About us

What is Fondo de Mujeres del Sur (FMS)?
Fondo de Mujeres del Sur (FMS for its acronym in Spanish) is a fund that mobilises financial resources and provides support to organisations that promote women’s and LBTIQ+ people’s rights in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. Since 2017, FMS is also coordinating a regional programme called Leading from the South, covering 21 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

FMS was founded on October 12th, 2007 by six respected feminists, as a collaborative effort to aid the women's movement at a regional and international level, which had already reached the foundation of other women's funds in various parts of the world.

At FMS, we finance and support grassroots initiatives, organisations and networks created and led by women and LBTIQ+ people, who work to achieve transformative results towards gender equality and justice. Our goal is to strengthen women, feminist and diversity movements, from a human rights-based approach, gender perspective, empowerment, intersectionality and interculturality.

Priorities

• Leadership, Voice-Agency and Political Participation
• Economic Justice
• Eradication of Violence and Discrimination
• Socio-Environmental Justice
• Diverse Gender Identities and Sexualities

Mission

To mobilise financial resources and provide technical assistance to strengthen organisational capacities of women's and LBTIQ+ organisations in situation of most socio-economic, political, cultural, geographic and environmental disadvantages, which aim to advance gender equality and social justice.

Vision

To contribute to building societies where women, girls and LBTIQ+ people enjoy full exercise of their human rights, are empowered to defend and advocate for them, and have access to equal opportunities to develop their entire potential and wellbeing, free from all forms of violence.

Fundraising

FMS mobilises local and international resources and manages efforts from cooperating international bilateral and multilateral funds, institutional and individual donors. FMS also implements a variety of fundraising strategies at a local level.

Grantmaking

FMS financially and technically supports women’s and LBTQI+ people’s organisations based in remote and socioeconomically marginalised areas. Supported groups fund allocation is conducted through diverse strategic programmes and special grants that contribute to strengthening the organisational development and solidify specific projects. The donations that we designate promote the economic and political empowerment of supported groups and movements and are based on the principals of autonomy, flexibility and sustainability.

Capacity Building

FMS promotes organisational development and advocacy among its supported groups through field visits, workshops, and learning sessions, encouraging the participation of women and LBTIQ+ activists. The FMS executive team visits the groups to follow up their activities, exchange information and to evaluate the projects, its progress and improvements. The field visits include strategic planning sessions that help guide the progress of the group’s projects.

Connection and Bonding

FMS promotes the building of networks and alliances to help increase opportunity for change and enhance impact. We encourage the development of communication and team building strategies for women and LBTIQ+ activists across geographical areas. Our goal is to improve opportunities and promote institutional development.

Fostering Participation

FMS supports women and LBTIQ+ voices and interests by implementing strategies that promote advocacy, political participation and the creation of proposals that demand more inclusive, fair and equal public policies.