Fenomenal Funds is a left-of-center funding collaborative that directs funds from major left-of-center grantmaking foundations to 44 separate funds that are members of the Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF), a left-of-center global network of local and national women’s funding groups.

It is a fiscally-sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, a funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors that makes grants to left-of-center advocacy and organizing projects and provides incubation services for dozens of left-of-center organizations. The organization is funded by the Foundation for a Just Society, Open Society Foundations, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ^{1 2}

Background

Fenomenal Funds is a “feminist funder collaborative” launched in 2019 as a collaboration of four left-of-center grantmaking foundations—Foundation for a Just Society, Open Society Foundations, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—that committed $20 million in “flexible funding” to the women’s funds that comprise the Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF). Prospera is a global funding network of women’s funds with a focus on the global south and east. Prospera has over 40 affiliated groups in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe that focus on regional and national gender equality and women’s assistance programs. ³

The organization is led by a steering committee comprised of four private foundations, four women’s fund members of Prospera, and a representative from Prospera itself. The group states that it is guided by the “Feminist Funding Principles,” a far-left set of funding principles coined by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, and that the steering committee is dedicated to the “decolonial ways of working.” ^{4 5}

The organization is a project of the New Venture Fund, a funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit that makes grants to left-of-center advocacy and organizing projects and provides incubation services for dozens of left-of-center organizations. NVF focuses primarily on social and environmental change projects and is among the network of groups managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropy consulting company that caters to major foundations and organizations on the political Left that advises billions of dollars of funding to left-of-center groups. ^{6 7}

Activities

Fenomenal Funds provides annual grants to women’s related funding organizations throughout the world. The organization exclusively funds members of Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds (INWF). In 2020, the group awarded $3 million to 40 members of Prospera. The group divides its grantmaking regionally between Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and multi-regional efforts. The group describes its work as providing funding for the feminist movements in such regions including funding projects focusing on “issues like patriarchal structures, unequal division of care work while they fight for workers’ rights, economic justice, climate justice, safety, and reproductive rights.” ⁸

Grantmaking

Groups funded by Fenomenal Funds include the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Equality Fund, FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, the Global Fund for Women, International Indigenous Women’s Fund (IIWF-AYNI), Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Women Win, African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), Urgent Action Fund-Africa, Women’s Funds Fiji, Korean Foundation for Women, and Women’s Fund Asia. ⁹

Funding

Fenomenal Funds is funded by four foundations that committed $20 million towards funding Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds groups. The founding foundations of are the Foundation for a Just Society, Open Society Foundations, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ¹⁰

1. “About Us.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/about-us/
2. “Home.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/
3. “About Us.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/about-us/
4. “Feminist Funding Principles.” Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://astraeafoundation.org/microsites/feminist-funding-principles/
5. “How We Do.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/about-us/how-we-do/
6. About New Venture Fund.” Accessed August 20, 2023. http://www.newventurefund.org/about-nvf/
7. Philip Rojc. “Big Builds: A Look Inside Arabella Advisors.” Inside Philanthropy. January 14, 2020. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2019/1/14/big-builds-a-look-inside-arabella-advisors
8. “2020 Grants.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/grants/2020-grants/
9. 2020 Grants.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/grants/2020-grants/
10. “About Us.” Fenomenal Funds. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://fenomenalfunds.org/about-us/