Poverty. Climate change. Access to justice. Healthcare. Land rights. Migration.
There are no issues that don’t touch the lives of women, girls, and LGBTQI people. And no one is better at creating solutions than those most affected by the problems.
Foundation for a Just Society supports innovative, intersectional, grassroots strategies that meet immediate needs while igniting long-term, structural change in communities and regions that have been overlooked by philanthropy.
We support the entire ecosystem of transformative movements — across issues and regions — by following the lead of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people who catalyze change every day in their communities and countries.
We share resources to strengthen the movements that create a world where all people are valued and lead self-determined lives.
In 2011, Audrey Cappell brought together a group of women to achieve a simple yet ambitious vision: a world without discrimination. Under her leadership, Foundation for a Just Society was established and began making grants to advance the human rights of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people globally.
To date, we have provided nearly $95 million in grants to visionary leaders who are creating a more just world through transforming their communities and countries.
We believe the best solutions come not from funders, but from the people most affected by injustice. And we continue to evolve by learning from experience and our grantee partners how to most effectively leverage our resources to strengthen the movements that secure justice for women, girls, and LGBTQI people globally.
Social transformation doesn’t happen by accident; it requires a roadmap for change. We achieve our mission through four, interconnected elements:
We support organizations that meet the immediate needs of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people while igniting long-term, structural change.
We strengthen organizational and movement sustainability by investing in coalition building, leadership training, resource exchange, and infrastructure development.
We enhance the movement’s ability to engage new and existing audiences through the creative use of media, storytelling, research, and technology.
We advocate a gender justice approach, support activist-led funding and initiatives, and mobilize resources to support innovative, intersectional, grassroots strategies that advance the human rights of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people.
Our grantmaking strategies are designed to support the entire ecosystem of transformative movements by following the lead of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people who catalyze change every day in their communities and countries. We seek to develop a cohort of long-term grantee partners that work at the intersections of multiple issues.
Instead of reviewing unsolicited grant applications, we invite organizations to submit proposals when we have reason to believe their work is aligned with our mission, Theory of Change, and regional focus. This is a strategic decision that saves our time, and yours, so that we can focus on our respective work to build a more just world.
We engage in grantmaking that is based on building relationships, trust, transparency, and mutual accountability — not easily measurable results — because we want visionaries to focus on changing the world, not meeting narrow grant mandates. We work to eliminate barriers to funding of organizing efforts considered too experimental or too unfamiliar to traditional philanthropy. With strategy and intention, we seek to develop a cohort of long-term grantees that work at the intersections of multiple issues and fill critical gaps in local, national, regional, and global movements to advance the human rights of marginalized girls, women, and LGBTQI people.
We believe the best solutions come not from funders, but from the people most affected by injustice. We try to address the power imbalance that exists between funders and grantees by taking the time to develop collaborative partnerships and incorporating the feedback we receive. In doing so, we are able to better understand the gaps in philanthropy, improve our approach, and nurture philanthropic practices that align with our vision of a world where all people are valued and lead self-determined lives.
We make grants to local, national, regional, and international organizations that strengthen the women’s and LGBTQI rights movements in Central America, Francophone West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the US Southeast — places with a long history of innovative, intersectional, grassroots strategies and that have been overlooked by philanthropy. We are exploring New York City grantmaking by participating in the Philanthropic Table for Girls and Young Women of Color.
We prioritize multi-year and general operating support because organizations are able to work more strategically when they are trusted to determine the best use of resources they can count on from year to year. Our grants are made for up to three years and range in size from $25,000-$500,000 per year.
While we do not fund organizations that provide direct services without a vision for transformation, we do fund organizations that provide services to meet the immediate needs of marginalized women, girls, and LGBTQI people while igniting long-term, structural change.
We make grants in our Global and Central America portfolios in May/June. Grants in our Francophone West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and US Southeast portfolios are made in November/December.
Explore our Grants Directory and stories of impact.
Grants are made only to organizations that meet the US Internal Revenue Code 501(c)(3) requirements as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization — or the equivalent in the country where the organization is based.
We are a private, women-led foundation with an endowment.
We generally do not fund:
We have provided nearly $95 million in grants to more than 130 local, national, regional, and international organizations that strengthen women’s and LGBTQI rights movements in Central America, Francophone West Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the US Southeast. Meet our grantee partners.
The learning journey we have traveled this year produced a roadmap that will guide the foundation’s work to deepen, expand, and diversify our investments in movements that advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people. And we are happy to share some exciting news about our strategic directions over the next five years.
In August, Maitri Morarji will join Foundation for a Just Society as the director of programs, a newly created position that will shape and strengthen our programmatic and philanthropic advocacy strategies. We spoke to Maitri about her approach to moving more and better resources to the women, girls, and LGBTQI people who catalyze change in their communities and countries.
"If philanthropy takes an approach that is only about surviving this moment, then we are not doing enough. This is a moment where movements are ready for bolder risks and bigger investments. It is a moment for philanthropy to be brave."
"We work in an environment that’s increasingly unpredictable, and sometimes it feels like we are fighting against the wind. But we continue to catalyze broad-based, proactive support for securing the human rights of LGBTQ people in West Africa."
"We know how important it is to inform young people about the laws that protect them. We continue to advocate to show the authorities that young people are demanding their rights."
"The meaningful and full participation of women is vital. True insight into the cause and effect of human rights violations — and thus what is required for them to come to an end — can only come from those directly impacted."
