grant round
Care Grantmaking and learning Initiative
Care is receiving heightened attention on public agendas, due to its role in reproducing systemic inequality, and at the same time, its potential to fuel more inclusive and just societies if targeted by transformative policies and investment. The SAGE Fund in collaboration with the Ford Foundation Future of Work(ers) program, is advancing a 3-year exploratory grantmaking and learning initiative on care, aimed at strengthening care systems, ensuring greater protection and support for care workers, and building the Global Majority movement capacity needed, to leverage strategic policy opportunities at national and regional levels.
GRANTMAKING
To guide the grantmaking, SAGE undertook an expansive, participatory design and assessment process for a Care Request for Proposals (RFP), working with movement leaders and activists from the labor, feminist, economic, migrant and disability rights fields. The advisors brought critical and diverse knowledge, augmenting the SAGE team’s analysis, to ensure the pilot grant round is informed by the priorities and opportunities emerging from the field(s).
Issued in five languages, the RFP yielded 487 applications from 732 organizations, applying alone or in partnership. Ninety percent of the organizations were from Global Majority countries (Africa, Asia, Latin America and/or the Middle East and North Africa) with 97% of the projects leveraging opportunities across these regions. SAGE is in the final stages of cultivating a cohort of $1 million in care grants, to be announced in December 2024.
LEARNING
By design, SAGE’s RFP and grantmaking model, reaches a more grassroots level of the field, allowing us to undertake robust trends and field analysis, as well as to get a new set of grantees and impacts. The care RFP process surfaced openings to expand the care agenda, and it lifted up a range of strategies and focal points across regions and fields that are poised for further development and dedicated support. Collectively, the RFP review process has generated a broader analysis of needs, gaps and opportunities across the care field, which will be shared with funders and civil society to inform learning and generate additional support.
SAGE will produce a learning report that captures the analysis and mapping of the field. In addition, SAGE will organize and participate in funder briefings, including a workshop, Strengthening Care Work Globally, co-hosted with the Ford Foundation and USAID
advisors
EMILIENNE DE LEÓN AULINA is Mexican and has over 30 years of experience working as a supporter and consultant of local and international human rights and women’s rights organizations. From 2000-2009 she served as the Executive Director of the Mexican Women’s Fund: Semillas. As the Executive Director of Semillas, Emilienne contributed to a very significant growth of the fundraising and grant making of this organization and to the establishment of its endowment. Emilienne was the Executive Director of Prospera, the International Network of Women’s Funds from 2010 till 2020. She has been working since May 2021 in the creation of the Global Alliance for Care and she is acting as the Interim Technical Secretary. Emilienne has served in various local and international Boards Women’s Funding Network (2001-2008). She is a member of the Board of the Institute of Leadership Simone de Beauvoir and in FUNDAR, 2 NGO’s in Mexico. Emilienne received the E-News XXI Century Leaders Award in 2005. She is a coach and is also consulting at regional and global level in feminist philanthropy and promoting fair and feminist leadership.
PAOLA CYMENT brings 15 years of expertise in migration, gender, and human rights. She has been part of the Women in Migration Network (WIMN) since 2015 and joined WIMN’s Secretariat in 2020. Currently, she serves as the network's Advocacy Lead and coordinates the Local/Global Nexus of Intersectional Movement-Building project, which aims to amplify grassroots migrant women's voices in global migration governance spaces. Paola has held various roles in domestic and international organizations, focusing on research, advocacy, institutional development, and project management.
ALBERTO VÁSQUEZ ENCALDA is a Mad/disability activist with nearly 20 years of experience in disability rights and mental health policy. He is the co-director of the Center for Inclusive Policy (CIP) and has been a consultant for several UN agencies. He graduated in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and holds a Master’s degree in Disability Law and Policy from the National University of Ireland, Galway. He also chairs Sociedad y Discapacidad – SODIS, is a founding member of the RedEsfera Latinoamericana por las Culturas Locas, la Diversidad Psicosocial, la Justicia, el Buen Vivir y el Derecho al Delirio, co-chairs the Disability Rights Fund, and is an honorary researcher at the University of Essex.
FISH IP is the Asia Pacific regional coordinator at the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF). Her roles include advocacy, delegation and representation, coordination, capacity-building and training, as well as case management. Coming from a labor union background, she has extensive experience in transnational organizing, research, and movement building. Fish is also involved in immigration detention issues and understands the implications of the incarceration industrial complex on the most vulnerable. She is also a board member of the Asian Migrant Centre (AMC) and will be bringing her experience navigating complex and diverse ethnic contexts in Asia and beyond, within the global care chain.
RACHEL MOUSSIÉ is the Director of Programmes at WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) – a global network aimed at securing the labour and economic rights of workers in informal employment. she joined WIEGO in 2016 to lead the Child Care Initiative supporting organisations of workers in informal employment to mobilise for quality, affordable, accessible, and publicly financed child care services as a component of labour and social protections. Prior to joining WIEGO, Rachel was the Policy Manager for the Women’s Rights program at ActionAid International where she raised funds and oversaw multi-country research and advocacy projects on addressing women’s unequal responsibility for unpaid care work. She started her research and policy work on global tax policy reform and public education financing with a feminist economics lens. Rachel holds a MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and a BA from McGill University. She is from and resides in Mauritius.