Ana Portocarrero

• Case Study

Feminist movements around the world comprise diverse actors and stakeholders, ranging from global organizations to local grassroots groups. Within this vibrant ecosystem, women’s funds play a crucial role as feminist philanthropic organizations. Different from women’s organizations, the primary purpose of women’s funds is to mobilize resources rather than providing direct services and programmes. Women’s funds […]

• Case Study

This case study tells the story of the women’s fund Fonds pour les Femmes Congolaises (FFC), a national feminist fund working across the Democratic Republic of Congo, with offices in Goma, Kalemie, and Kinshasa. A myriad of challenges hamper the fund’s field work and presence, including national and regional contexts of insecurity and violence, an […]

• Case Study

This case study shares the story and effects of funding collaboration on the financial resilience of two women’s funds: Women’s Fund Tanzaniaand Women’s Fund Z (WFZ), who joined to form the Feminist Financial Resilience group. The two funds collaborated with the aim of enhancing their financial resilience through a holistic approach, which they define as […]

• Case Study

This case study tells the story of the Doria Feminist Fund, an emerging Beirut-based fund in the SWANA region. Established in 2021, the fund’s inception and resilience were enabled by the Fenomenal Funds’ Resilience Grant.

• Case Study

This case study highlights the transformative journey of nine women’s funds who, through Collaborative Grants, significantly strengthened theirindividual and collective resilience. Together, they have invested in systems, processes, and knowledge management to establish effective feminist operational systems for grantmaking, while simultaneously unlocking the power of shared learning and mutual support. The work of this collaboration […]

• Case Study

What does feminist healing have to do with political turbulence and war? Or with providing financial sustainability to the feminist movement and the fightfor gender justice? These are some of the questions that the Feminist Healing Spaces collaboration group—comprising FemFund Poland, Women’s Fund Armenia, and Women’s Fund in Georgia—set out to examine with the support […]

• Case Study

This case study uses the example of Fondo de Mujeres del Sur (FMS) to explore how grants designed to support resilience can strengthen thecapacity of women’s funds in adapting to challenging contexts and building sustainable impacts. Based in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, with 17 years’ experience and a regional reach across LatinAmerica, FMS has experienced […]

• Case Study

This is a case study of the collaboration group Alliance of Women’s and Feminist Funds of Latin America and the Caribbean (‘Alianza’), whose members—unlike in many other collaboration groups—had been working together for more than 17 years before partnering with Fenomenal Funds. The group’s collective initiatives, led by eight funds, all of whom are members […]

• Case Study

The backlash against gender justice initiatives in recent years has further highlighted the importance of feminist funding and resource mobilization. Mama Cash has both led and participated in efforts to support the global ecosystem of women’s funds and enhance the feminist funding architecture, partnering with likeminded organizations to influence philanthropy and encouraging government donors to […]

• Case Study

This case study highlights the transformative outcomes of the Fenomenal Funds Resilience Grant on Women’s Fund X, a small women’s fund operating under anonymity due to restrictive funding environments. The fund faced significant challenges prior to receiving the grant—including financial instability, constrained growth, and a lack of confidence among the team in its long-term sustainability. […]

• Case Study

This case study tells the story of how the Fenomenal Funds Resilience Grant supported the work of the Taso Foundation in Georgia. A membership-based national women’s fund that contributes to the feminist and social justicemovement in the country, it is focused on grantmaking, educational, and capacity building programmes. This case study tells the story of […]

• Book chapter

Understanding sexuality and power relations from the life experiences of young women Women’s sexuality was originally included in the development agenda mainly in relation to health and risks. With time, it has started to be understood also through the lenses of the ‘empowerment’ and ‘rights’ approaches. This chapter looks at the way in which young […]