Request For Proposal: Global Programs Connect Consultancy

BACKGROUND

We are a global fund backing local leaders solving the world’s biggest challenges. We envision a future in which everyone is conscious of and builds the kind of power that brings freedom, human rights, love and care to all. We want to see an ecosystem of robust, sustainable, and diverse feminist organizations and movements who are challenging and shifting power toward a just world in which women, girls, young feminists, transgender, and gender expansive people are thriving.    

To move towards this future, we invest contributions from governments, foundations, and individuals, and generate our own wealth, creating long-term runway for funding recipients. We work with partners and allies to move money to local leaders in the Global South and fuel a people-powered movement—led by women, girls, and trans people rooted in their own communities. Their work strengthens democracy, drives climate resilience, reduces violence, and advances human rights for all.  Women’s rights organizations and feminist movements around the world are at the forefront of change—holding the line, resisting against rights violations, demanding equality, and driving solutions to get us there. That's why we focus on letting local women lead, giving them the long-term resources to reshape their communities and the world.  

SCOPE OF WORK

The Equality Fund is seeking a consultant or a group of consultants to support the design of a stream of work supporting collective action across social movements focused on achieving gender equality. This stream, called “Connect,” aims to unite diverse actors, incentivize connections, and fund strategies and approaches that are particularly suited to feminist movement strengthening. 

To date, this stream of work has supported efforts to collaborate, particularly around regional and global feminist convenings that bring stakeholders together. By providing funding opportunities for collective efforts, such as coalitions and networks through Connect, we expected to increase connections, knowledge sharing and collaboration among movement actors.  We know that coalitions and networks are not equivalent to movements, but they are often the connective tissue and convenors for movement work and require flexible resourcing for that role. 

So far, the goals for Connect have been to: 

• Provide long-term flexible funding to feminist networks, coalitions (both formal and informal) and consortia that enables them to advance collective action toward shared objectives across movements.
• Support long term and short term work: supporting the long term work of coalitions, networks and consortia around seemingly intractable issues, where movement strength ebbs and flows, and transformative change may still be years away, and strategic opportunities to support “tipping point” moments, where targeted resources may be essential for particular organizing, advocacy or policy objectives in the shorter term.
• Increase opportunities for grantee partners to build relationships, engage in mutual learning and collective action to address shared challenges and advance work at the country, regional and/or global level.   
• Support networks, coalitions and consortia that are bringing together groups and individuals that might not ordinarily collaborate, but have a shared interest in addressing certain issues, challenges and opportunities collectively and at scale.
• Resource collective work that counters the proliferation of anti-rights opposition across regions and issue areas.
• Support proactive work and strategies that move beyond reacting to anti-gender and anti-rights forces.
• Learn from, document and amplify strategies that networks, coalitions, and consortia have developed across movements to advance collective action toward gender and other forms of justice, for resource mobilization and advocacy purposes. 
• Fund networks, coalitions and consortia that are working on collective agendas regionally and transnationally.

Through ongoing learning around Connect, we recognized that there are additional opportunities to weave connections across adjacent movements and bridge to other actors outside of the feminist ecosystem, including in the impact investing sector. Our working hypothesis is that stronger intersectional movement infrastructure can help to sustain and strengthen feminist movements and increase opportunities to work across silos in support of advancing gender equality more broadly during a particularly challenging and fragmenting moment in time. 

The successful Consultant(s) will design and deliver recommendations to inform the evolution of the Connect stream. These recommendations will be operationalized by the Equality Fund - principally through its Global Programs team - and be aligned with the Equality Fund’s values, grantmaking and accompaniment strategies, programmatic stocktaking exercises, and theory of change. The recommendations will be a living document, intended to inform the Equality Fund’s programmatic work over the next 5 years and will, as such, identify opportunities for reflection and learning. We view this learning as essential not only for our own work as a funder, but also as part of our efforts to increase the quality and quantity of funding going to different parts of the feminist ecosystem, and to strengthen the impact of collective action within and across adjacent movements beyond the feminist ecosystem.  

The final deliverable will provide a roadmap for decision-making, outline considerations for grantmaking within this stream, and opportunities to prioritize. The Consultant’s work will also include recommendations on the design and process for inviting applicants to an open call for the Stream including who is eligible, the kind of work that will be funded, the length of partnership necessary to see goals realized, and criteria for selecting grantee partners.

The Equality Fund is holding the following research questions, to be refined and finalized in partnership with the Consultant(s):

• Historically, what factors have been critical to success or have led to the failure of analogous cross-movement efforts (i.e. bridging labor rights and feminist movements)? 
• What has worked to incentivize actors who haven’t worked together before to come together? 
• Are there archetypal roles different actors traditionally play in “big tent” approaches? 
• In the regions where we work, what themes would be most likely to generate collective action between feminist movements and untapped potential allies outside the feminist ecosystem? 
• Who is currently playing a leading role in cross-movement mobilizing? Who could play a leading role in cross-movement mobilizing with more and better resources?
• How have other funders approached their own role in supporting collective efforts between movements? 
• What kind of evidence or information would be helpful for the program to gather on an ongoing basis in order to inform continual learning and adaptation around the Connect program stream? 

DELIVERABLES

The Consultant(s) will be expected to produce the following deliverables for an internal audience:

• A research plan that describes the methodology, timeline, and interviewee list for the proposed work (1-2 pages).
• A summary of findings from desk research and interviews gathering lessons from intentional collective efforts bringing together different strategies and actors towards a common goal (thematic or cross-thematic) (2-5 pages).
• A typology of collective efforts (i.e. networks, coalitions, consortium, etc.), what are the characteristics and relative strengths and challenges of different kinds of structures and mechanisms at different levels for successful collective action (formal and informal) (1-2 pages).
• Brief case studies or examples of a range of funder strategies to support or incentivise collective efforts to advance gender equality, social justice and human rights agenda. There is particular interest in learning about successful collective action across movements and sectors and efforts that resulted in meaningful action among actors that had not worked together previously (2-5 pages).
• A list of funders supporting collective action across movements that we could consult with and learn from (1 page).
• Recommendations for how to evolve the Connect stream to support collective organizing towards a common goal between feminist movements and other non-traditional allies, as well as suggestions for how to measure success for this stream (5-10 page).

DESIRED EXPERIENCE 

• Extensive knowledge about different types of collective efforts and cross-movement collaboration acquired through specific research or as a grantmaking practitioner;
• A broad network of philanthropic entities who support collective efforts;
• Understanding of philanthropic program design and call for proposals;
• Broad  knowledge and experience with feminist organizations and movements, preferably in one or more regions where the Equality Fund works (i.e. Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Central Asia);
• Strong research, interview, focus group, and writing skills;
• Expertise in feminist modalities for information gathering and engaging in a consultative process with internal and external stakeholders;
• Highly organized, analytical, adaptive and responsive to feedback and changes in direction when needed;
• Strong facilitation skills;
• Availability to undertake this consultancy over 2-3 months starting May 2026.

Voluntary Disclosure: The Equality Fund implements gender-responsive procurement practices, actively seeking to maximize support for women’s organizations and suppliers working to advance gender equality. We believe that expanding and diversifying our pool of suppliers is a powerful tool to build a more competitive and robust supplier base. The ultimate objective of our feminist approach to procurement is to ensure that EF is able to thoughtfully consider whether it has, or can find, suppliers who are aligned with the mission of advancing gender equality, while at the same time meeting the need for timely delivery of high-quality goods and services at competitive prices. We believe that it is possible to seek value-alignment with our suppliers, as well as our investments and programming.

We invite respondents to provide information which will allow us to assess if your organization is mission-aligned to ours. This relates to both internal structure, practices and policies, as well as how you operate in the world. Internal examples include policies and practices related to diversity, equity and inclusion; the proportion of the leadership team and/or staff who are women, Indigenous, LGBTIQ, visible minority and/or disabled; transparency and commitment to equal pay; and the use of flexible work arrangements. External examples include careful consideration of how your business practices (including the services you provide or the goods you produce) can and do support the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people and a more equitable world. Additional elements include positive role models in advertising/promotions materials, joint work with equality-seeking women's organizations, advocacy initiatives, and other impact-oriented initiatives.

We encourage all respondents to share information on mission alignment to gender equality. Responses do not need to be lengthy, but we appreciate any information you choose to share.

DURATION & BUDGET

A timeline for the duration of this consultancy is outlined below: 

• Applications due: April 30, 2026. 
• Consultancy duration: 2-3 months.
• A budget of no more than $70,000 CAD

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

The Equality Fund is inviting Consultant(s) to prepare a short proposal for this consultancy. The proposal must include the following:

• A 1-3 page description of how the Consultant(s) would approach the assignment.
• A 1 page financial proposal in Canadian dollars, including all costs, fees, and expenses required to carry out the consultancy. The Equality Fund anticipates this work to take no more than 3 months. 
• A short description of how your skills and expertise would enable you to achieve the goals of the project and how your organization is mission-aligned to ours
• Consultant CV(s) or bios
• 2 references for similar work

Kindly submit your proposal electronically via Bamboo.  Successful applicants will be invited for interviews to make a final selection.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: OUR GRANTMAKING 

Our organization exists to move resources to women, girls and trans people in the Global South, specifically ODA-eligible countries, because gender equality is an evidence-backed strategy for prosperity and peace. Abundant funding is one element that strengthens people-powered movements yet is in short supply.

Our grantmaking dollars flow directly to organizations or to local, regional and global funds. We direct resources to organizations with gender equality at their core, which remain underfunded and often shut out by other, more restrictive funding models. The money we flow is flexible and multi-year. We also work alongside our grantee partners to support their needs beyond financial resources, including organizational strengthening, and connecting organizations with one another for peer learning opportunities, networking, and alliance building.   

We use our voice and relationships when grantee partners need them to amplify their work.  This includes communications work, connecting organizations to other donors, policy and philanthropic spaces, and in some cases engaging in direct advocacy around critical issues for feminist organizations and movements. We collaborate and learn with and from our partners to develop collective insight on what it means to shift power, strengthen feminist movements for the long term, and ultimately, to transform oppressive structures, systems and practices that are standing in the way of equality and justice everywhere.  

The work of our grantee partners is complex and multifaceted, and requires working together across themes, issues, and geographies. This is why we prioritize building connections and relationships, including with our local, regional and global fund partners. This is also why we dedicate funding to the work of connecting people, bringing together unlikely allies from activism, finance and policy, to share strategies on social justice and human rights. Achieving gender equality will require work between individuals, groups and nations.

Over the next 5 years, the Equality Fund will work to increase access to flexible, multi-year funding for feminist funds and feminist and women's rights organizations, to stabilize, sustain and/or grow their work, strengthened organizational capacity in areas that they have identified as critical for individual and collective action, and increased connections, knowledge sharing and collaboration within and across movements to strengthen the effectiveness of individual organizations’ work, and to build power and solidarity for collective action.    

WHAT OUR WORK HAS TAUGHT US

Collaboration, solidarity and shared action are essential to cross-movement work and require not only funding but also opportunities for groups to come together for mutual learning and strategizing, as well as collective care. We know that organizations within the feminist ecosystem - particularly those working on and representing marginalized issues and populations - can feel isolated from one another and broader movements, and are looking for spaces where they can break through programmatic and geographic silos for cross-pollination of ideas and strategies, and potential collective work.  

There are increased connections, knowledge sharing and collaboration within and across movements to strengthen the effectiveness of individual organizations’ work, and to build power and solidarity for collective action. 

Recognizing that there are many definitions and ways of understanding movement-building, the Equality Fund takes as a starting point the definition put forward by Srilatha Batliwala of AWID’s Building Feminist Movements & Organizations (BFEMO) Initiative: 

“Processes that build collective power by organizing constituencies of excluded, marginalized, oppressed or invisible people, who build a change agenda and engage in joint actions to access their human rights and entitlements, challenge and change ideologies of inequality, and transform social power relations in their favor” …with feminist movements in particular having “gendered political goals, gendered strategies, and a gendered feminist analysis of the problem or situation they are seeking to change.” 

We are clear that as a funder, we are not building feminist movements; we are supporting movement building that is done by individuals, organizations, coalitions and networks. Our understanding of our role is anchored in Equality Fund’s overall commitment to fund the diverse parts of the feminist ecosystem and in EF’s philanthropic advocacy to grow resources for that ecosystem – all of which is viewed as a movement-strengthening approach. 

CompensationUp to CAD$70,000