From pioneer to partner

New Roles

Mama Cash staff

Executive Director Lilianne Ploumen left the organisation in 2001. Under her leadership, the income of the organisation more than doubled, and the number of employees (mostly part-time) had grown from six in 1996 to 22 in 2001. Ploumen had just merged the Culture Fund, the Fund for the Global South, the Central and Eastern Europe Fund, and the Guarantee Fund into one foundation, Stichting (Foundation) Mama Cash. The formerly autonomous funds became divisions of the organisation. The volunteers of the various former Boards became members of Advisory Councils, advising the managers of the divisions. Mama Cash now had one single Board that delegated the daily management to the Executive Director, who directed the fund managers and staff. When the new millennium set in, the roles were reversed definitively: the volunteers took on an advisory role to the paid staff members. Professionals had taken over the work of the volunteers.

Handing over the baton
The new Executive Director, Ellen Sprenger, previously worked for the development organisation Oxfam Novib. She pushed the organisation’s professionalisation further. She hired new, specialised personnel. Some volunteers adapted to their new roles, but others were not pleased. To founder Marjan Sax, Mama Cash had lost her momentum. Sax: ‘In my opinion back then, Mama Cash had no more added value, she had lost her silver lining’. (watch interview) A new generation had arrived with new perspectives and ideas. It was time for the baton to be handed over.

Partner in a worldwide network
Over the years, Mama Cash’s position within the women’s rights movement had changed significantly. During the mid 90s, the Global Fund for Women in the U.S. had become larger than Mama Cash. Women’s movements had given rise to fifteen independent women’s funds in Asia and the Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Europe. Mama Cash had become a partner in a growing worldwide network of women’s funds.

Exploring new boundaries
On Sprenger’s initiative, Mama Cash developed her very first five-year strategic plan. Board and staff got together to discuss new strategies. Just as it had seven years before, it was thought that Mama Cash needed more focus, more audacity and more gumption. Her field of focus had become too broad. Each year, over four hundred women’s groups received mainly small, project grants. It was difficult to keep track of any results. It was time to make choices. Sprenger: ‘My goal was to take Mama Cash up to a more professional level, without her losing her unique way of exploring new boundaries, and supporting pioneers committed to boldly defending women’s rights. This wasn’t an easy process and met with resistance within the organisation’.

Professionalisation and being radical go together
Sprenger was convinced that professionalisation and being radical could go together. Sprenger: ‘Mama Cash was notorious for being a rather chaotic organisation. I wanted to take her to a higher level and expand her influence as well as her visibility with potential funders. I wanted her to leave a larger impact on the world’. However, Marjan Sax thought that further professionalisation involved a risk: ‘Professionalisation is necessary to guarantee the continuity and the quality of an organisation, but it always goes hand in hand with more bureaucracy, the big enemy of activism’. (watch interview)

First five-year strategic plan
The result of these discussions was Mama Cash’s first strategic plan for the years 2004 – 2008, titled She makes the difference. The organisation did not shy away from painful decisions and had decided to close the Guarantee Fund. It had realised its mission. There was no more need to support new women entrepreneurs in the Netherlands as their needs were now finally being met by financial institutions. Also, in 1991 the Mama Cash Art Award, initiated by the Culture Fund was called off. Women artists in the Netherlands had succeeded in carving out a larger place for themselves in the art world.

Up until 2003, Mama Cash would only be prompted to think about her future if faced with a crisis. From this time on, however, she decided to create a new strategic plan every five years and facilitate the organisation’s development by planning leaps forward.

Flexible and versatile
Former treasurer Louise van Deth admires the smart way in which Mama Cash put her money into action. In her opinion, calling off the Guarantee Fund after it had accomplished its mission was a courageous decision. She also admires the way Mama Cash has been willing to adapt her grant allocations criteria when there were urgent or inspiring reasons. ‘I’ve always found this flexible and versatile side of Mama Cash very appealing,’ says Van Deth. (watch interview)

farewell party Marjan Sax

Farewell to her remaining founders

In 2003, Mama Cash’s remaining founders Marjan Sax and Lida van den Broek left the organisation. Their farewell marked the beginning of a new era. Carine van den Brink, who had been involved in the Guarantee Fund for many years, took over Marjan Sax’s position as the Board’s Chair. Louise van Deth left the Board in 2004: she had become more radical and wiser during her years with Mama Cash. And she is full of admiration for Mama Cash’s accomplishments. (watch interview)

During the period 2001 – 2003, Mama Cash granted 3,867,000 euro to 1197 groups. In the year 2003, 16 full time staff and 12 part-time volunteers worked for Mama Cash.

Organisational culture

office meeting

Activism and professionalisation
A widely held idea during Mama Cash’s first decade was that hierarchical organisations did not fit the ideals of the left wing and the women’s movements in the Netherlands. When Lilianne Ploumen, became the Executive Director in 1997, she was determined to show that activism did not necessarily preclude professionalisation. Mama Cash consisted of three rooms, a kitchen and thirty-eight women, only six of whom were paid. A formal structure was lacking, and everybody was included in every decision. Once every two weeks a bookkeeper would visit. Ploumen: ‘We couldn’t afford to buy a PC for everybody. If someone fell ill, her work simply would not be done. We all put our shoulders to the wheel to bring the organisation to a more professional level’. (watch interview)

Charming chaos
Ploumen doubled the office space and, for the first time, Mama Cash got a real meeting room. She introduced human resources policies, job descriptions and task specifications. At first she faced quite some resistance. Ploumen: ‘Delegating tasks and having our paid staff prepare and complete the grant requests, these were things I had to fight for’. ‘That chaos was one of the charms of Mama Cash’, Will Janssen, former Manager of the Fund for the Global South, recalls. ‘But the pressure of work was high. When Ploumen became the Executive Director, she started to take care of personnel matters. The internal organisation improved a lot’.

Informal hierarchy

lunch at the office

The organisational culture at Mama Cash was unusual. Mama Cash was a small organisation with a certain bureaucracy and hierarchy. Ploumen: ‘I usually didn’t have to remind people, but I was the Executive Director. I was able to have a hearty laugh with someone, and later on address her about something with which I was dissatisfied. It was an informal hierarchy. It was not something with which everybody was comfortable’.

According to former treasurer Louise van Deth, who was at that time working in the banking sector, Mama Cash stood out from many other organisations in at least two ways. ‘Mama Cash was not run by people’s egos, which was a far cry from the male environment in which I was used to working. Also, at Mama Cash we were able to make quick decisions in complex situations. I saw how important it was for people in an organisation to deal with each other in both a friendly and a business like way’.

Change in organisational structure
In the year 2000, Mama Cash prepared for a radical change in her organisational structure. During the previous decade, Mama Cash had consisted of four connected, yet autonomous foundations: the Guarantee Fund, the Culture Fund, the Fund for the Global South, and the umbrella foundation: Mama Cash Foundation. Each of these foundations had its own Board, consisting of volunteers supported by paid staff. The Board of Mama Cash Foundation was comprised of representatives of the three other foundations. Mama Cash Foundation managed the finances and was the employer of the staff. All Boards made their own policies in alignment with the vision and mission of Mama Cash.

One single Mama Cash Foundation
This organisational structure had been difficult to manage for the Executive Director. There were also external reasons to change the organisation. For one, the larger donors expected Mama Cash to be more accountable for the way she spent their grants. Additionally, the Dutch Central Bureau of Fundraising had become stricter about awarding their seal of approval and required a certain governance structure. Therefore, in 2001, all four foundations were united into one single Mama Cash Foundation.

Surprise
The year 2000 also brought a big financial surprise. Private donor Johanna from Women with Inherited Wealth donated five million guilders (2.270.000 euros) to Mama Cash. The donor determined that the money should be added to the financial reserves. The interest could be used for financing activities of Mama Cash.

Institutional donors

Pragmatism and principles
Initially, accepting subsidies from the Dutch government and development organisations was not an acceptable strategy to Mama Cash. ‘Within the women’s movement we debated whether to collaborate with established organisations, or whether to keep our independence and do things on our own. As Mama Cash was part of the women’s movement, naturally we discussed these matters as well’, former Executive Director Lilianne Ploumen says. But more money was needed to finance the grant requests from women’s groups, and pragmatism triumphed over principles. Ploumen: ‘Our most important principle became maintaining our independence to decide on what we wanted to spend the money’.

Defining boundaries
Mama Cash was also reluctant to accept funding from U.S. foundations. Ploumen: ‘Did we want to be associated with them? We tried to define our boundaries as well as theirs in order to keep the freedom to spend the money the way we wanted’.

Will Janssen at work

With regard to corporate funding, Mama Cash was even more scrupulous. Donations from Shell were not accepted. Former Manager of the Fund for the Global South Will Janssen comments: ‘We heatedly debated accepting a donation from the multinational Shell. Eventually, we refused their offer. Mama Cash supported women’s projects in Nigeria, where Shell was polluting the environment. We could not reconcile these two’.

Collaboration with development organisations
Lilianne Ploumen targeted many new financial resources. Being a former employee of Foster Parents Plan (currently Plan Nederland), she was well-acquainted with the world of development aid. In 1996, Novib was the first development organisation to subsidise Mama Cash’s support of women’s groups in the Global South. From that time onward, Mama Cash received substantial subsidies from organisations such as Novib, Hivos, Cordaid and Stichting DOEN. ‘Large development organisations saw in Mama Cash, with her detailed network of contacts with grassroots organisations, a way to reach small women’s groups. Also, these organisations liked to pass on the more radical projects to Mama Cash. Projects dealing with subjects such as sex workers’ rights and abortion, all issues that were more or less taboo in their organisations’, says Will Janssen.

Funds from the United States
From 1997 onward, Lilianne Ploumen and Will Janssen approached foundations in the United States. During their first visit to the United States, they met with the Ford Foundation and the Soros Foundation, among others. Mama Cash was known to U.S. funders as ‘that little radical fund from Holland’, and she was regarded with respect. Several foundations proposed collaborations and were willing to donate substantial amounts of money.

Beginning in 1998, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation agreed to donate 200,000 guilders annually (90,000 euros) to Mama Cash for women’s groups in the Global South for a period of three years. The Ford Foundation wanted to support the work of lesbian women in the Global South and women migrants and refugees in Central and Eastern Europe. The Packard Foundation donated 100,000 guilders (45,000 euros) to Mama Cash to distribute to organisations working on reproductive rights.

Take more risks
Will Janssen: ‘Since Mama Cash was a relatively small organisation, she was able to take more risks. If something happened to go wrong, any harm to the donors would be minimal’. Ploumen: ‘Those funds got others to work on issues that were off limits to them, such as sex worker or lesbian rights. During that time we established many connections with mainstream funds from which women worldwide still benefit. (watch interview)

Money from the Dutch government
Even though Mama Cash had initially refused to accept government money, during her directorship Ploumen soon decided to change this policy. ‘After all, government money was also our money’, Ploumen says. In 1999 the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted 400,000 guilders (190,000 euro) for the Fund for the Global South. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment gave 58,000 guilders (28,000 euro) for the Culture Fund and for organising courses on fundraising. ‘It was a win-win situation’, Lilianne Ploumen recalls. ‘The government and development organisations were interested in our plans. We were able to reach those women who could bring about the change the government was also aiming for’.

The trek to the Global South
As she promoted women’s rights, Mama Cash had formed alliances with the Dutch government, with development organisations and US foundations. The new resources allowed Mama Cash to support more women’s groups within her network. While up until 1996, all income had been raised from private donors, by 2000, about one third of Mama Cash’s income came from the Dutch government and large foundations. This represented not only a considerable growth of available general resources, it also meant that more money could flow to groups in the Global South. Ploumen: ‘The number of grant requests from the South kept on increasing. It was easier for us to raise funds for them than for groups in the Netherlands’. Becoming more internationally orientated, however, did have its disadvantages. Ploumen: ‘Mama Cash lost her place in the Dutch public debate’. (watch interview)

Part of the international women’s movement
The pool of resources and the number of women’s groups that received grants grew during Ploumen’s management. Was Mama Cash running the risk of becoming the feminist sidekick of development organisations? Founders Marjan Sax and Lida van den Broek do not think so. Van den Broek: ‘Rather the opposite was the case. Being regularly in contact with Mama Cash, employees of development organisations started to become more conscious of the importance of the empowerment of women’. (watch interview) Sax: ‘Mama Cash was, and still is a feminist women’s fund and continues to be part of the worldwide women’s movement, whose primary goal is to promote the autonomy and independence of women. Development organisations and human rights organisations used us to channel the voice of women in their work. This didn’t mean we had become a development organisation ourselves’.

During the period 1996 – 2000, Mama Cash granted 4,185,000 euro to 2225 groups. In the year 2000, 33 volunteers 33 volunteers and 21 part-time staff worked for Mama Cash.

Identity crisis and rejuvenation

Lilianne Ploumen accepts Joke Smit Award (Foto Hendriksen Valk)

Growing pains
When Mama Cash reached puberty, her hormones started to race. The organisation had grown significantly. The 1995 UN World Conference on Women in Beijing had given her new vigour and inspiration. In 1996 Mama Cash was awarded the Joke Smit Prize by the Dutch government for her achievements in the field of women’s liberation. That same year, she received her first subsidy from Novib, a development organisation. Furthermore, from Johanna, a member of the network Women with Inherited Wealth, she had received a substantial donation that allowed her to establish the Central and Eastern Europe Fund in 1996. In spite of all this, Mama Cash faced a crisis. That year’s annual report stated that ‘Growth comes with growing pains’. Volunteers and staff started to voice their discontent about Mama Cash’s lack of movement. Was she still the thorn in the side that she wanted to be?

New initiatives versus maintenance
During the World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, Mama Cash was told that the models that the North employed to assist the Global South amounted to a new form of colonialism. This deepened the gap Mama Cash felt between herself and the groups in the Global South that she wanted to support.

The Culture Fund also started to question the way it assessed grant requests. ‘White women tend to focus on maintenance and consolidation instead of innovation’, reads the 1996 Annual Report. In other words, continuing to support the same initiatives was not what Mama Cash wanted, nor what she had done in the past. ‘Innovation can particularly be found with immigrant projects’. This approach was more to Mama Cash’s liking.

The ability to make a difference

Lilianne Ploumen and Jos Esajas

Founder Marjan Sax clearly remembers the nagging doubts running in the organisation back then: ‘Partly thanks to Mama Cash, everyone had started to realise how important women are to the development process worldwide’. In the Netherlands Mama Cash had stood relatively alone on the frontlines of mobilising resources for women´s rights. Now others were joining her. Women entrepreneurs ran businesses, and organisations such as Novib and Hivos had developed their own women’s programmes. Marjan Sax: ‘Mama Cash had lost the ability to make a difference. We were not front runners anymore. It wasn’t clear how we could change that. What was it that Mama Cash should focus on?’ In July 1996 the doubts were put on paper and a working group started looking for new perspectives.

Change of generations

farewell party Dorelies and Patty

The crisis was warded off by a change of personnel. In 1997, fundraiser Lilianne Ploumen became Mama Cash’s first Executive Director. She developed a list of priorities: work and care for the family; power and influence; gender specific health care; sexual violence; trafficked women and forced sex-work; and sustainable development. Mama Cash saw that innovation in the Netherlands was mostly coming from black women’s and young women’s groups. It was time for a change of generations. New and younger staff members were hired. Founders Patti Slegers and Dorelies Kraakman left the organisation in 1997.

Regaining strength
The new generation approached this crisis of identity from a different angle. Nancy Jouwe, Manager of the Culture Fund since 1998: ‘When I joined Mama Cash, the founders still had an active role. I saw them all leave. This wasn’t my crisis. I was part of the renewal, just like Lilianne Ploumen. The new women were the embodiment of Mama Cash’s search for fresh perspectives’. Lilianne Ploumen looks back at it as a period of profound change. As far as she is concerned, there was never an indication of there being a generation gap. (watch interview) After all was said and done, Mama Cash emerged with renewed energy from this crisis.

Growth continues

More paid staff
In 1991, Mama Cash moved to her current office in the Eerste Helmersstraat 17. There were three rooms. The room housing the office manager also served as a meeting room, wardrobe, storage and kitchen. The amount of work grew, as did the number of grant requests, and slowly Mama Cash hired more paid staff members. While in 1991 there were only two part-timers, by 1995 there were five. Their task was to support the founders of Mama Cash and a dedicated group of volunteers and advisors.

The first audit
Making grants to women’s organisations in the Global South started to require more attention and specialised knowledge. In 1991, the Fund for the Global South was spun off from the Culture Fund, and moving forward the Culture Fund would only accept grant requests from the Netherlands. Also in 1991, the Culture Fund set up the annual Mama Cash Art Award.

From 1994 onward, the financial statements were audited by an accountant. In 1995, Mama Cash got an internet connection, which facilitated communication, especially with women’s movements in the Global South. Mama Cash also set up her first website.

10 years Mama Cash

The first ticket in the Mama Cash Lotery

In celebration of her tenth anniversary, Mama Cash organised a party and a raffle. The first ticket was sold to Hedy d’Ancona, Minister of Welfare, Health, and Culture. For two months, employees, Board members and volunteers travelled the country to sell tickets. The proceeds were considerably more than expected: over 8,500 tickets were sold for an amount of 105,000 guilders (50,000 euros).

On November 19th 1993, Mama Cash celebrated her 10-year anniversary. The theme of the celebration was ‘In Mama Cash’s shoes for one night’. Five women’s initiatives made presentations to the 700 guests attending the celebrations. Upon arrival, each guest received tokens. With these, they could support the projects and new entrepreneurs represented. After spending their initial tokens, guests had the option to purchase more in support of the initiatives. ‘Mor Cati’, the first women’s shelter in Istanbul, turned out to be the general favourite and left with over 7500 guilders (3600 euros). The festivities ended with performances by Dutch singer Mathilde Santing and Yulduz Usmanova and her swinging band from Uzbekistan.

Taking fundraising to a political level

Lilianne Ploumen and Jos Esajas (Banner text: Fund for Women. Ideals need Money)

In 1995 Mama Cash decided to invest in personnel qualified to develop fundraising activities. Lilianne Ploumen, earlier employed by Foster Parents Plan, was recruited for the job. Before Ploumen joined the organisation, Mama Cash raised about 5,000 guilders (2,200 euros) per month, from smaller gifts by individual donors. Mama Cash also received substantial donations from members of Women with Inherited Wealth. Ploumen: ‘If Mama Cash wanted to maintain her autonomous position and make her own decisions without government interference, we had to start raising our own funds. At that time in the Netherlands, it was not socially acceptable to ask someone personally for a large amount of money. Asking for donations for the empowerment of women and girls was non-existent. Welfare and women’s empowerment were paid for by the government’. But Mama Cash did it despite the odds. Ploumen: ‘She managed to break the taboo that women’s rights is not worth giving money to. We took fundraising to a political level’. (watch interview)

Workshop fundraising
Because of financial cuts by the Dutch government, a growing number of social organisations were forced to find other financial resources. As Mama Cash was one of the first organisations in the women’s movement to start fundraising, her expertise was frequently solicited. Through workshops, she passed on her knowledge to other women’s organisations.

Mama Cash Workshop in Beijing

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing
Over 25,000 women from all over the world gathered for the Forum of the Fourth UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Western women were in the minority compared to the impressive number of women from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. It was the Global South that had clearly become the centre and inspiration of the women’s movement. Mama Cash was represented by six women, and she had given 39 travel grants so that women from the Global South could attend the conference. The conference’s final document declared that women have the right to decide about their own sexuality, including their reproductive health, and they have the right to live free from discrimination and violence. Also the right of inheritance of women and girls was recognised.

Independent women’s funds
Mama Cash organised a well-attended workshop in the Beijing Conference about her activities. During this workshop, her role as a funder was discussed. Women from Africa accused the West of imposing a western capitalist model of development on them. Mama Cash agreed with this view and declared that she was particularly supporting autonomous groups engaged in contributing to radical social change.

Furthermore, several American women’s funds had organised a meeting about the necessity for an independent money flow through independent women’s funds to women’s rights organisations. Semillas, a women’s fund in Mexico, had already launched in 1991. Women in other parts of the world had also started to set up their own women’s funds. Mama Cash wholeheartedly supported these initiatives.

During the period 1991 – 1995 Mama Cash granted 846,000 euro to 711 groups.  In 1996, 17 volunteers and 7 part-time staff worked for Mama Cash.

Professionalisation and fundraising

Outsider with money

Founders at the kitchen table

Near the end of the 1980s, the five founders had to make an important decision about the future. Should they continue relying on volunteers and holding their board meetings in a kitchen with a filing cabinet? Or should they take a step towards professionalisation? The latter would imply Mama Cash becoming a formal organisation with the expectation of growth, a future, employees and a hierarchy. Despite a temporary, yet alarming, financial setback caused by the 1987 stock market crash, and despite the tax department unexpectedly charging capital transfer tax on Mama Cash’s start-up capital, Mama Cash was already outgrowing her kitchen table. But she still fancied herself an outsider, who happened to have money at her disposal. Mama Cash had to evaluate her self-image.

The first paid staff member

Jos Esajas

The founders, who were still working as volunteers, could not keep up with the number of inquiries and grant applications. With the resolve never to become a mainstream, bureaucratic foundation, Mama Cash hired her very first paid staff member in 1987: Jos Esajas, a Dutch Surinamese woman. Her task was to support the volunteers and perform administrative tasks. Her work was key to the success of the Guarantees Working Group, the predecessor of the Mama Cash Guarantee Fund.

First office
In 1988 Mama Cash moved into her much needed first office space in the STEW (Support Centre for Private Work) building at the Weesperzijde 4 in Amsterdam. Because of the media attention she had attracted, and her reputation in the feminist movement, Mama Cash had come to be respected as a leading authority on the subject of women and money. In 1989, she hired her first intern, Will Jansen. In the beginning of the 1990s, the acquisition of a PC with a simple database signalled the start of a period of technological advances.

A solid business accountancy
As the available resources, the number of grant requests, and the organisation itself started to grow, so did the need for sound bookkeeping and financial accountability. The launch of the Guarantee Fund in 1987, with the mission of evaluating requests from women entrepreneurs for Mama Cash to provide guarantees to financial institutions, underscored this need.

Mama Cash approached a network of women in the financial sector with the aim of finding expert assistance. Financial specialist Louise van Deth responded. ‘I was working in a formal and commercial financial world that was dominated by men. I wasn’t an active member of the women’s movement, but I did have a rebellious disposition,’ Van Deth says. (watch interview) Mama Cash and Van Deth got along very well. Initially, she was involved in the organisation’s Guarantee Fund, and from 1990 on she served as the Mama Cash Foundation’s Treasurer.

Overhead costs
When Mama Cash was founded, she had the interest from Marjan Sax’s 2.5 million guilders’ loan (1,190,000 euros) at her disposal for a period of ten years. Since there was no cause for financial concern during those first years, Mama Cash had been able to focus on developing relevant policies and working strategies. But before long, raising funds would turn out to be a necessity: after ten years Mama Cash would have to start paying back the 1983 interest-free loan to founder Marjan Sax. Financially she would have to stand on her own two feet. Additionally, having chosen to become an organisation with paid staff members and an office, she had overhead costs.

First fundraising
The women of Mama Cash also started to realise that, if she wanted to change the world, she had better think big. On top of that, she was still rattled by the 1987 stock market crash. For all of these reasons, in 1989 they decided to start raising capital of her own through private funding. Marjan Sax was employed as a fundraiser. Fundraising activities were quickly successful. In 1989, Myriam Everard, a member of the network Women with Inherited Wealth donated a substantial sum to Mama Cash through a multi-year legally binding donation. Johanna, another member of the network, followed in 1990 with a 10-year loan of two million guilders (950,000 euros), the interest was for Mama Cash.

An incredible success

‘Thank you for your support’ card

Dutch organisations had no experience yet with promoting ideals such as women’s empowerment. In 1990 Mama Cash initiated the campaign ‘Mama who always gives, wants to ask you for something this time’. Marjan Sax: ‘We were experimenting. It was trial and error’. Mama Cash sent off two mailings to women and men who she thought might have an interest in the organisation. Her first experience of raising funds was an incredible success. She raised more than a hundred thousand guilders (45,000 euros) in individual gifts.

Grandma
In 1990, Mama Cash changed her organisational structure. Instead of remaining one single foundation, three separate, but closely linked foundations were created. Each of these had their own Boards. The Guarantee Fund focused on women entrepreneurs. The Culture Fund broadly included anything related to feminist activism. The umbrella Foundation, Mama Cash, affectionately called ‘Grandma’, had financial management and fundraising as its main responsibility. The Board of the Mama Cash Foundation included representatives from the other two foundations. Once a year, all of the women who were active within Mama Cash gathered in a General Meeting at which annual plans of the three Foundations were discussed and the policies were aligned.

An organisation in its infancy

Louise van Deth

Mama Cash invited Louise van Deth to be the Treasurer on the Board of the umbrella organisation. ‘With regard to running a solid organisation, Mama Cash was still in its infancy’, says Van Deth. ‘There were no budget overviews or financial records. It required some effort to get things right’. Louise also had a look at the investments. ‘I had to radically change my way of thinking as a banker. Mama Cash wasn’t an investment fund that could take risks, but rather a women’s fund that had to keep a close eye on the money. The money donated to us by women was intended for the projects on which they wanted to spend it. The focus wasn’t on banking, but on spending money’, says Van Deth. (watch interview)

During the period 1987 – 1990 Mama Cash granted 243,000 euro to 246 groups. In 1990, 16 volunteers and two part-time paid staff worked for Mama Cash.

Number of grants per year

Grant amount

Income

Initial strategies

Radical

founders at the kitchen table

Mama Cash’s five founders decided to focus on women’s activism. They were determined to bring about worldwide change from a feminist perspective. Mama Cash’s Articles of Association declared that the organisation would promote worldwide ‘women’s empowerment and feminism’. The first annual report stated: ‘To Mama Cash, feminism is a radical strategy for change. Therefore, it follows that she focuses more on change than on maintaining the status quo’. This also meant challenging the white, Western, heterosexual norm. Organisations qualifying for a grant, loan or guarantee would have to be run by a woman or a collective of women. Founder Marjan Sax: ‘What made Mama Cash special is that we were all active members of the women’s movement’. (watch interview)

The right to own your body and sexuality
Mama Cash supported Dutch women’s initiatives and those of women in the ‘Third World’ (as many countries in the Global South were then called). The autonomy of women and the right to make their own decisions about their bodies and lives was a central issue within the women’s movements of the 1970s and 1980s.

This was also true for Mama Cash. During those first years, her lesbian founders focused mostly on the right of women to own their own bodies and sexuality. Lesbian women should be visible, and the heterosexual norm should be challenged. Sex workers should have the same rights as any other women. Women should have access to safe abortion. In cases of violence, women should have access to a safe place to stay and violence prevention measures should be taken. Women fighting against female genital mutilation could also count on Mama Cash for support. In the Netherlands, projects run by and for black women were also prioritised.

No maintenance
Mama Cash mostly gave start-up money. Marjan Sax states: ‘No maintenance!’ New and unconventional proposals were preferred. Unknown and imaginative projects were seen as more exciting. ‘We had heated discussions about whether a grant proposal was feminist or not,’ says founding Mama Lida van den Broek. (watch interview)

New entrepreneurs

My Sin Rotterdam

In the Netherlands, Mama Cash also supported new entrepreneurs by providing loans or guarantees. During the 1980s in the Netherlands, women entrepreneurs were few. Prejudiced financial institutions doubted women’s entrepreneurial skills and were reluctant to do business with them. ‘Women and money’ was a taboo subject within the financial world, as well as in the wider social context. If women started their own businesses, it was usually a small undertaking. And financial institutions were mostly uninterested in providing small loans.

Tight purse mentality
Mama Cash was determined to get banks and women to think of each other as business partners. She wanted banks to overcome their reluctance to work with women entrepreneurs, and she wanted business women to get comfortable with money and loans. She also motivated women to get rid of the ‘tight purse mentality’ rooted in their historic lack of access to financial resources. ‘When the money runs out, women stop spending it,’ the first annual report noted (meaning that women were not accustomed to take on debt or live beyond their means).

Banks needed to adjust their stereotype of the standard entrepreneur: a white, 30-something middle class man with a wife and children. Instead, they needed to also think about the divorced woman, single mother and middle-aged woman as possible clients.

Unwalked paths
In co-founder Patti Slegers’ opinion, Mama Cash could have taken an even more radical approach. This was a time when creating a separate women’s political party and a women’s labour union were hot topics. Slegers: ‘At first we also wanted to establish a women’s bank and a women’s pension fund. I was paying one third of my income to a pension fund. This money would eventually be used to support the ‘cornerstone’ of society, in which the standard family occupied a dominant position. I preferred my share to be invested in women who chose a different life, like me’.