Ariadne News & Events

Ariadne’s 2024 Annual Reconnect:

The registration is now open for Ariadne’s 2024 Annual Reconnect, taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia, from 22 to 24 April 2024, where we’ll also celebrate Ariadne’s 15-year anniversary!

Ariadne’s 2024 Annual Reconnect will take place from the 22nd to the 24th of April and HRFN’s Global Funding Futures Festival will be held from the 24th to the 26th of April. The 24th of April will be an overlap of both events with joint sessions and networking opportunities with civil society, in partnership with Women’s Fund in Georgia.

For further information, including registration fees and discounts for attending the whole week, check out our event microsite.

Ariadne’s 10th Forecast Questionnaire:
Last chance to make your contribution to Ariadne’s 10th Forecast for European Social Change and Human Rights Funders. You can easily submit your responses via our short questionnaire, available in French, Italian, Spanish, German or English (simply switch languages at the top of the form).

Join us for Ariadne’s Forecast Roundtables:

France Roundtable
Tuesday, 30 January
Paris (Fondation de France, 40 avenue Hoche, 75008 Paris)
For more info & registration, click here!

Italy Roundtable
Tuesday, 13 February (Save the date)
Bari (ospitato da Fondazione Vincenzo Casillo)
Organised in cooperation with Assifero. More information to follow in January 2024.

The Netherlands Roundtable
Wednesday, 31 January
Amsterdam (RINO, Leidseplein 5 1017 PR Amsterdam)
For more info & registration, click here!

United Kingdom Roundtable
Thursday 15 February
London (The Foundry, 17 Oval Way, London SE11 5RR)
For more info & registration, click here!

Funders’ learning lunch with EuroMed Rights on ‘Europe’s Techno Borders: AI in Migration’:

The European AI & Society Fund in cooperation with Ariadne Network is pleased to invite you to the next Funders’ learning lunch with EuroMed Rights on ‘Europe’s Techno Borders: AI in Migration’. The event will take place on Monday, 22 January at 13:00 CET via Zoom. To attend, please register here. We will be joined by Eva Baluganti and Elena Bizzi from EuroMed Rights who will present insights from two recent reports on how AI and technology have been ingrained in EU migration and external border management in the Mediterranean.

Members are sharing on Ariadne’s Community Hub! Log in to join the diverse communities, connect and collaborate with other funders on Ariadne’s Community Hub! Have a colleague who doesn’t yet have access? They can sign up here. Need assistance? Take a look at our guide or email jana.stardelova@ariadne-network.eu to schedule a demo.

All these resources and more can be found on Ariadne’s website and Member-only Community Hub.

New Research, Articles and Judgements

Trans Day of Remembrance: The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice honors trans communities and the rich diversity of trans identities. Trans Day of Remembrance began as an opportunity for healing for the trans community, and it has succeeded in bringing the epidemic of violence against Black trans women to widespread public attention. According to the Trans Murder Monitoring research project, which tracks anti-trans violence globally, at least 320 trans and gender diverse people have been lost to violence across the world in 2023. 94% of those reported murdered were trans women and trans feminine people, and 80% were trans people affected by racism – Black, brown, Indigenous, and people of color. Art by freelance artist and designer, Emulsify.

Social Cohesion Primer: What efforts are funders supporting related to social cohesion, pluralism, and bridging across difference? Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement – PACE partnered with the Peace and Security Funders Group and the Council of Foundations to release a new resource, the Social Cohesion Primer, which provides a map for funders to visualize an “ecosystem of cohesion-advancing efforts” and begin to imagine their place in it. Learn more here.

New database on climate displacement and resilience: The Othering & Belonging Institute launched an Interactive Climate Refugees Database. Bridging efforts to advance protections for people displaced by the climate crisis with efforts to build climate resilience, this interactive database joins global data on climate displacement, climate event exposure and vulnerability, emissions goals and compliance, governance and capacity building for climate resilience and mitigation, and climate finance needs and barriers.

Investing in Strengthening Feminist Narratives: “The story of contemporary feminist movements is a compelling story of hard-won, collective victories to expand the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people to live self-determined lives. It is also a story of persevering and resisting formidable backlash – a backlash that often plays out in the realm of storytelling, from book bannings in the United States, to disinformation campaigns about sexual and LGBTQI rights in countries like Ghana and Kenya, to “anti-gender” narratives in countries throughout Europe.”Read more in this article by the Foundation for a Just Society.

What counts? The state of funding for the prevention of gender-based violence against women and girls by The Equality Institute & The Accelerator for GBV Prevention: This report provides an estimated baseline of direct investment by donors in GBV prevention between 2018-2023 in low and lower-middle income countries. It identifies the current trends in the funding landscape and the gaps and opportunities for funding prevention. Access it here.

European Philanthropy Manifesto – 2024 update: This European Philanthropy Manifesto is a call to policymakers in Europe to work towards a Single Market for Philanthropy by taking these 4 steps:

• • EMPOWER philanthropy
  • FACILITATE cross-border philanthropy
  • ENGAGE with philanthropy
  • PARTNER with philanthropy for public good

Learn more.

Blogs and Other Sites of Interest

Free Them All: A Political Prisoners Initiative: This Freedom House initiative is intended to help free political prisoners and push back against the jailing of activists as a tool of repression. Located around the globe, the stories of these artists, journalists, and activists illustrate the significant pressures and harms that human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists face in reprisal for their work and why they need our support. Access it here.

Blog: Unmasking the Controversy: The Context and Battle Over Loss and Damage in Climate Change: In this blog, Global Greengrants ‘s Philanthropic Partnerships Officer, Shena Cavallo, delves into the complexities of loss and damage, examining its definition, the scale of the problem, the responsibility for addressing it, and the challenges of financing solutions. Read more.

Refugee women-led organisations on the frontline of addressing GBV: key actions for the Global Refugee Forum: In this policy brief you can learn about the pivotal role refugee Women Led Organisations (WLOs) play in preventing and responding to GBV, as well as the systemic barriers they face. The insights are based on interviews with refugee WLOs in Kenya, Ukraine, South Sudan, Rwanda, Romania and Jordan, global organisations supporting refugee WLOs, and refugee leaders working with refugee women and youth networks. The brief is available in English, Arabic and French.

New Essay Series by the Digital Freedom Fund: The new digiRISE essay series, titled Digital Rights are Charter Rights is out. You can download the full series here. The essay series highlight the link between digitalisation, datafication and fundamental rights. This digital transformation brings, according to the European Commission, “new opportunities to make fundamental rights more effective but also brings challenges”. Through the essays, readers are invited to contemplate the importance of fundamental rights protections in the digital sphere as well as the instrumental role of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (EU Charter) in countering systemic oppressions, harms, and injustices which appear encoded in technologies at hand. The emancipative potential of the EU Charter as a means of resistance to technological bias and oppression sits at the core of this series.

Article: Reimagining politics: The need is urgent: “Hundreds of thousands of people are actively leading and mobilising their communities around diverse issues. Yet, they remain inadequately represented in the political arena.’ Many people in Europe are underrepresented by their supposedly representative institutions. We have to rebuild a political culture that serves all of us”, write guest editors Sarah Durieux and Jeff Kwasi Klein of Multitudes Foundation.

Blog: How to make our dreams about Gender Just Economies real? This blog explores the insights on transforming the global economy into a more just, progressive, and equitable one. Eszter Filippinyi (TAI) and contributors Karin van Boxtel (Both ENDS), Nicola Scherer (Observatori del Deute en la Globalització (ODG)), and Maria Palomares Arenas Cabral (Calala Fondo de Mujeres) share European case studies on feminist approaches to trade, just transition, and care funding. Learn from voices often unheard, especially from the Global South and East. Read the blog for actionable perspectives and policy recommendations.

Grant-Making

The Social Change Nest launches new website and social media channels: Since 2020, the Social Change Nest has worked with over 300 changemakers and channelled more than £16 million to the communities that need it most. So far, they have operated with minimal web presence and decided to change that. You can find here their new website, branding and newsletter. They explain all the different ways we work with funders, grassroots groups, individual changemakers and other partners to disrupt the funding landscape.

Article: Weaving Trust-Based Philanthropy into a Participatory Initiative: “Funders across the United States are shifting their approaches to philanthropy in order to more meaningfully involve and shift power to people from the communities they are funding. Two popular approaches that may provide a counterweight to the harmful power dynamics present in conventional philanthropy are participatory philanthropy and trust-based philanthropy.” Read more in this article by Winifred Olliff (Borealis Philanthropy) and Katy Love (Wikimedia Foundation).

Shift Podcast Series: In collaboration with the Listening Fund, the podcast series showcase learning and insights from 23 guests about how to share power with young people – including an episode on including young people in grantmaking. The aim for the series is to help youth organisations and funders think about and gain more insight into how to improve their listening practice, and to support organisations – wherever they are on their journey – to share power well. The 7 episodes cover involving young people as board members, grantmakers, in the design of services, in evaluation and learning and creating structures and roles to formalise processes of power sharing. Although the focus is on involving young people – there are lots of wider insights for funders who are experimenting or thinking of experimenting with participatory grantmaking. You can find all episodes here.

New publication highlights participatory grantmaking: Empowerment: Between Theory and Practice: The new publication spotlights filia die frauenstiftung’s participatory grantmaking practice. With their Empowerment Program for Refugee Women*, filia supports self-organized initiatives by and with refugee and migrant women and LBTIQ+. They demonstrate how trust-based philanthropy can be achivied, for example, with an advisory board consisting of migrant and refugee activists that selects the projects to be funded. Access the publication here.

EMERGING IMPACTS: The Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Large, Unrestricted Gifts, Results from Year Two of a Three-Year Study: In just three years, MacKenzie Scott gave more than $14 billion in unrestricted support to more than 1,600 organisations. Her gifts have often come as a surprise to recipients, with no restrictions on how or when they must be used, and with few, if any, reporting requirements. Learn more in this study by CEP.

Article: Are Donor Collaboratives Better for the Grassroots? Ledys Sanjuan Mejía of the Fenomenal funds, explores the rise of donor collaboratives and their potential to bring about fundamental change in philanthropy. Read more.

Article: Participatory grantmaking is key to shifting the power: “What’s the best prescription for achieving the SDG’s? For international NGOs and funders to cede power and control over decision-making to the constituents they aim to serve. That’s the conclusion of a prototype trial on participatory grant-making (PGM) undertaken through the RINGO Project and led by Transform Trade, an INGO that supports farmers and workers to achieve trade justice, alongside Norsaac, a human rights organisation working with women and young people in Ghana”. Read more. Authored by Deborah Doane, from Rights CoLab and RINGO Project.

The first 2024 Thread will go out on Thursday 18th January. We would love to hear from you! Please contact us by Tuesday 16th January if you would like to share announcements, events, or resources for the next issue. 

Jobs and Tenders

Ford Foundation – International Security, Safety and Risk Mitigation Manager. The Office of the Deputy Chief Operating Officer is hiring an International Security, Safety and Risk Mitigation Manager that will be based in the New York office. The International Security, Safety and Risk Mitigation Manager will work with the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to develop and implement a global security and risk mitigation framework that fosters a culture of safety awareness and risk mitigation. The incumbent will coordinate with the Director of Global Property Management to ensure the foundation’s duty of care for its staff and assets across all of its geographies are consistent and relevant. Salary: $109,000 – $127,000. Location: NYC, USA. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Porticus – Programme Manager MENA. The Programme Manager is responsible for the design, coordination, execution and delivery in grant making and programme development in MENA specifically on the topics of democratic governance and civic engagement as well as gender equity. Salary: €60.000 – €87.500. Location: Vienna, Austria. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Thousand Currents – Digital Media Coordinator, Philanthropic Partnerships and Influence. Initially reporting to the Director of Communications for one year due to the Editorial Manager’s parental leave, the Coordinator will play a pivotal role in driving digital engagement and fostering fundraising and donor education opportunities to expand our online influence. The successful candidate is a creative and passionate social media guru who loves following emergent trends in the digital landscape, has an understanding of, or commitment to, Thousand Currents mission, vision, and values, and is a highly motivated team player familiar with cross-collaborative work. The detail-oriented Digital Media Coordinator is a person who can actively manage a growing social media presence, translate nuanced work into simple and actionable language, and support the overall curiosity and efficacy of the communications team. Salary: USD $72,675. Location: Flexible within the United States, and open to outside the United States. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Ford Foundation – Technology Fellow. Ford Foundation’s Natural Resources and Climate Change International (NRCC-I) team is hiring a Technology Fellow to join their team. The Tech Fellow will integrate into the NRCC team, and will also be a part of the broader Technology Fellowship Program, which was created to support integrated learning and action at the intersection of social justice and technology throughout the work of the foundation. Fellows work both as a cohort across the foundation and as part of program teams to explore the role and impact of technology with social justice and help develop a critical technology lens throughout the foundation. Salary: $117,000 – $136,000. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

The Christensen Fund – Program Officer, U.S. Strategy. As the Program Officer, U.S. Strategy, you will play a pivotal role in co-designing, evolving, and advancing the programmatic goals of our Indigenous rights-focused U.S. strategy. Working closely with the Director of Strategic Initiatives and U.S. Strategy, you will collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, build partnerships, and lead programmatic initiatives to make a lasting impact. Location: Remote. Salary: $110,000 – $120,000. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

The Fund for Global Human Rights – Strategic Partnerships Specialist. The Specialist will play an important role managing relationships with institutional funders and identifying new opportunities for funding to support the Fund’s mission and grantees. The successful candidate will be part of the Fund’s dynamic Strategic Partnerships Team – with team members based in the US and UK – that is responsible for fundraising and managing over $20M of institutional income over the coming year. The Specialist should be a highly-experienced fundraiser, with a commitment to equality and justice. As the Fund has ambitious plans to underwrite more human rights work worldwide, the Specialist will be responsible for managing and proactively growing a portfolio of grants from private foundations, bilateral and multilateral donors, and/or corporate donors. Location: The position is currently remote, however might be hybrid in the future. Salary: US salary range – $82,763 to $96,83. Mexico Salary range – $39,694 to $45,565. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism – Learning and Impact Managing Officer. The Learning and Impact Managing Officer position is a newly created role that represents an investment in the human resources for the Learning and Impact team, which currently has one staff member. Additionally, they will be joining the team at a critical juncture in Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism’s strategic trajectory currently undergoing an institution-wide strategic visioning process and theory of change (TOC) refresh.  Location: New York or DC, USA. Salary: $112,000-$130,000. Applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible.

EDGE Funders – Philanthropic Partnerships Director. The Philanthropic Partnership Director will play an important role in supporting EDGE’s mission through fundraising efforts. Strong candidates will be self-starters who have excellent communication skills and the ability to multitask. The ideal candidate is a dynamic, innovative individual with a proven track record of fostering strong donor relationships. Fundraising results are expected in 18 months. As a small organisation, the team works collaboratively to achieve its goals, and the Philanthropic Partnership Director will have the opportunity to collaborate on strategic planning, program creation, and budgeting processes. For at least the first 12 months, this role will also include supporting the process of collaboratively transforming EDGE’s organisational structure & governance. Location: Remote, worldwide. Salary: USD $95,000 – $105,000 annual salary range plus a prorated bonus of one month’s salary payable at the end of each Fiscal Year. Deadline for applications is 14 January.

Alliance for Gender Equality – Communication and Learning Manager. The following roles will be taken up by the Communications and Learning Manager: Communication, Learning, Monitoring & Evaluation (LME), Coordination. The manager will coordinate with the Senior Programme Manager, the Programme Officer, the NEF operations team and the Steering committee members of the Alliance, which is the key governance body of the Alliance for Gender Equality in Europe. Location: Brussels, Belgium. Salary: 3 300€ – 4 200€. Deadline for applications is 14 January.

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung – H2 Project Coordinator. The suitable candidate will lead the implementation of the office’s programme on Green Hydrogen in South Africa, in close collaboration and in conjunction to the programme’s Strategic Lead. The office’s H2 programme is focused on supporting civil society engagement in green hydrogen related processes and policies from a just transition lens. Work to date has been developed in partnership with civil society organisations from across the country under the rubric of the ‘H2 Watch’ network. Affiliates include both national and grassroots civil society who support communities to tackle issues of climate change, mining, energy and development issues. An approach rooted in collaboration and partnership is the basis of work to date and that going forward. Deadline for applications is 15 January. Location: Cape Town, South Africa.

Gulbenkian – Gulbenkian Research Fellowships in Portuguese Culture for Foreigners. Applications are open for the Gulbenkian Research Fellowships in Portuguese Culture for Foreigners, which aim to support non-Portuguese postgraduates, living abroad, to carry out research in Portugal on topics of Portuguese culture, in the field of humanities. Submissions until 31 January 2024. Learn more and apply here. (in Portuguese)

EPIM – New Governing Body as a Forum Member. The 16 dynamic Forum members who will bring a wealth of perspectives, knowledge, connections and lived experiences in areas relevant to EPIM’s work. Forum members will be an integral part of a collaborative effort, connecting with peers in stimulating and curated spaces. The members will strategise, learn and reimagine, what supporting civil society organisations and others that strive to improve how migration is experienced across Europe, looks like. Commitment as a Forum Member is estimated at five to six days a year, including participation in an annual two-day in person gathering and several online preparatory meetings. Forum members will receive an honorarium in addition to having travel costs covered. This is a unique opportunity with an initial three-year mandate, allowing you to be at the forefront of social changes in migration. Location: Remote. Deadline for applications is 15 February. Salary: An honorarium in addition to having travel costs covered.

The Network for Social Change – Researcher. The Network for Social Change is looking for an experienced researcher to set up a detailed PDF list of organisations that fund projects on racial justice and environmental/climate justice. The list will be based on responses to a letter outlining the project that the Network has sent to funders. The position has been created by the Network’s Racial Justice Working Group. The researcher will be responsible to a member of this group. Salary: £350 -£400 per day worked. Deadline for applications is 23 February.

Various roles – American Jewish World Service (AJWS)
Various roles – Fondation de France
Various roles – Global fund for Children

*For more jobs, see the ‘Career Opportunities’ section of Ariadne’s Community Hub. To address pay gaps in the charity sector, we strongly encourage you to #showthesalary in your job adverts.

Events

Online

Funders’ learning lunch with EuroMed Rights on ‘Europe’s Techno Borders: AI in Migration’.
The European AI & Society Fund in cooperation with Ariadne Network is pleased to invite you to the next Funders’ learning lunch with EuroMed Rights on ‘Europe’s Techno Borders: AI in Migration’.  We will be joined by Eva Baluganti and Elena Bizzi from EuroMed Rights who will present insights from two recent reports on how AI and technology have been ingrained in EU migration and external border management in the Mediterranean. From being denied entry in a country to being subjected to violations and refoulement, their impact on the right to asylum and on safe and legal pathways for migration and migrants’ human rights is incalculable. After the presentation there will be a space for questions and discussion. The event will take place on Monday, 22 January at 13:00 CET via Zoom. To attend, please register here. 

Brussels, Belgium

BRIDGES Final Conference – Save the date. The BRIDGES Final Conference will take place in Brussels on 1 February 2024. The Final Conference will be an opportunity to discuss the main findings of the project, to exchange with other research projects working on the same topic and to bridge the gap between research and policy-making by opening a discussion with members of the European Parliament. The event will be open to the public and will take place in person at Les Ateliers des Tanneurs, Brussels. The Conference will be also streamed online through the BRIDGES Youtube channel. The full programme of the Conference will be shared soon.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

“Countering Violent Conflict & Polarisation: How Can Donors Help?”  We are excited to extend an invitation to an upcoming international conference titled “Countering Violent Conflict & Polarisation: How Can Donors Help?”  This conference holds special significance as it coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. Against this backdrop, it aims to provide a unique platform for donors to connect, reflect, and learn about effective strategies for advancing positive social change and countering polarisation in the many conflict-affected societies globally. The conference programme is designed to be informative and interactive, featuring keynote speakers, workshops, and panel discussions with contributions from philanthropy leaders, government donors, locally-based funders and field practitioners.
For additional details and to secure your spot, please visit the following link. The event is scheduled to take place from 5th to 7th February 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with an optional additional day (Thursday 8th February) for those participants who want to examine the dynamics of the peace process in Northern Ireland.