The Black Feminist Fund is a fiscal sponsorship organization that provides funding to “Black women and gender expansive people.” The organization produces reports, promotes activism, and conducts calls to action to increase philanthropic funding to African-American feminist organizations. ^{1 2 3 4 1}

The Black Feminist Fund is fiscally sponsored by the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation and receives funding from the Global Fund for Women. ^{2 5 6}

History and Activities

The Black Feminist Fund was founded in 2021 as a grant funding source to support women’s organizations, particularly in Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. The group focuses on cultivating leadership among “young Black feminists” and “affirming […] Black women and gender expansive people.” ^{1 2}

The Black Feminist Fund gives grants to organizations on an eight-year cycle in attempts to generate long-term change. ¹ In addition to providing grants, the Black Feminist Fund also creates a network of “Black women and gender expansive people that organize and politicize each other” and conducts activism within philanthropy to promote more funding for African-American feminist organizations. ⁴

The Black Feminist Fund also sponsors a fellowship program to train and mentor African-American leaders. ⁴

Additionally, the Black Feminist Fund produces research reports, including reports on barriers to philanthropic funding. A large number of the reports produced by the organization center on exposing or removing perceived barriers to increasing philanthropic funding for African-American feminist organizations. ³

The Black Feminist Fund has two main grant funds: The Sustain Fund, that provides long-term funding to grant recipients, and the Solidarity Fund, that focuses on creating a network within its funding partners. As of March 2025, the Black Feminist Fund claims to have funded feminist groups in 28 countries and helped establish 12 new groups. Grant recipients are chosen by an in-house grant review committee. As of March 2025, the organization was no longer accepting grant applications. ⁷

Leadership

The co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund is Tynesha McHarris. Previously, McHarris was a principal at an African-American feminist consulting firm called Black Harvest LLC, a senior philanthropic advisor at Fundamental Inc., a program officer at NoVo Foundation, a program director at the Brooklyn Community Foundation, director of programs and community engagement at the Newark Education Trust, the Newark program director of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, and a consultant with the Children’s Defense Fund. ^{8 9}

Funding and Sponsorships

The Black Feminist Fund is fiscally sponsored by the Amalgamated Charitable Foundation, a donor-advised fund that was spun off from the largely Service Employees International Union-owned Amalgamated Bank in 2017 that funds left-wing advocacy organizations. ^{2 10 11 12}

The Black Feminist Fund receives funding from the Global Fund for Women, a nonprofit foundation funding women’s human rights initiatives. In 2021, the Global Fund for Women received $8,806,447 from the Ford Foundation to help launch the Black Feminist Fund. According to tax filings, in 2023, the Foundation for a Just Society gave $800,000 to the Global Fund for Women to support the Black Feminist Fund. ^{5 6}

The Black Feminist Fund also receives donations through ActBlue Charities, a pass-through organization that facilitates donations to left-of-center nonprofits. ¹³

According to an October 2023 report from Inside Philanthropy, the Black Feminist Fund had raised $43 million since its founding as part of its goal to raise $100 million in its first ten years. This was in response to an open letter written by the Black Feminist Fund urging philanthropists to support African-American feminist activism. The open letter called on donors to shift resources and “fund Black feminist movement like we want them to win.” ^{8 1}

The letter claimed that “when Black feminists win, democracy wins. When Black feminists win, climate justice wins. When Black feminists win, inequality loses, and justice comes closer to our reach.” The letter also claimed that in 2018, “Black feminist social movements” received less than 0.5 percent of the $70 billion in foundation giving. The group claimed the perceived dearth of funding impacted “Black trans women,” “Gender nonconforming people,” and “Black women whose lives are at the intersection of multiple oppressions” the most. ¹

Signers of the open letter included senior leaders from the Meadow Fund, the Solidaire Network, the Ford Foundation, Pivotal Ventures, the Clara Lionel Foundation, the Foundation for a Just Society, the Libra Foundation, the Satterberg Foundation, the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Farbman Family Foundation. ¹

1. “Black Feminist Movements are Ready to Win, Are You?” The Black Feminist Fund (Google Docs). Accessed March 17, 2025. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xSGijLH6XS2_MYkXCEuVeyg8xPYZSTCb/view?pli=1.
2. “Black Feminist Fund.” Black Feminist Fund. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://blackfeministfund.org/.
3. “Reports.” Fund Black Feminists. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.fundblackfeminists.org/.
4. “Our Advocacy.” Black Feminist Fund. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://blackfeministfund.org/our-advocacy/.
5.  “Core support for the launch of The Black Feminist Fund, an unprecedented philanthropic initiative bridging Black feminist resources to Black feminist organizing around the world to strengthen their sustainability and resilience.” The Ford Foundation. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/the-global-fund-for-women-140092/
6. Foundation for a Just Society. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990-PF). 2023.
7. “Our Grantmaking.” Black Feminist Fund. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://blackfeministfund.org/grantmaking/.
8. McIntyre, Nicky and Tynesha McHarris. “ Black Feminists Are Organizing with Little to No Funding. Here Are Three Ways to Change That.” Inside Philanthropy. October 5, 2023. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023-10-5-black-feminists-are-organizing-with-little-to-no-funding-here-are-three-ways-to-change-that.
9. “Tynesha McHarris: Experience.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tynesha-mcharris-0386a970/details/experience/.
10. Amalgamated Bank. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2023.
11. Amalgamated Bank. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2022.
12. Amalgamated Bank. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021.
13. “Black Feminist Fund.” Linktree. Accessed March 17, 2025. https://linktr.ee/blackfeministfund.