Association for Women's Rights in Development

What Association for Women's Rights in Development does

The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) is a Toronto-headquartered, membership-based non-profit founded in 1982 that serves as a global infrastructure and convening organization for feminist, women's rights, and gender justice movements. AWID operates a distributed model with staff working across 19 countries and an explicit membership community exceeding 9,000 individual and organizational members spanning more than 180 countries; an additional figure references 9,600+ connected movements. The organization is governed by a board drawn primarily from the Global South and currently uses a co-Executive Director leadership model renewed in 2022.

AWID's core products fall into three buckets: (1) the AWID International Forum, a flagship triennial hybrid event that drew over 4,000 participants in Bangkok in 2024, growing from 2,239 in Cape Town in 2008; (2) a publications and resources portfolio covering research reports, primers, policy briefs, magazines, and multi-language research (including the Where is the Money? survey available in six languages); and (3) specialized sub-products including the Who Can Fund Me? Airtable-based funding database, the That Feminist Fire podcast, the Feminist Realities Magazine, the Feminist Film Club, the Rights at Risk Resource Library, the Feminist Economies We Love collection, the OURs Observatory on the Universality of Rights (a platform with institutional membership), and a Member Community App. The underlying technology stack is light: a Drupal website, an Airtable-hosted database, and standard social/content distribution channels (Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, email).

AWID's revenue model combines individual and organizational membership dues (annual subscription, pricing not publicly disclosed), donations, and grants supporting publications and research. Distribution is primarily direct-to-member through the website and membership community, with in-person and hybrid events serving as a secondary enterprise-tier engagement channel. The organization reports no app store presence, no API, no disclosed integrations, and no AI capabilities, consistent with its positioning as a knowledge and movement-building intermediary rather than a technology vendor.

Name

Association for Women's Rights in Development

Legal name

Association for Women's Rights in Development

Website

https://awid.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AWID is a Toronto-based, membership-supported non-profit founded in 1982 that convenes and resources global feminist, women's rights, and gender justice movements through a triennial International Forum, research publications, and shared platforms serving 9,000+ members across 180+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Feminist Advocacy and Movement Support

NAICS

Human Rights Organizations (813311)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Gender Equality & Women’s Rights Advocacy (BPAGAFAD)

Keywords

• Feminist advocacy
• Gender justice research
• Women's rights organizing
• Feminist movement support
• Human rights monitoring

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership dues: AWID operates as a membership organization with individual and organizational members paying dues. Members receive access to platforms, events, and networking opportunities.
2. Donations: AWID accepts donations from individuals and organizations to support its work in advancing gender justice and women's human rights worldwide.
3. Publications and resources: AWID produces and disseminates research publications, policy briefs, primers, magazines, and multimedia resources on feminist movements, funding, and gender justice topics.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

AWID is a global, feminist, membership-based, movement-support organization that advances gender justice and women's human rights. It produces and disseminates research publications, policy briefs, primers, and multimedia resources; convenes the triennial AWID International Forum; maintains databases such as the Who Can Fund Me funding directory and the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs); and curates resource libraries, a podcast, and a magazine to connect, inform, and mobilize feminist, women's rights, gender justice, and LBTQI+ movements worldwide.

Product overview

AWID is a global, feminist, membership, movement-support organization offering a platform of interconnected resources and programs. Its core offerings include the AWID International Forum (flagship biennial event), Publications (research reports, primers, policy briefs), and Resources (multimedia tools). Key sub-products include the Who Can Fund Me Database (Airtable-based funding search), That Feminist Fire Podcast, Feminist Realities Magazine, Feminist Film Club, Feminist Economies We Love collection, the Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs), the Rights at Risk Resource Library, and the Where is the Money? research initiative. The organization also provides a member community app for networking. Priority areas span Resourcing Feminist Movements, Building Feminist Economies, and Advancing Universal Rights and Justice.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AWID International Forum AWID's flagship international event held every three to four years, bringing together feminist, women's rights, gender justice, LBTQI+, and allied movements from around the world in a hybrid format with in-person, online, and hub participation.
• Who Can Fund Me Database Searchable database helping feminist organizers and women's rights defenders identify potential funders for their organizations and movements, hosted on Airtable.
• That Feminist Fire Podcast
• Rights at Risk Resource Library
• Feminist Realities Magazine
• Feminist Film Club
• Feminist Economies We Love
• Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)
• Where is the Money? Survey
• Member Community App
• Feminist Funding Ecosystem Infographic

Quantifiable outcome

• 96% of Forum participants reported the event was a major source of inspiration and energy
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Mama Cash (CMI Partnership)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 November 2020AWID and Mama Cash partnered as part of the CMI (Count Me In) partnership to produce research on how funders can resource feminist movements. Together they published 'How funders can resource feminist movements: concrete practices to Move More Money to the Drivers of Change' in 2020.
• Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAWID partnered with CWGL to present feminist propositions platform as a contribution to questioning dominant notions of development and putting forward initial proposals for a feminist development agenda and economic and gender justice.
• African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAWID partnered with FEMNET alongside CWGL to present feminist propositions platform for questioning dominant development notions and advancing feminist economic and gender justice proposals.
• Count Me In! ConsortiumcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerAWID works collaboratively as part of the Count Me In! Consortium to influence funding agendas and open spaces for direct dialogue with feminist movements to redistribute power and resources.
• Observatory on the Universality of Rights (OURs)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOURs is a platform led by AWID that monitors anti-rights actors' strategies and impact on international human rights systems. AWID leads this initiative and offers institutional membership to other organizations. The OURs produces regular trend reports and builds knowledge to support feminist resistance.
• Various feminist organizations and movementsminorOthersAWID works with numerous feminist organizations, movements, and allies as part of its movement-support approach. Partnerships are built through the Forum process, year-round engagement with organizations and groups, and relationships with local movements.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• CREA: CREA is a global feminist human rights organization based in New Delhi that works on sexuality, gender, and bodily autonomy. It is a direct peer in feminist movement-building, research, and convening.
• Womankind Worldwide: Womankind Worldwide is a UK-based feminist organization working with women's rights organizations in Africa and Asia. It is a direct peer in feminist movement support, advocacy, and programmatic resourcing.
• Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL): CWGL is a feminist leadership and human rights organization based at Rutgers that convenes movements, produces research, and runs initiatives such as the 16 Days of Activism. It is a documented AWID partner with overlapping feminist propositions and convening work.
• Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights: Urgent Action Fund is a feminist rapid-response fund providing resources to women human rights defenders in moments of crisis. It is a direct peer in feminist funding and movement protection, operating in a closely related space to AWID's resourcing work.
• Mama Cash: Mama Cash is a Dutch-based feminist fund that resources women's, girls', and trans people's movements globally. It is a direct peer in feminist movement resourcing and a documented AWID partner within the CMI/Count Me In! consortium.
• International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) Asia Pacific: IWRAW Asia Pacific is a feminist organization monitoring states' compliance with women's human rights treaties and supporting movement advocates. It overlaps directly with AWID's OURs observatory work on the universality of rights.
• JASS (Just Associates): JASS is an international feminist organization that builds movement leadership, particularly among women in the Global South. It is a direct peer in feminist capacity-building, convening, and movement support.
• African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET): FEMNET is a pan-African feminist network advancing women's rights and gender equality across the continent. It is a documented AWID partner and shares AWID's movement-building, advocacy, and policy engagement model.

Regional players

• Association for Progressive Communications (APC): APC is a global network of civil society organizations using ICTs to support social justice and women's rights. It is a regional/issue-aligned peer in feminist and human rights movement infrastructure, with stronger technology and internet-rights orientation than AWID.

Broad incumbents

• Open Society Foundations – Women's Rights Program: Open Society Foundations is a large global grantmaker with a dedicated program funding women's rights, gender justice, and movement building. It is a broad incumbent funder operating in AWID's space at a much larger scale.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/AWID
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/AWIDNews
• Facebookfacebook.com/AWIDWomensRights
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/association-for-women%27s-rights-in-development
• Instagraminstagram.com/awidwomensrights

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Association for Women's Rights in Development