What Equality Fund does

Equality Fund is a Canadian registered charity (registration number 12303 7939 RR0001), founded in 2019 and headquartered at 600-123 Slater Street in Ottawa, Ontario. The organization traces its roots to The MATCH International Women's Fund, which launched in 2013 on foundations laid at the 1976 UN World Conference on Women in Mexico City. Equality Fund mobilizes capital for feminist movements and women's rights organizations worldwide through an integrated platform that combines four grantmaking streams (Catalyze for long-term core grants, Activate for feminist peer funds using a Step Up/Step Back approach, Prepare/Respond and Care for crisis and conflict funding, and the WVL-Caribbean regional program) with a gender-lens investment program that deployed 100% of its portfolio with gender criteria and delivered a 2.8% net return in fiscal year 2022-23.

The organization's core products and services are structured funding flows rather than commercial technology offerings. Grantmaking reaches 1,800 organizations across 100 countries cumulatively, with over $21 million CAD distributed to 654 organizations across 90 countries in fiscal year 2022-23 — more than double the prior year and a 56% increase in earlier periods. Investment returns contributed $7.5 million CAD to grantmaking and operations. In March 2025, Equality Fund extended its gender-lens investing reach by launching the RockCreek Global Equality ETF in partnership with RockCreek in NYC. Underlying infrastructure includes WUSC for due diligence, compliance, and capacity building, and Toronto Foundation as the fiscal partner for Canadian government funding.

Equality Fund's revenue model is a multi-stream funding structure rather than a commercial sales model. Primary inflows are the CAD $300 million partnership with Global Affairs Canada (announced 2018-2019, described as the largest government contribution to women's rights in history) and a 33 million GBP (approximately CAD $55 million) six-year partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office signed in March 2023. These are supplemented by individual philanthropic donations (with charitable tax receipts), returns from the gender-lens investment portfolio, and feminist philanthropy programs. The organization does not sell products or services at commercial prices; its go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, anchored by high-trust relationships with over 1,000 global feminists, peer fund partnerships (African Women's Development Fund, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, AWID), and convenings such as The Philanthropy Workshop Global Summit, COP climate conferences, and the Commission on the Status of Women.

Name

Equality Fund

Legal name

Equality Fund

Website

https://equalityfund.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Equality Fund is a Canadian registered charity founded in 2019 that mobilizes investment, philanthropy, and high-trust grantmaking to support feminist movements and women's rights organizations across 100 countries globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Feminist Philanthropy and Gender-Lens Grantmaking

NAICS

Human Rights Organizations (813311), Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Gender Equality & Women’s Rights Advocacy (BPAGAFAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Public Charities & Grantmaking Intermediaries (BPAGAKAE), Gender Equality & Women’s Empowerment (BPAGABAF), Gender Lens / Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Funds (FSANAJAM)

Keywords

• Feminist grantmaking
• Gender justice funding
• Movement philanthropy
• Gender-lens investing
• Donor mobilization

Headquarters

HQ city

Ottawa

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Global Government Funding: Unprecedented government investment including a $300 million partnership with Global Affairs Canada — the single largest government contribution made to women's rights in history — and a 33 million GBP partnership with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
2. Gender-Lens Investing: The organization deploys gender-lens investing across its portfolio, with 100% of its portfolio invested with a gender lens. Returns generated (2.8% net in fiscal year) contribute to grantmaking and operations, including $7.5 million contributed to grantmaking and operations from investment returns.
3. Feminist Philanthropy: Individual donors contribute through charitable donations, enabling the organization to fund feminist movements. Donors receive charitable tax receipts.
4. High-Trust Global Grantmaking: The organization moves money through three grantmaking streams: Catalyze (long-term core grants), Prepare, Respond and Care (crisis and conflict funding), and Activate (funding feminist peer funds). Funding reaches organizations in the Global South and East, including unregistered and emerging organizations.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Equality Fund is a Canadian-based feminist philanthropic organization that mobilizes donor resources and channels them as grants to feminist movements, women's rights organizations, and gender justice initiatives around the world. It pools contributions from individual donors, governments, and institutional partners, then deploys that capital via grantmaking programs targeting grassroots and Global South organizations advancing gender equality. The fund also engages in advocacy, donor education, and ecosystem-building to strengthen the broader feminist funding landscape.

Product overview

Equality Fund is a feminist funding organization offering a unified platform for mobilizing resources to feminist movements globally. The core offering combines high-trust global grantmaking through multiple streams (Catalyze, Activate, Prepare/Respond and Care, WVL-Caribbean) with gender-lens investing products including the RockCreek Global Equality ETF, feminist philanthropy programs, and policy advocacy. The model unites investment, policy, advocacy, and philanthropy to deliver sustainable, long-term resources to feminist movements worldwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Feminist Grantmaking Program A core grantmaking program that channels pooled donor capital to feminist movements, women's rights organizations, and gender justice initiatives, prioritizing grassroots and Global South-led organizations.
• Pooled Fund Mechanism A vehicle that aggregates contributions from multiple donors — individuals, foundations, and governments — and deploys them as flexible, often multi-year funding to feminist movements.
• Donor Engagement and Education Programs Programs that educate and engage donors around feminist funding principles, gender-lens giving, and movement-led philanthropy, supporting more strategic deployment of charitable capital.

Quantifiable outcome

• $100 million moved to 1,800 organizations in 100 countries
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAWDF is the Equality Fund’s lead partner on resourcing women’s rights and feminist organizations in Africa through grants, shared learning, and network and solidarity building. AWDF provides strategic input on the design of the Equality Fund’s global grantmaking, feminist philanthropy, and investment strategies. The partnership multiplies shared impact and reaches organizations with limited access to mainstream funding.
• World University Service of Canada (WUSC)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWUSC provides due diligence, compliance, financial, and capacity-building support to Equality Fund’s grantmaking program, enabling the organization to operate responsibly across complex global contexts.
• Association for Women’s Rights In Development (AWID)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIn partnership with AWID, Equality Fund listened to over 1,000 feminists around the world in an in-depth consultation process to understand hopes, dreams, and expectations for the Equality Fund, informing the organization’s design and strategy.
• The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerEquality Fund joined the TPW Global Summit in London in March 2023, an important gathering of funders and social change leaders, and used the platform to publicly celebrate the partnership with the UK FCDO.
• Astraea Lesbian Foundation for JusticemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Astraea to move nearly half a million dollars to 26 organizations through the Women’s Voice and Leadership – Caribbean program, supporting feminist futures across the Caribbean region.
• Generation Equality ForummajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConvened by UN Women in 2021, the Generation Equality Forum sent a rallying cry across the world to fund feminist movements. Equality Fund participated in and helped mobilize government responses including the UK’s historic 33 million GBP commitment.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• International Women's Development Agency (IWDA): Australia's leading feminist foreign-policy and women's rights organization, providing grants to women's movements across Asia and the Pacific — a regional peer with a comparable funding-plus-advocacy model.

Direct peers

• African Women's Development Fund (AWDF): A pan-African feminist grantmaking organization and active Equality Fund partner that funds women's rights organizations across Africa using similar community-led, movement-supporting approaches.
• Global Fund for Women: A leading international feminist foundation that provides grants to women-led organizations globally, mirroring Equality Fund's core mission of funding feminist movements across geographies with a similar community-led and rights-based lens.
• Women's Foundation of Canada: A Canadian feminist foundation funding women's and gender-equality organizations domestically — a national-level peer with overlapping gender-lens grantmaking and feminist philanthropy approaches.
• FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund: A global fund that supports young feminist-led organizations in the Global South, sharing Equality Fund's community-led, participatory grantmaking model and movement-building orientation.
• Mama Cash: The first international feminist fund (founded 1983), supporting women, girls, trans, and intersex people globally through grantmaking — a long-established direct peer in feminist philanthropy and movement support.
• Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice: A feminist foundation advancing LGBTQI+ human rights globally and a current Equality Fund partner (including the WVL-Caribbean program); operates as a peer philanthropic organization serving overlapping movement communities.

Broad incumbents

• Ford Foundation: A major global foundation with substantial gender equality and women's rights programming, including gender-lens investing initiatives — an incumbent operating with overlapping thematic priorities and considerably broader scope.
• NoVo Foundation: A large private foundation with a major focus on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, providing comparable multi-year flexible grantmaking to feminist movements globally at significantly larger scale.
• Open Society Foundations: A large global foundation funding women's rights, gender justice, and civil society initiatives across the Global South and East — a broad incumbent whose human rights grantmaking portfolio overlaps materially with Equality Fund's mission.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/equality_fund
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@equalityfund
• Facebookfacebook.com/equalityfundCA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/equality-fund
• Instagraminstagram.com/equalityfund

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Equality Fund