The Fund for Global Human Rights is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that funds international organizations that work on issues related to immigration, LBGT and women’s interests, indigenous communities, and child welfare. ¹

Overview

The Fund for Global Human Rights supports organizations that are working in Latin America, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa. The fund awards grants in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $30,000. It is a long-term funder, providing unrestricted funding and multi-year support to its grantees. It also offers donor-advised and emergency grants.

The fund has seven main grant making programs each focusing on a different issue. These programs are Activists Resisting Restrictions, Children and Youth Rights, Women’s Rights, LGBTQ Rights, Migrant’s Rights, ² Labor Rights, and Climate Justice. ³ The fund has worked with various organizations such as Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, ⁴ Channel Foundation, ⁵ JustLabs, ⁶ Conectas Human Rights, ⁷ and Just Associates. ⁸

In September 2021, the fund launched an initiative called the Legal Empowerment Fund to provide long term funding to activists and organizations dealing with justice issues. To operate this initiative, the fund partnered with Namati, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ⁹

Funding

The Fund for Global Human Rights is funded by grants from various organizations such as the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, which gave $1 million over 9 years from 2021 to 2030. ¹⁰ The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave $3 million to the fund’s Gender Equity and Governance program. ¹¹ The fund also received three separate grants from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund from 2020 to 2021 for a total amount of $200,000. ¹²

People

Regan Ralph is the founding president and CEO of the Fund for Global Human Rights. Previously, Ralph was the vice president for health and reproductive rights at the National Women’s Law Center. From 1992 to 2001, Ralph helped build and directed the Women’s Rights division of Human Rights Watch, where she developed campaigns for women’s issues around the world. She sits on the boards of EG Justice, WITNESS, and Crisis Action. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School. She also studied international law at the London School of Economics and Arabic at the American University in Cairo. ¹³

Rona Peligal is the vice president for development and communications of the Fund for Global Human Rights. Previously, Peligal was the vice president for development at American Jewish World Service for two years. From 1995 to 2015, she worked at Human Rights Watch for nine years as the deputy director of development and outreach and for the latter 6 years she was a deputy director of the Africa division. Peligal has a Ph.D. in African History from Columbia University.  ¹⁴ She is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Political Accountability. ¹⁵

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