A True Sisterhood: The Ukrainian Women’s Fund on Feminist Funding, Solidarity, and Hope

As Prospera marks 25 years of collective action, Resourcing Power Together highlights the experiences, lessons, and leadership of women’s and feminist funds across our network. For our first conversation, Natalia Karbowska reflects on sustaining movements through crisis, the power of solidarity, and why hope remains essential.

At a time when crises intensify, and movements must respond faster and with fewer resources, the question of how feminist organizing is sustained becomes even more urgent.

We spoke with Natalia Karbowska, Director of Strategic Development at the Ukrainian Women’s Fund, about the Fund’s journey, what it means to resource feminist movements in times of crisis, and the power of solidarity across the Prospera network.

This conversation with Natalia of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund offers a glimpse into what feminist funding looks like in practice—not only in times of crisis, but through the ongoing work of building movements, strengthening trust, and sustaining resilience. It also underscores the role of networks like Prospera in enabling that work: connecting funds, sharing risk, and mobilizing collective support when it is needed most.

Q: Tell us about the work of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund. 

Natalia: The Ukrainian Women’s Fund celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. We were founded back in 2000 by Ukrainian feminists in response to shrinking funding for women’s rights and gender equality. They recognized the need for a Ukrainian organization that could mobilize resources to support the movement.

This is what we did with the $10,000 we received as our first grant from the Global Fund for Women back in 2000. And it is what we continue to do today with an almost $3 million budget supported by a range of funding sources. We believe that women in Ukraine, and around the world, need resources to carry out the important work they are doing.

Q: Tell us about a recent achievement that you’re particularly proud of.

Natalia: In 2022, when the full-scale invasion began, nobody knew what would happen in Ukraine or whether banks would continue to operate. So, we decided that the best way to protect the reserves we had built up in our account in Ukraine was to distribute them as rapid-response funding to women’s rights groups. Within a couple of weeks, we had allocated all of our reserve funds to women’s rights organizations across the country.

We then shared this story with our colleagues and sisters from Prospera.

Within a couple of months, Prospera and its members had helped replenish our reserve funds.

This is something we continue to be deeply proud of—that we are part of a true sisterhood. 

Today, our reserve funds are once again in a safe place, after we used everything we had to support women when they needed it most.

It is a story that we will never forget. It remains in our hearts and will stay with us forever.

Q: How would you explain what a women’s or feminist fund is, and what it does, to someone who isn’t familiar with the concept?

Natalia: For me, the perfect phrase that describes the work of a women’s fund is “Put your money where your heart is.” And this is very much how we work. I would even take it a step further: “Put your money behind the causes that are driven by your heart and the hearts of other women.”

This is what we do in Ukraine. We mobilize resources from different sources, and that diversification is essential to the sustainability of women’s funds. 

And then, of course, a unique feature of a women’s fund is that we are brave in our grantmaking. In Ukraine, for example, we are the only fund that provides grants to newly created or newly registered groups. 

We are known as a brave fund—one that is not afraid to be the first to fund women’s rights and feminist groups.

We all know how important it is for any organization to receive its first grant. So, we are proud to have been the first donor to many women’s groups in Ukraine and Moldova. Before the full-scale invasion began, we also provided funding to organizations in Moldova.

But we are not only providing grants. We are very much about building and strengthening the movement, which is particularly important in the current context. There are so many challenges in the world, including the rise of anti-gender movements. So, it is of critical importance for us to support networking and help build coalitions and alliances among women’s rights and feminist organizations at the national and global levels.

The Ukrainian Women’s Fund is also proud to be a leader in several advocacy efforts in Ukraine, including campaigns focused on the rights of women serving in the military, gender mainstreaming, gender-responsive recovery of the country, and women’s political participation.

Q: How would you describe what Prospera is and what it does to someone who isn’t familiar with the network?

We have a very special relationship with Prospera because we are part of the network from the very beginning.

As I’ve told you, we have wonderful stories from 2022 when Prospera helped replenish our reserve funds.

For us, Prospera is the place where we belong, where our heart is, and where we would like to be—especially now.

We also often call Prospera our headquarters—the network we can always come for help, mentorship, support, and solidarity. 

When people find out I’m from Ukraine and that I live in Ukraine, they often ask me how we manage—living with daily shelling, without electricity, and with really cold weather, as we have had this year. 

They ask me what helps us keep going. And I always say that two things help us move forward. First, we have hope for a better future. And second, we have people who are with us on this path.

Obviously, if you are alone, it is difficult even to manage daily life, especially in Ukraine today. But when you know there are so many wonderful people around you—women and men, though mostly women—who support you, who share what you think and what you do, and who are ready to stand by you, I think this is what really motivates us. That is what gives us the strength to hold on to hope for a better future.