About the Organisation

Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organisation working in partnership with women’s rights movements and organisations to transform the lives of women and girls. We strengthen and support women’s movements in our focus countries in Africa and Asia, and take collective action at regional and global levels, to ensure women’s voices are heard, their rights are realised, and their lives are free from violence.

Womankind has staff based in Kenya and the UK.

Who we are looking for

We are seeking applications from teams or individuals to carry out a review and provide recommendations for our grantmaking and partnership approach. We are keen to hear from those with a deep knowledge of the feminist funding ecosystem, flexible grantmaking, feminist partnership and feminist movements, especially in Eastern and Southern Africa and South Asia.

Background

In 2020/2021, Womankind Developed ‘Our Feminist Future’, our organisational strategy to 2030. This review will seek to fill gaps in our current strategy related to our approaches to partnership and grantmaking and to identify how these approaches can better align to ensure efficiency and impact while maintaining alignment with our values. The results of this review will inform and be incorporated into a new partnership and grantmaking strategy, to be implemented from mid-2025.

Womankind currently partners with 46 organisations across six focus countries. We fund, support and advocate with our partners on key women’s rights issues including violence against women and girls, women’s participation and leadership and women’s economic rights, among others. Our partnerships are guided by Womankind’s Feminist Partnership sub-strategy and Feminist Partnership Principles.

Womankind currently distributes approximately £1,200,000 in restricted project and programme funding and £800,000 per year through our three flexible funds: Her Voice Fund (focused on advocacy); Movement Strengthening Fund (focused on supporting the process of movement building); and Strategic Partner Support Grants, a pilot programme through which we are making core funding grants. Each of these funds and our approaches to them have developed organically in response to the needs of our partners and availability of funds. For example, our strategic grants and movement strengthening fund are only open to formal partners, while Her Voice Fund is also open to grassroots and informal groups within our focus countries.

Scope of Work

We are seeking to review both our partnership and grantmaking to better align them with each other and with our organisational size, strategy and aspirations, including around anti-racism and decolonisation.

The selected individual/organisation will be responsible for a comprehensive review of and concrete recommendations on Womankind’s partnership and grantmaking approaches, including:

• The context and external landscape for Womankind’s partnership and grantmaking, including identification of existing gaps in funding and support for feminist movements that an organisation such as ours could lean into
• Identification of Womankind’s value add and niche, including how we can best harness our approach and position to increase our impact, effectiveness and efficiency in support of feminist organisations and movements
• Review Womankind’s grantmaking against best practice among other flexible and feminist funders, including:
  • the effectiveness and alignment of Womankind’s current funding streams
  • practices we should continue, adapt and/or adopt
• Womankind’s approach to partnership, including:
  • with whom and how we partner, including the number and type of partnerships we currently have
  • the types of support we provide or could offer
  • how we start and responsibly end partnerships
• The potential for either broader or more narrow scope to our grantmaking and partnership

Our current income, targets and funding prospects, as outlined in our recent financing strategy review, should be considered throughout.

Deliverables

1. An inception plan for the work to be carried out at the start of the project. This should include an outline of the approach the review will take, how it will incorporate consultation with Womankind staff, partners, grantees and other key stakeholders within the space, a clear timeline, and a detailed list of information required from the Womankind staff team to inform analysis
2. An updated review of the external context for feminist funders and movements and identification of specific niches/gaps that Womankind is well placed to fill

1. Recommendations to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and impact of Womankind’s grantmaking

1. Recommendations to improve the effectiveness and impact of Womankind’s partnership approach
2. Recommendations to improve the alignment between Womankind’s strategies and workstreams and our grantmaking and partnership approaches

How to apply

Interested organisations and individuals are invited to submit a detailed proposal addressing the following:

1. Overview: Provide an overview of you as an individual/your organisation
2. Feminist values: Demonstrate you/your organisation’s principles of gender equality, social justice and the promotion of women’s rights
3. Approach and methodology: Outline your approach to conducting the review, including the methodologies and tools you will use and plans for consultation of key constituencies
4. Team skills and experience: Highlight your/your teams’ skills, qualifications and experience relevant to this project. We are particularly interested in consultants/teams of consultants with direct experience of work with/in feminist movements, organisations and funders in Womankind’s focus countries and regions
5. Timeline: Propose a realistic timeline for completing this review, including key milestones and deliverables dates. Key dates: Womankind is open to a proposal which spans the period from March – June 2025. Initial work could start as early as late March, and a final report should be delivered by mid to late June (including validation of preliminary findings). We are open to proposals that incorporate support to Womankind in developing our updated partnership and grantmaking strategy beyond June
6. Cost proposal: Provide a detailed cost proposal, including all fees, expenses and any additional costs that may arise during the course of the review. Womankind has a maximum budget of circa £20,000 for this work

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Relevance of proposal
2. Clear demonstration of feminist values
3. Methodology and approach
4. Skills and experience of consultants
5. Timeline and project management approach
6. Cost competitiveness

We actively encourage applications from minority and marginalised groups, including people from the global majority, Deaf and disabled people, members of the LGBTQ+ community and people with experience of supporting women’s rights and/or stand in solidarity with our values, mission and vision.

Due to the high volume of applications, we receive, we regret we will not be able to respond personally to applicants who are not short-listed. If you have not heard from us within three weeks from the closing date, please assume you have been unsuccessful on this occasion. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

The deadline for proposal submissions is 12 January 2025. Interviews will take place from w/c 20 January 2025.