She Catalyses

Mama Cash has catalysed the formation of important new initiatives, groups, and women’s funds that have thrived and have won many gains for women and girls.

Early on, she supported migrant workers fighting for economic justice in the Netherlands and networks of domestic workers. Today she supports women workers all over the world to gain their rights.

She catalysed a new era in funding for organisations led by and for young women and girls.

From the annual report, 1983-1986: ‘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.

Mama Cash has been at the centre of building the movement of women’s funds. She was one of the inspirations for the birth of the Global Fund for Women, our sister fund in San Francisco. Together with other women’s funds, Mama Cash has helped to build and support a growing network of women’s funds worldwide, now more than 45 strong.

Women with Inherited Wealth, founded in 1985 as Erfdochters, and closely connected to Mama Cash, has helped to support women in learning how to manage and invest money and take responsibility for their own resources—catalysing more giving to women’s rights and other social justice causes.

Nowadays, Mama Cash shares her learning and collaborates with more mainstream funders and governments to influence their priorities and inspire them to invest more in women’s rights. She conducted the first-ever research survey of European foundations’ giving to women and girls. And she provides trainings to those foundations so that they will give more to women and girls, or incorporate a gender lens into their work.