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The Catalyst Fund at Tides offers funders the opportunity to support women of color-led reproductive justice organizations and projects through a fund that will match their contributions, and increase the strategic impact of their grantmaking. It was created by the Women of Color Working Group of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights.
The Catalyst Fund has partnered with 17 national foundations, 10 local foundations, and 500 individual donors to help move more than $4 million in new resources to women of color-led work for reproductive justice since 2008.
In the U.S., women of color suffer the greatest reproductive health disparities, are leading some of the most innovative and effective work on reproductive justice (RJ) issues, and are succeeding in many places where more traditional strategies have failed. Moreover, in a rapidly changing U.S. demographic, where people of color are projected to comprise the majority of the population by the year 2050, it is fast becoming impossible to move the policy needle on any reproductive issue, including abortion, without the engagement and leadership of women of color. Despite these facts, there remains a persistent shortage of funding to women of color-led organizations. The Catalyst Fund seeks to reverse this trend in order to build a stronger, multi-racial movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice - a movement with the power to win gains for all women.
Women of color have been essential to some of the most defining victories in the past decade – and they have ensured that those victories addressed the needs of those who experience the greatest reproductive health disparities. Just a few of the successes of Catalyst grantees include:
A grant awarded to Catalyst bolsters a unified push on the part of many foundations for greater equity in funding nationwide. Grants are also paired with capacity building and evaluation resources for the field. Grants raise the visibility of RJ with new audiences, opening up new and sustainable streams of funding for RJ at the local level, inspiring hundreds of individual donors and many local funders to give to reproductive issues for the first time.
"The persistent shortage of funding for an entire sector of women is weakening the ability of all women in the U.S. to secure their reproductive rights.
Funders have the power and responsibility to reverse this trend, and with Catalyst, they now have a key opportunity."
– Catalyst Funder
Reproductive Justice: building a stronger, more effective movement for reproductive freedom.
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For more information, contact Vanessa Daniel, Program Advisor at 415.561.6302 or vdaniel(at)tides.org
