Choose a filter:
SelectThe Advancing Human Rights blog brings the research on human rights grantmaking to life by connecting the numbers to context. Through our various series we aim to bring diverse perspectives to a range of topics and increase understanding of the human rights funding landscape.
Interested in writing a post on a topic not covered here? Please contact Rachel Thomas, Director of Research Initiatives at Human Rights Funders Network, at rthomas@hrfn.org
Showing 28 Blog Posts
December 3, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas
"For decades, donors have told disability activists, 'We don’t do disability,' though people with disabilities are members of every gender, race, class, ethnicity, and religion."
- Juliet Mureriwa, Ford Foundation
October 9, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas
"Shifts from a few large donors can have significant ramifications."
- Artemisa Castro Félix, Action in Solidarity Fund
August 22, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas
"With the Syrian refugee crisis and people fleeing violence and persecution from Central America, countries in the West have been forced to confront what people in other regions have endured for decades."
- Elyse Lightman Samuels, Unbound Philanthropy
July 11, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas
"While other groups are spotlighted in global human rights conversations, children’s issues are deemed more ‘charity than rights’ so are often completely ignored."
- Ghazal Keshavarzian, Elevate Children
June 25, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas
"It’s sad that the trend continues to be funding western-based organizations to do work in Africa."
- Jeanne Elone, TrustAfrica
May 24, 2018
Author: Rachel Thomas, HRFN, and Anna Koob, Foundation Center
Having recently released our first ever trends analysis, we have taken the opportunity to reflect critically about the way we’ve collected, analyzed, and presented the data since we began this work in 2010. It’s an opportunity to pose a question that implicates all of us: What can we do better?
May 23, 2018
Author: Meerim Ilyas, Amber Moulton, and Salote Soqo
In February, in San Francisco, a group of funders gathered for a day-long discussion of funding trends in human rights. The discussion offered opportunities for a deeper dive into funding shifts, what they mean and what we, as funders, can do to advocate for funding growth where it’s needed. Those of us who use a human rights framework to fund environmental and climate justice pondered over the data presented: What does it mean to fund an issue that is highly intersectional, not always defined as human rights-related, and heavily dependent on larger foundations?
April 23, 2018
Author: Maíra Junqueira, Brazil Human Rights Fund
Data from the Advancing Human Rights initiative gives us at the Brazil Human Rights Fund a better understanding of where Brazil is situated in the context of global human rights philanthropy. This knowledge helps us to be more strategic in our work as we consider how to best support civil society organizations and develop domestic philanthropy to promote human rights in Brazil.
April 23, 2018
Author: Mona Chun
Once upon a time, back in the old days of 2010, human rights funders were sitting alone in their castles, with no knowledge of what their peers in other towers and castles were doing... then came the Advancing Human Rights research.
April 11, 2018
Author: Laia Griñó, Foundation Center
In a field where data can pose real risks, some might feel that this openness is ill-advised. Yet transparency and data protection need not be at odds. By operating from a framework of responsible data, funders can simultaneously protect the privacy and security of grantees and contribute to making the human rights field more transparent, accountable, and effective.
March 8, 2018
Author: Augusta Hagen-Dillon, Prospera
As a hub of women’s funds, one of Prospera’s roles is to identify the trends, opportunities, and challenges our members face in fundraising for and conducting their grantmaking. The Advancing Human Rights initiative offers a unique opportunity for us to learn about the state of human rights funding and place the work of women’s funds within this broader context. Prospera completed a parallel five-year trends report of women’s funds. With both of these tools in hand, we can deepen our understanding of the funding landscape and begin to address key questions that inform our collective work.
February 15, 2018
Author: Anna Koob and Inga Ingulfsen, Foundation Center
Much has been made of the commitment to human rights principles reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals covering a range of social and economic issues to guide the global development agenda through 2030. But how does funding aligned with the SDGs overlap with funding that supporting human rights? And to what extent have human rights funders and advocates succeeded in leveraging the SDGs to mobilize support and resources?
January 31, 2018
Author: David Sampson, The Baring Foundation
The Advancing Human Rights initiative is a welcome reminder that we have colleagues all over the world doing similar work. We know that what works in Buenos Aires may not work in Liverpool, but we can all learn from each other’s successes and challenges. Advancing Human Rights is a unique platform for understanding our combined decisions on strategy and funding flows; the release of new data always gives us pause to reflect on our work and our community of practice. The latest findings provided some surprising results and lots of food for thought. Here are my top three for Western Europe:
January 24, 2018
Author: Lorena Klos, Ariadne
As human rights foundations strive to solve complex societal issues around the world through their grantmaking, analyzing data might just be the missing piece of the puzzle in improving funding practices, at the both individual and collective levels. Data allow foundation staff and individual grantmakers to gain insight into what is working, where improvements are needed, and where they fit within the field of human rights philanthropy in order to produce a greater impact.
December 7, 2017
Author: Sarah Tansey, HRFN, and Anna Koob, Foundation Center
Today we launch our latest findings on our interactive research hub. With multiple analyses and five full years of data under our belt, we are able to explore trends in human rights grantmaking for the first time. What did we find?
April 6, 2017
Author: John Kabia
While health and well-being rights received more funding than any other human rights issue that year - both in Sub-Saharan Africa and globally - the data show that over 80 percent of funding for Western Africa went to groups based outside of the region.
March 27, 2017
Author: Merrill Sovner
While the Advancing Human Rights research provides our colleagues in the human rights philanthropy and NGO communities a snapshot of where money is being spent, a natural follow-up question looms: could academics use this data set in their research?
February 15, 2017
Author: Melinda Fine
When your job centers on helping funders assess needs, devise strategies, and manage and evaluate their grantmaking, you wish that every field would have a resource like Advancing Human Rights: Update on Global Foundation Grantmaking.
February 8, 2017
Author: Carla López C.
According to the research, Global South and East funders provided $63.5 million through 2,259 grants to 1,837 recipients working to protect and promote human rights in 2014. Many of these donors are women’s funds that have taken the lead in mobilizing local and international resources that wouldn’t otherwise reach grassroots groups in their countries and regions.
August 2, 2016
Author: Hilal Baykara
What I find most interesting in this research is the amount of funding allocated to grassroots organizing — a mere 2 percent. This statistic aligns with the findings of the Civicus study The State of Civil Society, 2015, which notes that NGOs receive only 1 percent of official development assistance.
July 21, 2016
Author: Maria Amalia Souza
Building a culture of philanthropy in the Global South and East is a herculean job, and it is only through collaboration that results will be achieved.
July 20, 2015
Author: Sarah Gunther
What we measure becomes how we see and understand our world... Data enables us to hold our own institutions and the field accountable for ensuring that our funding reaches the communities who need it the most.
July 16, 2015
Author: Diana Samarasan
Advancing Human Rights enables us to start conversations within the philanthropic sector - to find the people who are not counted, the voices that are not heard, and the stories between the lines.
November 13, 2014
Author: Julie Broome
That's exactly the value I see in the maps and analysis of human rights grantmaking created by the International Human Rights Funders Group and Foundation Center. They, too, can help those of us in the field of human rights philanthropy establish where we are and think critically about where we are going.
September 10, 2014
Author: Sarah Hamilton
Advancing Human Rights provides a picture of the relationship between need, funders' goals, and actual funding for these issues.
June 19, 2013
Author: Daniel Lee
As the ink dries on Advancing Human Rights, how can we spur a ripple effect for the field of human rights philanthropy?
June 19, 2013
Author: Kate Kroeger
Maps tell us stories as much as they tell us longitudes and latitudes.
June 19, 2013
Author: Caitlin Stanton
This data helps us identify issues, like that of gender-based violence, where the scope of the problem may not align with the scale of the response.