Population

Sex Workers, 2011 - 2015

Sex workers are adults who receive money or goods in exchange for consensual sexual services or erotic performances, either regularly or occasionally. Human rights funding for sex workers recognizes the agency, bodily autonomy, and self-determination of sex workers, and distinguishes between sex work and human trafficking. It funds initiatives to address and reduce harms related to criminalization, stigma, and discrimination and supports the development of movements pursuing these goals.

Foundation Funding for Sex Workers

These are partial figures based on a subset of foundations that shared grants data all five years: Read more about our methodology.

<1%
Share of foundation
human rights funding

$19.7 Million out of
$9.4 Billion for all rights
425 Grants
from 2011 - 2015

Top Foundation Funders

  1. Anonymous $5.9 M
  2. American Jewish World Service $3.0 M
  3. Mama Cash $2.4 M
  4. Ford Foundation $1.2 M
  5. Hivos $1.1 M
  6. The Oak Foundation $1.0 M
  7. Fund For Global Human Rights $905.0 K
  8. Stop AIDS Now $745.4 K
  9. Esmee Fairbairn Foundation $605.8 K
  10. Uhai Eashri $544.0 K
  11. Tides Foundation $353.6 K
  12. Segal Family Foundation $350.0 K
  13. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $239.2 K
  14. The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice $184.0 K
  15. Freedom Fund (UK) $161.4 K
  16. Global Fund for Children $160.0 K
  17. The Overbrook Foundation $150.0 K
  18. African Women's Development Fund $116.0 K
  19. The Global Fund for Women $109.5 K
  20. Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights $103.4 K
  21. The M.A.C. AIDS Fund $50.0 K
  22. South Asia Women's Fund $46.8 K
  23. FRIDA - The Young Feminist Fund $35.5 K
  24. HER Fund $32.8 K
  25. Urgent Action Fund - Africa $31.3 K
  26. M = Millions
    B = Billions

Bilateral and Multilateral Funding

<1%
Share of OECD
human rights funding

$88.5 Million out of
$36.6 Billion for all rights
974 Disbursements

Top Funders

  1. Sweden $42.9 M
  2. Global Fund $24.2 M
  3. Australia $4.8 M
  4. Norway $4.0 M
  5. European Union Institutions $3.3 M
  6. Spain $2.5 M
  7. Finland $1.6 M
  8. Canada $1.5 M
  9. Germany $1.3 M
  10. United States $1.1 M
  11. Belgium $856.8 K
  12. Italy $85.7 K
  13. Switzerland $42.7 K
  14. United Kingdom $36.5 K
  15. Czech Republic $18.3 K
  16. Luxembourg $16.3 K
  17. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) $951
  18. M = Millions
    B = Billions

Subset of Foundation Funding by Region

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Issue

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Intersecting Populations

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Subset of Foundation Funding by Strategy

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* Red Umbrella Fund, Mama Cash, and Open Society Foundations recently conducted an in-depth analysis of sex worker rights funding in 2013 and identified a total of $11 million in support. This additional support was identified through targeted data collection, including from non-governmental organizations, from which we do not collect funding data. To learn more: www.redumbrellafund.org/report/.