feminist grant-making practices.
This report is intended to inform a range of audiences: funders, women’s funds, movement actors, feminist intermediaries, and practitioners working to shift philanthropic practice. It contributes to the broader knowledge base on feminist funding models, offering lessons and insights for those seeking to operationalise their values with practice and better support sustainable feminist infrastructures.
While the Fenomenal Funds initiative also sought to amplify collective voice and influence philanthropic systems, this report primarily focuses on its first two intended outcomes: institutional resilience and collaboration among women’s funds. Our analysis does not attempt to evaluate donor-side practices or assess the long-term external influence of the model, although these dimensions remain important areas for future research and documentation. However, implications for ongoing advocacy and practice are explored in the final section.
Photo in header: A drawing of hands placed onto a wreath of flowers, with a caption “poner la vida al centro” (putting life at the center).
Credit: Alianza Latinoamericana de Fondos de Mujeres y Feministas
