Mama Cash is a left-of-center activist group that advocates in the interests of left-of-center women, transgender people, and intersex people. It advocates for legal reforms and criticizes “oppressive or restrictive norms and practices” regarding specific identity groups.

Mama Cash was one of 465 nonprofits to receive a collective $3,863,125,000 in March 2022 from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Background

Mama Cash is a left-of-center grantmaking group that directs grants to groups that advocate for the interests of left-of-center women, transgender people, and intersex people. It advocates for legal reforms and criticizes “oppressive or restrictive norms and practices” regarding specific identity groups ¹ It aims to be a support group that bolsters feminist organizations and feminist donor networks with the funds they need, collected from wealthy philanthropists worldwide. ²

Finances

As Mama Cash is based in the Netherlands, it does not file the IRS exempt organization tax return. ³ According to its 2021 annual report, Mama Cash claims to have disbursed €84,174,383 (approximately $89 million) in grants since 1983. ⁴

Grantmaking

Mama Cash aims to be a funding network and financial-education institution for feminist groups all over the globe. It prioritizes recipient organizations that are led by the people they purport to represent, such as “domestic workers who are collectively organizing for decent work, or trans people who are building a movement to secure bodily autonomy.” ⁵ One of Mama Cash’s core objectives is to influence “the donor community” around the world and serve as a kind of donor-advised fund to philanthropists in the feminist and transgender-interests spaces. ⁶

As of 2023, Mama Cash had four participatory grantmaking funds and one fund that at the time was defunct: the Solidarity Fund, the Resilience Fund, the Revolution Fund, the Radical Love Fund, and the Spark Fund. ⁷

The Resilience Fund gives grants to “self-led groups, collectives and organizations of women, girls, trans people and intersex people who work to build collective power.” It coordinates funds to feminist groups to change the laws of their societies. ⁸

The Revolution Fund gives grants to pop-up groups, usually fiscally sponsored projects of larger parent organizations, that are acting to address an immediate political cause. It also provides seed funding to start-up nonprofits. ⁹

The Radical Love Fund gives one to two-year grants to feminist organizations working on novel projects, from political work to creating documentaries on the feminist movement. This fund also targets recipients who want to create networks of feminist influencers and donors. ¹⁰

The Solidarity Fund aims to bolster the feminist philanthropic world by directing funds to feminist grantmakers and incubators that are already in place and are actively disbursing grants to smaller outfits. ¹¹

The Spark Fund gave grants to activist groups for women, transgender, and intersex people working in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean. ¹²

Funding

Mama Cash was one of 465 nonprofits to receive a collective $3,863,125,000 in March 2022 from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. It was not specified how much of this amount went to Mama Cash. In the announcement of the disbursement, Scott said “60% of the organizations listed below are led by women, and 75% by people with lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address.” Scott added that each recipient “was selected through a rigorous process, and has a strong track record of serving under-supported needs,” and recommended interested philanthropists to donate to them. ¹³

Leadership

As of 2023, Mama Cash was co-chaired by Nancy Jouwe and Oriana Lopez Uribe. Jouwe is a lecturer and writer at the University of the Arts Utrecht and the Council on International Educational Exchange. Uribe is a former administrator in the Mexican government’s Ministry of Health and is a member of RESURJ and Vecinas Feministas, two international feminist groups. ¹⁴

1. “Homepage.” MamaCash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/en-homepage.
2. “Our vision and mission.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-vision-and-mission.
3. “Contact Us.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/contact-us.
4. “Annual Report 2021.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/media/publications/news_publications_header_teaser_images/mama_cash_2021_annual_report.pdf.
5. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
6. “Influencing the donor community.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/influencing-the-donor-community.
7. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
8. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
9. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
10. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
11. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
12. “Our Grantmaking.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-grantmaking.
13. Scott, MacKenzie. “Helping Any of Us Can Help Us All.” Medium, March 23, 2022. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9.
14. ^[1] “Our Board.” Mama Cash. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.mamacash.org/en/our-board.