Apply for a Grant
HER Fund sees herself as part of the social movements. We are committed to empowering the capacity of marginalized women to become self-sufficient, enabling them to create, lead, and sustain better lives. Our 4 main focus in grant-making are : "Freedom from Discrimination", "Freedom from Violence", "Freedom from Poverty", and "Advancement of Women's Civil Participation".
Our priority is given to marginalized women who have been collectively disadvantaged because of their social positions. These marginalized women are systematically declined of their rights, opportunities and resources that are normally available to members of society and are the key to social integration. They are the least resourceful, lack voices, and often their needs and human rights are being denied.
Our small grants support is a seed grant and a unique source that allow new initiatives for marginalized women to realize and to grow. HER grants are flexible, and makes room for grantee partners to respond to their changing community needs without feeling the too often burdensome and unrealistic pressure to ‘stick-to-the-script’. Listening to community needs, adapting, and re-strategizing is part of HER’s culture.
HER Fund is not just a funder, but also a companion to all our grantee partners. Many of our grantee partners are new or evolving groups/organizations who lack resources. In addition to giving them financial grants, HER Fund also provides comprehensive support, for we see this as a way to empower marginalized women and their work to achieve sustainability and impactful development.
The support includes but is not limited to:
- giving advice on proposals
- introducing professional volunteer
- connecting foundations with grantee partner
- getting media exposure
- creating learning opportunities
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HER Fund's General Grant application opens every year. Please stay tuned for updates on the website and social media.
For interested groups/organisations, please refer to the details and guide to applications for the grants:
General Grant
Empowering Diversity Grant (Application closed)
Should you have any queries, please contact our persons in charge, Kwok Kei and Jade To, by calling 2794-1100 or emailing grant@herfund.org.hk
Main Focus
Freedom from Violence:
Violence against women is both a brutal consequence of gender inequalities and a key obstacle to equality. Violence against women can be defined as violence directed against a person because the person is woman or as violence that affects women disproportionately. It includes violence in close relationships, sexual violence (including rape, sexual assault and harassment), economic abuse and diverse forms of harmful practices that negatively affect women’s physical and psychological well-being.
Freedom from Discrimination:
Discrimination is to make a distinction in favor of or against a person on the basis of the group, class, or category to which the person belongs rather than according to actual merit; It is action that denies social participation or human rights to categories of people based on prejudice. It is a form of control by those who are in power to those being disempowered in order to uphold the status quo.
Discrimination against women is incompatible with human dignity and constitutes an obstacle to the full realization of the potentialities of women; In addition, since discrimination can take many forms, many women are marginalized not only on the ground of their gender but also their age, citizen status, ethnic background identities, work and sexual orientations, etc. Marginalized women are the most vulnerable who are at greatest risk of suffer economic hardship, social exclusion and violence.
Freedom from Poverty:
Poverty is defined in either relative or absolute terms. Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. Relative poverty defines poverty in relation to the economic status of other members of the society: people are poor if they fall below prevailing standards of living in a given societal context.
Poverty is also social, political and cultural. It is considered to undermine human rights - economic (the right to work and have an adequate income), social (access to health care and education), political (freedom of thought, expression and association) and cultural (the right to maintain one's cultural identity and be involved in a community's cultural life). Marginalized women under gender and multiple forms of discrimination, are mostly in face of poverty.
Advancement for Women's Civil Participation:
Women are not seen as passive beneficiary or recipient of social resources or root causes of social problems. Instead they are seen as stakeholders who have an important role to play in contributing to the long term, sustainable development and positive society change. By participating in policy making, women and girls, especially the marginalized, help ensure that their needs and interests are taken into account in decision-making process that affects their lives.
Civil Participation has direct or indirect impacts on our livelihood and wellbeing, and women, especially marginalized women can be more visible and to promote positive social change with active social participation. And the forms of civil participation varied from doing research and discussing social issues, community education, policy advocacy, organizing social action to pushing media monitoring.https://www.herfund.org.hk/en/work/events/detail/28636334222482609