As grassroots organizers fight on the frontlines of reproductive justice and democracy, major funders are pulling back—threatening the future of the very movements they helped build.
This essay is part of an ongoing Gender & Democracy series, presented in partnership with Groundswell Fund and Groundswell Action Fund, highlighting the work of Groundswell partners advancing inclusive democracy. You’ll find stories, reflections and accomplishments—told in their own words—by grassroots leaders, women of color, Indigenous women, and trans and gender-expansive people supported by Groundswell. By amplifying these voices—their solutions, communities, challenges and victories—our shared goal is to show how intersectional organizing strengthens democracy.
I remember holding my 6-week-old newborn in 2021, while frantically reading breaking news about SB 8, Texas’ newly enacted abortion law. I’ll never forget the feeling of dread that this country was barreling towards a future where my baby daughter would have fewer rights than I had.
As a longtime funder of grassroots movements for bodily autonomy and democracy, my mind went to the leaders that Groundswell Fund supports in Texas who build power in Black, Latinx, Asian and youth communities who would be hardest hit. Organizations like The Afiya Center in Dallas, whose “Abortion Is Black women’s self-care” billboards and community organizing efforts have exposed the hypocrisy of Texas lawmakers who are more concerned with restricting abortion care than with improving Black women’s health in a state that consistently ranks among the worst for maternal health outcomes.
Fast forward to 2025: The U.S. is sliding quickly into authoritarianism, evidenced in part by attacks on trans people, immigrants, DEI and social justice activists. Over 800 anti-trans laws have been introduced across the country. Now, one-third of women and trans folks of childbearing age live in states that ban abortion.
In response to this onslaught, Groundswell Fund and Groundswell Action Fund are proud to have provided over $100 million to the reproductive justice movement since 2020.
In the 2024 presidential election, we saw the consequences of what happens when donors abandon grassroots organizations.
This includes grantees like COLOR, whose nonpartisan voter engagement efforts secured 225,000 signatures to place a pro-abortion measure on Colorado’s November ballot—a measure that passed with 62 percent of the vote thanks to COLOR’s pivotal organizing in Latinx communities.
It also includes organizations like Freedom, Inc. in Wisconsin, whose years of base-building and nonpartisan voter engagement with Southeast Asian, Black and LGBTQ communities helped to protect democracy and prevent billionaire Elon Musk from buying a critical 2025 state supreme court race.
Organizations like these—and hundreds more—are on the frontlines of defending human rights at this moment.
Yet, it’s alarming that major funders are leaving the field right when groups working to defend bodily autonomy and democracy need them most.
In the 2024 presidential election, we saw the consequences of what happens when donors abandon grassroots organizations—where a billion dollars were raised for the Harris campaign at the expense of movement organizations in key battleground states. These local organizations are trusted messengers among voters who rightfully feel disillusioned by the political process. They organize year after year to improve conditions faced by working-class Black and brown people, and they can get out the vote in communities that might otherwise stay home on Election Day.
In a presidential election lost to low voter turnout, the decision to underfund grassroots groups—those best equipped to knock on doors and mobilize voters—proved dangerously short-sighted.
Nonprofits advancing rights around gender, race and class rely heavily on government and foundation grants. As the current administration, led by DOGE, slashes funding programs for these groups, support from philanthropy is even more of a lifeline.
Yet, in 2025, more than a few major funders who invest millions in progressive organizations are running scared. Fearful of the government targeting their institutions in the same way it does Ivy League universities and big law firms, some foundations are choosing to preemptively defund groups that took bold stances in support of bodily autonomy, democracy and justice.
It’s hard to understand how fragile the funding ecosystem for gender issues is because it’s so opaque from the outside. Funding for trans rights remains minuscule: For every $100 foundations give, trans communities only receive 4.6 cents.
In the 2024 election cycle, opponents of trans people spent an estimated $215 million on anti-trans television ads—just under the amount spent annually by progressive U.S. funders on the entirety of the LGBTQ liberation movement.
In a presidential election lost to low voter turnout, the decision to underfund grassroots groups—those best equipped to knock on doors and mobilize voters—proved dangerously short-sighted.
Meanwhile, several major reproductive health and rights funders that nonprofits rely on are planning to close soon. Twenty percent of Groundswell’s own funders are spending down endowments and shutting their doors in the next three to five years. Many of them are valiantly doing so by making the good decision to give every dollar they have now because they recognize we are in the fight of our lives to protect reproductive freedom and save democracy, so waiting to give money tomorrow might be too late.
Others in the sector are winding down because their principal donors decided to go in another direction which has devastating consequences for social justice movements.
This is part of a larger trend. In 2020, Novo Foundation, led by Warren Buffett’s son, made the controversial decision to abandon its $90 million pledge to support women of color-led organizations, leaving many small progressive nonprofits reeling.
Today, foundation funding for feminist issues like birth equity, LGBTQ rights, HIV and intersectional organizations led by women of color remains worryingly low. One of the largest funders of LGBTQ and human rights is ending its funding soon and we can expect that the largest private funder of abortion access will likely shut its doors in the next 10-15 years, leaving the future of abortion and reproductive health in jeopardy.
The majority of people in the U.S. support reproductive freedom and desire a democracy that reflects the will of the people. Authoritarians would have us believe otherwise, while they try to use trans people, immigrants and DEI to consolidate power for the 1 percent. But we know better.
We cannot forget that we, the people, are stronger together. We are each other’s strength, courage and protection.
Today, my baby has grown into an exuberant toddler. Her future is bright because I channel my faith and action into supporting grassroots movements that are working to free her and future generations.
At Groundswell, we are funding vibrant and brave groups in 49 states and territories who are that bright hope. These groups are winning victories at the local and state level, building a base to hold elected officials accountable, and defending against authoritarianism. They are not backing down, and neither will we.
Foundations have a moral responsibility to step up in this moment, not shrink back or step away. But if they refuse, those of us who care about justice and the future of democracy must follow the example of ancestors who had no other option: We must resource freedom movements ourselves.
To learn more about supporting bold and visionary organizations at the intersections of bodily autonomy and democracy, visit www.groundswellfund.org.
