Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights
/OVERVIEW: Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights offers rapid response grants to support women’s rights and transgender rights. This funder seeks to effect systemic change with its responsive and flexible funding approach.
IP TAKE: UAF is not a source of sustained funding or a long-term partnership, but for groups in urgent need, the fund is a great resource. While it is not required, it would be a good practice to take the Fund’s eligibility quiz to make sure your work is a good fit. This is an otherwise accessible and approachable funder that is invested in progressive grantmaking.
PROFILE: Ariane Burnet, Margaret (Mudge) Schink and Julie Shaw created the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights (UAF) in 1997 to address the lack of rights funders with the ability to respond quickly to emergencies. By 2001, UAF and 80 other activists created its rapid response grantmaking program to fill this funding gap and partner “with women’s movements worldwide to support women’s human rights defenders striving to create cultures of justice, equality and peace.” The UAF makes rapid response grants that focus on two types of requests for emergency funding, both of which support women’s and transgender rights: seizing an opportunity for advocacy and responding to threats against activists’ security and safety.
Grants for Women and Girls, LGBTQ, Security and Human Rights, and Gender Violence Prevention
It is important to note that while UAF’s overall focus is on supporting women’s and transgender rights around the world, it does not ignore issues that intersect with their focus areas. These issues include, but are not limited to, sexual and reproductive health rights, environmental justice, sex-worker rights, and LGBTQ rights.
UAF’s Rapid Response Grants support “the resilience of women’s and trans movements by providing flexible and responsive support to women’s and trans human rights defenders who face immediate threats and by supporting advocacy when unanticipated opportunities emerge to set new legal or policy precedents.” It does so through emergency grants available to women’s and transgender rights groups located in Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, Eastern Europe and North America. This program offers two types of grants. Security Grants support women and trans human rights defenders threatened as a result of their rights work. UAF’s Opportunity Grants support “an unexpected moment or opportunity for advocacy or mobilizations that may result in advancements for women’s and LBTQI rights.” Security grants are for three months, and opportunity grants are for up to six. The limit for emergency grants is $8,000.
Past rapid response grantees include the Legal Center for Women’s Initiatives' “Sana Sezim,” which received support for its anti-human trafficking work, and A New Way of Life Reentry Project, which received a grant for its work with formerly incarcerated women and their families. To learn more about UAF grantees, explore its Blog.
New grantseekers facing urgent need can apply online via the Security Grants form and Opportunity Grants form. Be sure to check the program pages before applying for eligibility criteria.
Important Grant Details:
UAF typically responds to both security and opportunity grant requests within 24 hours and can get funds to its grantees within ten days, depending on urgency of need. The fund limits rapid response grants to $8,000. Grantseekers can look over the FAQ before applying.
The foundation also operates Sister Funds: UAF Africa, UAF Latin America, and UAF Asia. All three organizations are autonomous and award grants to support and protect human rights defenders in more than 110 countries around the world.
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