What does it take to run a feminist organisation? For most of them, far less money than outsiders imagine. The most detailed picture of their finances comes from a 2025 survey by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), which reached 1,174 feminist organisations in 128 countries (Morena et al., 2025). RFLD’s 2026 data report, Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa, uses these findings, together with African and francophone data, to describe how women’s organisations survive.
A median budget of US$22,000
In 2023, the median annual budget of a feminist organisation worldwide was US$22,000. In Africa, it ranged from US$22,000 to US$27,000. In Western Europe and North America, it reached US$81,000. More than half of all organisations surveyed, 58%, had budgets under US$30,000, and 14% had no budget at all.
These are organisations that run legal clinics, train community leaders, accompany survivors of violence and monitor laws. They do it with the equivalent of one modest salary in many donor countries.
Little core funding, short grants
Core funding is money an organisation can use for any purpose linked to its mission, including salaries, rent and reserves. Seventy-one per cent of the organisations in the AWID survey received some core funding, but it covered only 30% of their budgets on average, and 29% received none.
Grants are also short. Seventy-two per cent of organisations reported average grants of 18 months or less, and only 4% had ever had a grant longer than three years. Short, restricted grants force organisations to spend a large part of their time writing proposals and reports, and make it very hard to keep experienced staff.
Six months from closure
The survey asked organisations how long they could continue without external funding. Sixty-four per cent said less than six months, and 47% had already faced a risk of closure. Twenty-eight per cent had no budget secured for 2025, and 46% had none beyond 2026.
In Africa, a rapid survey by FEMNET published in April 2026 found that 55% of feminist organisations had no financial reserves and only 16% had reserves to keep working for a year (FEMNET, 2026). FEMNET did not publish its sample size, countries or method, so these figures should be read as indicative. They are nevertheless consistent with what RFLD sees among its own members.
Who pays, and who works for free
The main sources of money for feminist organisations are women’s and feminist funds (55% of organisations), international NGOs (36%), foundations (32%) and bilateral donors (19%). Women’s funds, which are themselves small, therefore carry more of the movement than the large official donors.
Much of the work is not paid at all. Eighty-one per cent of organisations rely on volunteering, mutual aid and in-kind support, and for 29% this is their main source of income. Women’s unpaid time is the hidden subsidy that keeps feminist movements alive.
The francophone picture
No public dataset measures the budgets of women’s organisations by language area. The best evidence for francophone countries comes from a survey commissioned by the Agence française de développement from Groupe Egaé, which reached 1,422 feminist civil society organisations in 68 countries, including 14 in sub-Saharan Africa (Groupe Egaé, 2022).
| Indicator | Finding |
|---|---|
| Annual budget under €50,000 | 64.4% |
| Annual budget above €300,000 | 7% |
| Fewer than three paid staff | 62% |
| No institutional funding, national or international | 57% |
| Rely on volunteer work and own resources | 70% |
An unequal contest
The AWID survey contains one comparison that stands out. Three anti-rights organisations had a combined income in 2023 greater than all 1,174 feminist organisations surveyed together (Morena et al., 2025). Movements that defend women’s rights face opponents with far greater means, at a time when their own funding is shrinking.
What this means for funders
Grants designed for large NGOs do not fit organisations of this size. RFLD’s report recommends that funders offer grants small enough for organisations with budgets under US$30,000, include core funding, allow budget lines to be adjusted without long approvals and commit for at least three years. Its checklist for funders, in Annex D of the report, sets out these questions in practical form.
RFLD’s own grants follow the same logic. Most of the 27 grants it awarded between June and September 2026 were below US$45,000, a size suited to the organisations described here, and the nine SEA-T grants are paired with free management tools through the RFLD Suite.
What RFLD sees among its members
RFLD’s 1,143 member organisations include many of the small organisations described in this article. Many operate with annual budgets below US$30,000, rely on volunteers and have never received a grant longer than one year. When RFLD opened its Organisational Resilience Programme, which offers the free RFLD Suite of management tools, hundreds of organisations applied within weeks. The demand shows how much these organisations want to strengthen their management, provided the tools are free and available in their language.
Key figures
- US$22,000: median annual budget of a feminist organisation worldwide in 2023.
- 30%: the average share of budgets covered by core funding.
- 64%: organisations that could operate for less than six months without external funding.
- 55%: African feminist organisations with no financial reserves, according to FEMNET.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s data report Funding Feminist Movements in Francophone West Africa: 2026 Data (RFLD/DR/2026/03), published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary of the report, download the English edition or the French edition. Sources cited in this article are listed in full in the report.
