The Fund’s team consists of eight persons employed permanently. We are intersectional feminists who have been involved in promoting the rights of women and LGBTQIA people for years, we have different education and different skillsets, and we try complement each other :-). Justyna, Magda and Marta started working as a group of friends in March 2017. For more than a year, we were meeting informally, planning our future activities. The Fund was officially launched as a foundation in January 2018. You can read more about us here.

We dream of a fully autonomous Fund, which is entirely maintained by a community of persons who share feminist values. If 7,000 people set their monthly deposit to PLN40, then our dream would become reality! This way, FemFund would become fully independent from grants. We believe that this is possible, and we invite you to co-create this Fund with us!
Currently, the Fund collects money mainly from two sources: 1) from institutions supporting non-governmental organizations (these are mainly private, foreign foundations) and 2) from individuals supporting us with one-time and monthly payments. We have established long-term cooperation with the following grant institutions: Sigrid Rausing Trust, Mama Cash, Oak Foundation, Global Fund for Women, Open Society Foundations, Fenomenal Funds and filia die fraunestiftung. Since 2023, the Fund has been supported by two corporate foundations: CHANEL and Levi Strauss. In addition, we have been or are supported by: Channel Foundation, Equality Fund, FundAction, Guerrilla Foundation, Global Fund for Community Foundations, and a Polish institution: Stefan Batory Foundation.
What is more, approx. 200 people contribute to the FemFund account on a regular basis every month. Thank you for being with us! Thanks to you, we can act in a way that is consistent with our values! Do you want to be a part of FemFund and chip in for feminist good? Find out how to do it here.
We are also grateful to Anita and Zbigniew Rekusz for funding one MiniGrant each year <3

The Fund provides money for activities supporting particular girls, women, non-binary, queer, and transgender persons living in Poland. So far, the Fund has funded 265 grants for the total amount of nearly PLN 4 milion, addressed to, among others: pensioners, teenagers, refugees, migrant women, women living in the countryside, tenants, girls and women with disabilities, lesbians, non-binary persons, queer and trans persons, women who are incarcerated and in detention, sex workers. The activities supported financially by the Fund take place in all voivodeships of Poland. We also provide non-financial support to feminist initiatives: we organize workshops and meetings where our community members (grant recipients, donors) can get to know each other and exchange experience. In addition, we spend money on our daily functioning and work: we pay rent, the salaries of our permanent team and collaborators, accounting and IT services, our travel, promotional and fundraising activities, telephone bills, Internet access, and office supplies. We also invest in strengthening our skills, knowledge, and contacts – we are developing so that the Fund is a stable and strong institution that can constantly support women and persons.

In 2022, the Feminist Fund spent PLN 2,814,050.68 on its activities. More than 40% of our expenditures was grants, which were donated to informal groups and feminist organizations, and we conducted 1st Feminist Fund Community Convention. This year, due to the war in Ukraine, part of this funds were to support Ukrainian sister organizations and Polish organizations supporting refugees. You can read about the activities of Grantee Partners supported by the Fund at femfund.pl/en/who-we-support/

We spent 4% of the budget on fundraising and communication costs, including building a feminist community and creating educational content.

The salaries of the eight-member team of the Feminist Fund accounted for 33% of expenditure. We allocated the remaining part of the budget to the development of the organization (including the purchase of the necessary equipment, team supervising) and current administrative expenses (including office maintenance costs, accounting services, IT support).

FemFund undergoes an annual financial audit, i.e. an independent examination of the organization. This study is based on generally accepted standards and legal regulations, but also verifies the internal standards of the organization. Here (pdf file 528 KB, opens in a new tab) you can see the financial statement of the Feminist Fund for 2022, which has been audited.

The biggest support you can give us is setting a monthly donation to the Fund. Thanks to constant aid, we can plan our expenses in the long run, and we know how much we can donate to direct support for girls, women and non-binary, queer, trans, or intersex persons. You can donate at femfund.pl/support. We also greatly appreciate your support in social media – sharing information, showing support, and constructive comments :-). Both money and good words are a visible sign of trust and a signal that what we do is OK.

You may apply for a MiniGrant if you are NGO (e.g. associations and foundations) or informal group/collective.

We invite you to submit your idea if your group/organization meets a total of four conditions:
1. you feel part of the feminist movement;
2. you promote the rights of women and/or queer, non-binary, intersex, transgender persons (not cis-male persons);
3. the organizations is run by women and/or queer, non-binary, intersex, or transgender persons;
4. it acts for persons living in Poland.

Queer and non-binary persons are those who do not recognize the rigid division into two sexes/genders and do not feel the need to clearly define themselves as a woman or a man. Their psychosexual orientation evades the rigid divisions into hetero-, homo- and bisexual. These are persons who go beyond what we are used to stereotyping as “male” and “female”.

Transgender persons are those who do not identify with the gender that was assigned to them immediately after birth. Intersex persons, on the other hand, are persons with such physical characteristics (genetic, biological, anatomical, or physiological) that do not allow to define their gender as unambiguously male or female.

Cisgender persons are those whose gender assigned at birth is consistent with their perceived gender – their gender identity corresponds with the gender stated in their birth certificate. The Fund supports initiatives undertaken by non-cis men, because the patriarchy discriminates against all persons who are not socially recognized as men and do not enjoy the privilege enjoyed by cisgender men.

As we understand it, an informal group is made up of at least three people who are working together for a cause. In the case of the Feminist Fund, this cause should be beneficial for women and/or queer, non-binary, intersex, and transgender persons. Persons working in an informal group share a common goal. From the perspective of the Feminist Fund, an informal group is not people who are primarily in family or intimate-romantic relations with each other. An informal group is also not an agreement between a contractor and participants (e.g. cooperation of a trainer with the persons to whom she directs her offer).

You do not have to meet all the priorities of the Fund to participate in MiniGrants. However, we would like to particularly encourage and invite groups and organizations that associate and act for persons who are particularly vulnerable to discrimination; that self-organize, undertake grassroots, local activities within their community outside the largest urban centers (Lodz, Kraków, Poznan, Tri-City, Warsaw, Wroclaw), work collectively, and those that conduct non-standard feminist activities and propose new approaches to solving important problems.

Sadly, no. MiniGrants, like other FemFund grants, supports activities undertaken collectively by organizations and groups.

Organizations and groups that include minors may apply for a MiniGrant. For practical reasons, however, an informal group should include at least one adult, so that in the case of receiving a MiniGrant, the Fund can donate it to an adult person representing the group.

The Fund supports feminist activism in Poland, which is why MiniGrants can be used by groups and organizations operating abroad only if the proposed activities respond to the needs of women and persons living in Poland (e.g. border activities, solidarity activities).We do not finance activities aimed exclusively at Polish women/persons living abroad.

A group made up exclusively or mostly of men cannot receive a MiniGrant. The Fund was created to support feminist groups created by women and non-cis-male persons, as these persons have always been particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence in Poland. In order to change this, initiatives taken by women and non-cis-male persons should be particularly strengthened, so that their voice is strong and more audible.
Male allies are encouraged to exercise their privilege by taking feminist action using other available means. One way is to support the Fund financially at femfund.pl/support

The amount of the MiniGrant is PLN 5,300. You can also apply for smaller amounts.

You decide what you want to do and how you want to do it. You can plan activities such as: closed meetings of your group/organization, meetings open to residents, demonstrations and pickets, social campaigns, networking and cooperation meetings, happenings, artistic activities, publications, meetings strengthening you as activists, direct support, etc. From the MiniGrant you can finance, for example, renting rooms, prints, publications, purchase of materials, tickets, accommodation, refreshments, event documentation, promotion, remuneration, and any other costs that are needed to implement the idea. Examples of activities that have already been carried out with the Fund’s money can be found here.

Yes, MiniGrant activities can be part of a larger projects that is also financed from other sources. MiniGrant can be used to supplement or develop activities already in progress or organized by you regularly and on an ongoing basis.

Applications (available only during the application period) in English  are accepted only by e-mail: granty@femfund.pl in Polish – through the online form. Your application is confirmed by e-mail.

When preparing the application for a MiniGrant, remember about the conditions for participation in the competition and about the Fund’s priorities.
In your application, please include information that will allow others to understand how you meet the conditions for participation in the competition and to what extent you fit into the Fund’s priorities. Remember that the purpose of the Fund is to support groups and organizations that identify with the feminist movement.
When describing your organization and group, avoid pasting in ready-made fragments of project applications or standard descriptions of your group or organization.
Also remember that your application will be read and evaluated by other groups and organizations applying for the MiniGrant, so use simple and understandable language and describe specifically what you want to do.

No, one group or organization can only submit one application. Of course, you can apply in subsequent editions of the MiniGrants.

A maximum of 99 applications may pass to the second stage. Decisions on the selection of 99 ideas shall be taken by the Fund team after consulting all the applications. In our choices, we are guided by the conditions for participation in MiniGrants and the priorities of the Feminist Fund. Applications that meet all the conditions and fit most closely into the Fund’s priorities go to the next stage of the competition.

We believe that it is the groups and organizations that are part of the feminist movement that know best what feminist measures for women’s and persons’ rights are necessary and important. Therefore, they act as experts evaluating applications and have an impact on which ideas will be implemented. We hope that the long-term result of such a solution will be strengthening solidarity between groups, acting for the common good, moving away from rivalry and changing the relations of power on which the traditionally understood philanthropy is based.

A maximum of 99 ideas move to the phase of selection by groups and organizations. Each group and organization will receive a maximum of 10 applications submitted by other Applicants. It is your job to read and evaluate these applications in accordance with our guidelines. Based on these choices, a ranking of all ideas is created. The highest rated applications receive MiniGrants. If one or more proposals receive the same number of ranking points, their financing shall be decided by the Decision Group and the Fund’s team.

Applications will be assigned to you in a completely random way, using a computer system. You are very likely to read and decide on very diverse proposals, but also ones tackling similar problems or proposing similar solutions. It may happen that at the same time you will evaluate the applications of groups and organizations from smaller towns and those from large cities.

Groups and organizations that apply and do not participate in the second stage of the selection of applications or do so after the deadline, automatically resign from participation in this edition of MiniGrants and lose the opportunity to obtain a grant.

A minimum of 75 percent of MiniGrants are selected by groups and organizations submitting applications. The Decision Group and the Fund’s team decides the remaining 20-25 percent, guided by the Fund’s priorities and supplementing the list of MiniGrants with those activities and topics that were not included in the Applicants’ choices. For example: 20 MiniGrants were awarded during the first edition of the Fund’s contest. 15 of them were decided by the ratings given by the Applicants. The remaining 5 MiniGrants were selected by the Fund’s team and the then Advisory Body.

About 20 groups/organisations receive support every year. In 2022, there were 25 groups.

There are two options for donating money to informal groups:

1. on the basis of a cooperation agreement with a non-governmental organization that lends legal personality to the group for the duration of the action,
2. on the basis of a donation agreement with a natural person designated by the group to sign the agreement and receive funds to their account.

In the contract, you provide the physical data of the person: their first and last names, PESEL number, address, and bank account number. The agreement also contains a single sentence with a general description of your activity and the amount of the donation.

A donation from the Fund is exempt from tax if it does not exceed PLN 5308 (the total amount of donations from the Fund made within 5 years). You do not have to report it anywhere.

The information contained in the application is processed by persons employed in the FemFund, it can also be accessed by the company operating our database.The data contained in the contract is processed by persons employed in FemFund and the accounting office. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy at femfund.pl/en/privacy-policy.
Your data is not available to other Applicants; they receive only that part of the application which is your answers to open questions in order to read and evaluate them.
We protect your data; we care for the confidentiality and security of the information you provide to us. If you have any questions or concerns related to this topic, please contact us: granty@femfund.pl.

MiniGrant can be used within a maximum of 6 months from the date of publication of the results. The settlement of the MiniGrant consists of preparing a short, written summary of activities together with a description of your expenses. We ask you to keep documents that confirm your expenses (invoices, bills, etc.). The main purpose of the summary is to share the experience from the implementation of the MiniGrant with other groups and feminist organizations participating in MiniGrants and with the wider community of the Fund. The Fund’s team will provide guidance to all MiniGrant-receiving groups and organizations on how to prepare such summaries. We also plan to organize face-to-face meetings for groups and organizations that will receive a MiniGrant to enable a joint discussion on the activities conducted with the support of the Fund.

The list of expenses you include in your application is intended to help other persons reading your application to better understand your idea and its scale. During the implementation of your idea, you can modify them.

We encourage you to use the logo of the Feminist Fund and inform about funding. Thanks to this, more people have a chance to learn about our existence, may support us or apply for grants.

Groups and organizations that have received and implemented the MiniGrant may seek to continue their cooperation with the Fund. It is possible to receive support for the next year under MiniGrants+ in the amount of PLN 10,000. If you are a group/organization operating for at least two years you can also apply for Empowerment Grants i.e. development grants in the amount of PLN 60,000 per year. More about Empowerment Grants at femfund.pl/granty-mocy

Timeline of the MiniGrants 2024

• 22 January – 5 February (until 13:00) – submitting applications
• 4 March – announcing the results of the first stage
• 6 March – 20 March (until 12:00) – selection of applications by groups/organizations that passed to the second stage
• 10 April – announcing the results of the 7th edition of MiniGrants
• 10 April – 31 October – deadline for the implementation of activities* as part of the 7th edition of MiniGrants
• April – May – familiarization calls and signing contracts
• May – webinar on accessibility
• September – October – meeting of Grant Recipients of the 7th edition of the MiniGrants
• 15 November – deadline for submitting a summary of the implementation of the MiniGrant

*Note: signing of contracts and transfer of MiniGrant usually takes about a month after the announcement of results – during this time we collect data for contracts, carry out calls to meet you, send contracts to you and wait for signed contracts from you. You can implement activities from April 10, but realistically the money will reach you a few weeks later.

You can benefit from the support of the Feminist Emergency Service if your group/organization meets a total of four conditions:

1. you feel part of the feminist movement;
2. you promote the rights of women and/or queer, non-binary, intersex, transgender persons;
3. the organizations is run by women and/or queer, non-binary, intersex, or transgender persons;
4. it acts for persons living in Poland.

Queer and non-binary persons are those who do not recognize the rigid division into two sexes/genders and do not feel the need to clearly define themselves as a woman or a man. Their psychosexual orientation evades the rigid divisions into hetero-, homo- and bisexual. These are persons who go beyond what we are used to stereotyping as “male” and “female”.

Transgender persons are those who do not identify with the gender that was assigned to them immediately after birth. Intersex persons, on the other hand, are persons with such physical characteristics (genetic, biological, anatomical, or physiological) that do not allow to define their gender as unambiguously male or female.

Cisgender persons are those whose gender assigned at birth is consistent with their perceived gender – their gender identity corresponds with the gender stated in their birth certificate. The Fund supports initiatives undertaken by non-cis men, because the patriarchy discriminates against all persons who are not socially recognized as men and do not enjoy the privilege enjoyed by cisgender men.

Feminist Emergency Service supports urgent feminist initiatives. In our understanding, action is urgent if:

1. results from a new, unexpected situation (it may be a threat(it can be both a response to negative events, e.g., a threat to the security of a collective/organization, a sudden deterioration in the situation of a community, and an unexpected opportunity for action, e.g., a desire to seize the moment when media attention is directed at feminist, usually overlooked topics),
2. requires acting quickly, in a short period of time, to bring about an important feminist change (e.g. regarding the situation of a particular collective/organization, a group of people experiencing some form of oppression, e.g. refugees, the entire society).

Yes, your idea should meet both conditions at the same time.

You can apply on an ongoing basis, throughout the year – for each quarter we allocate a certain amount of money to be used and give out grants until the funds are exhausted. So, you can apply when you need to, as long as the funds are still available. If the pool of funds for a given quarter runs out, you will find such information on the Feminist Emergency Service website femfund.pl/en/feminist-emergency-service (additionally, the online application form will be inactive in the Polish language version).

Yes, both NGOs and informal groups can benefit from the Fund’s grants. As we understand it, an informal group is made up of at least three persons who are working together for a cause. From the perspective of the Feminist Fund, an informal group is not persons who are primarily in family or intimate-romantic relations with each other. An informal group is also not an agreement between a contractor and participants (e.g. cooperation of a trainer with the persons to whom she directs her offer).

Sadly, no. Feminist Emergency Service, like other FemFund grants, supports activities undertaken collectively by organizations and groups. However, the group may submit a request that supports one specific activist ( e.g. when their safety is threatened).

Organizations and groups that include minors may apply for a Feminist Emergency Grant. For practical reasons, however, an informal group should include at least one adult, so that in the case of receiving a grant, the Fund can donate it to an adult person representing the group.

The Fund supports feminist activism in Poland, which is why Feminist Emergency Service can be used by groups and organizations operating abroad only if the proposed activities respond to the needs of women and persons living in Poland (e.g. border activities, solidarity activities). We do not finance activities aimed exclusively at Polish women/persons living abroad.

A group made up exclusively or mostly of men cannot receive a Feminist Emergency Grant. The Fund was created to support feminist groups created by women and non-cis-male persons, as these persons have always been particularly vulnerable to discrimination and violence in Poland. In order to change this, initiatives taken by women and non-cis-male persons should be particularly strengthened, so that their voice is strong and more audible.

Male allies are encouraged to exercise their privilege by taking feminist action using other available means. Jednym ze sposobów jest finansowe wsparcie Funduszu na femfund.pl/support

The maximum amount of support is PLN 3,000. You can also apply for smaller amounts.

You can spend the money on what is needed and necessary to conduct the activity. We do not have a division into the so-called eligible and ineligible costs.

We want to share our responsibility and influence on how FemFund money is spent with other groups operating in the feminist movement. We want this mechanism not to strengthen the existing hierarchies, but on the contrary – to foster a sense that the Fund is a common treasury for feminist activists in Poland. Referrers do not have to be well-known feminists working in organizations and groups with extensive experience. Providing a referrer will ensure us that the limited money of the Feminist Emergency Service will go where it should go.

No – this field is not mandatory. You do not have to fill it out if it raises your concerns or you do not know what to enter. Your request will not be automatically denied for this reason.

We strongly encourage you to do it – it is a good idea to check if people agree to provide their data and let them know that we may contact them.

Referrers will receive an email from us, informing them that their data has been made available to us and processed by the Feminist Fund (this is due to the GDPR’s information obligation).It may also happen that we call or text the designated person to get additional information, but we do not always do that. We do not send the content of your application to anyone.

Applications are evaluated by members of the FemFund team. We do not send the content of your application to anyone.

Participatory mechanisms require time and a great deal of involvement of many people. Meanwhile, the Feminist Emergency Service operates in an express mode – we want it to be an efficient and effective tool for supporting the feminist movement. We also want groups acting in a crisis not to be afraid to share sensitive information that concerns their security, and with a participatory process it would be difficult for us to guarantee full confidentiality.

The maximum time needed to decide on the grant is 7 working days.

We try to process applications on an ongoing basis and as quickly as possible, but we cannot guarantee that this will happen.

An introductory call is a short call online or by phone. It is mainly about getting to know each other, making sure that the feminist group is actually behind the proposal, and gathering additional information so that we can decide on the grant.

If you do not take part in the conversation, unfortunately, your group will not receive a grant.

There are two options for donating money to informal groups:

1. on the basis of a cooperation agreement with a non-governmental organization that lends legal personality to the group for the duration of the action,
2. on the basis of a donation agreement with a natural person designated by the group to sign the agreement and receive funds to their account.

In the contract, you provide the physical data of the person: their first and last names, PESEL number, address, and bank account number. The agreement also contains a single sentence with a general description of your activity and the amount of the donation.

A donation from the Fund is exempt from tax if it does not exceed PLN 5308 (the total amount of donations from the Fund made within 5 years). You do not have to report it anywhere.

The information contained in the application is processed by persons employed in the FemFund, it can also be accessed by the company operating our database. The data contained in the contract is processed by persons employed in FemFund and the accounting office. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy at femfund.pl/en/privacy-policy

We protect your data; we care for the confidentiality and security of the information you provide to us. If you have any questions or concerns related to this topic, please contact us: granty@femfund.pl.

We publish the name of your group, the amount of the grant donated, and a one-sentence description of the activity. If you consent, we will be happy to inform about your activities more broadly and in more detail, but it depends on you.

After completing the activity, you send us a brief summary online.

We encourage you to use the logo of the Feminist Fund and inform about funding. Thanks to this, more people have a chance to learn about our existence, may support us or apply for grants.

One group or organization may receive a Feminist Emergency Grant twice a year.

Yes – you can apply for an urgent grant if you are or have been a Grantee Partners of the FemFund.

Yes! At the beginning of every year, we announce a new edition of the feminist MiniGrants, in which you can submit any idea. You can read more about this program at femfund.pl/en/minigrants