AWID has received a USD 20 million gift from MacKenzie Scott - with genuine gratitude. We accept this gift with a sense of relief, political complexity, and great responsibility.
We are acutely aware this is a privilege few feminist organizations enjoy. It is a time when many feminist, women’s rights, and LGBTQI+ movements around the world are facing an avalanche of funding cuts and escalating political backlash. Many organisations, especially those led by frontline and marginalized communities, are struggling to survive.
With this gift, AWID continues our work towards our mission of thriving feminist movements around the world, and for the incredible global feminist community that is AWID membership. The decision on the use of funds will be made with the approval from the AWID Board.
There are political contradictions to this gift, and we hold those. It is well known that these funds derive from MacKenzie Scott’s divorce settlement from the founder of Amazon.com. Extreme wealth is accumulated through economic systems rooted in exploitation, inequalities, and colonial and environmental harm. When gifts are then made with the intention of repair, does money change its meaning? This is a political question we do not have simple answers to; rather, it is our commitment to remain transparent and accountable. Advancing economic justice and resisting corporate power remain our strategic priority.
AWID values Mackenzie Scott’s commitment to distribute resources to causes of rights and justice, and her philosophy of giving: unrestricted, trust-based, and free from conditions. Feminist resourcing advocates have long called for precisely this. Her way of giving stands apart in a world of philanthropic capitalism. For many feminist activists, redistribution of resources based on principles of equity and decoloniality, is a way of life: community, kindness and generosity is how communities survive and thrive. And while nobody should possess unimaginable amounts of wealth, MacKenzie Scott sets an example for anyone who has come into this possession.
We call on all funders, funding institutions and individuals holding wealth, to follow Mackenzie Scott’s example and to share resources with feminist, gender justice and social justice movements in their diversity: without conditionalities, with transparency and with trust.
Looking forward, this gift is not a substitute for the steady and diverse funding that AWID relies on; our partnerships and relationships with donors and allies remain vital. We remain deeply grateful to them, alongside our members and partners whose ongoing support sustains AWID’s political autonomy and work in the service of thriving feminist movements. We look forward to continuing to build feminist futures together, resourced, resilient, and rooted in collective power.