Anti-gender funding vs. Women’s rights

Billions are flowing across Europe into anti-gender and anti-rights organizations.

While women’s organizations are at the frontlines of resistance movement defending democracy and human rights, they are massively underfunded amid across-the-board funding cuts. In 2025, donations declined by 463M €, as recent figures from the German Donation Council show.

That’s why we are appealing on March 8th and today’s Women’s Strike: Those who want equality and democracy must also finance it.

Sources:

Arutyunova, A. (2013, October 7). Watering the leaves, starving the roots. AWID. https://www.awid.org/publications/watering-leaves-starving-roots

Binışık, D. (2026, January 15). Why a resilient democracy needs a feminist financing. Heinrich Böll Stiftung. https://www.boell.de/en/2026/01/15/why-resilient-democracy-needs-feminist-financing

Neil, D. (2025, June 6). New report exposes funding to anti-rights initiatives in Europe rise to US$1.18 billion | EPF. European Parliament Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. https://www.epfweb.org/node/1152

Neil, D. (2026, March 2). The next wave: How religious extremism is regaining power | EPF. European Parliament Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. https://www.epfweb.org/node/1147

Tagesschau.de. (2026, February 19). Spendenbereitschaft in Deutschland 2025 gesunken. tagesschau.de. https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/spendenbereitschaft-sinkt-100.html

Šišić, M. (2025, March 13). Beyond the cuts: How the defunding affects feminist and civil society organizations. Heinrich Böll Stiftung. https://www.boell.de/en/2025/03/13/beyond-cuts-how-defunding-affects-feminist-and-civil-society-organizations