African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) – Cycle 55 Call for Proposals Now Open
About the AWDF
The African Women’s Development Fund is a non-profit grant-making foundation founded to help African women in Leadership and activism and to engage gender-diverse communities. Since its establishment, the foundation has actively contributed and disbursed various funding to organizations working at the intersection of gender justice, social change, and transformation, and human rights across the African continent.
In addition, the foundation is well known for funding movements that promote intersectional and community-driven initiatives with a particular focus on justice, equity, and the power of feminist organizing.
The African Women’s Development Fund has currently launched its annual cycle of call for proposals, where the foundation is inviting bold, feminist, and women-led initiatives to apply for the fund based on flexible and impactful grant support. This call for proposals is focusing on amplifying voices often overlooked by mainstream philanthropy, particularly the small, grassroots organizations and unregistered collectives, as well as groups affected by the regional crises.
About the Call for Applications:
The cycle 55 calls for proposals targets women’s rights groups and women-led activities that advance change in their communities through awareness, advocacy, activism, creativity, and caring. If your organization is registered or not yet are encouraged to apply under the various grant categories, depending on your structure, location, and area of focus.
This call will pay attention to Francophone Africa and groups in crisis and conflict environments. Whether you are addressing economic and gender justice through a feminist lens, this is your chance to make a positive change at the community level.
Focus Areas:
The call for grant is more emphases the work priority in the following thematic area:
- Movement related Feminist Building
- Rights of women and a gender based diverse community
- Creatives and cultural resistance
- Survivor-led care and healing services
- Economic justice at structural/policy levels
- Support for unregistered, grassroots collectives in fragile contexts
Eligibility
To be eligible for the call grant you must come across the following criteria
- Be based in Africa
- Be led by women or gender-diverse people
- Ensure that 70% or more of staff and board are women/gender-diverse individuals
- Be aligned with feminist principles of justice, equity, and collective care
- Submit only one application per organization
- Some grant categories are open to unregistered collectives, especially those in high-risk or low-resource settings.
Requirements
- Have A clear vision and community project idea
- Prove of commitments towards feminist value
- Basic organizational information only for the registered group
- Ability to submit proposals in English or French
- Internet access to submit applications via the AWDF online portal
Fund Category
AWDF fund category under the call for cycle 55: check the below table and apply the grant type you are fit for application.
| Grant Type | Max Amount | Who can Apply |
| Inua Grant | $60,000 | Small registered orgs with <$100k budget |
| Size Grant | $30,000 | Unregistered collectives in crisis settings |
| Matla Grant | $40,000 | Francophone groups offering survivor service |
| Economic Justice | $30,000(1year) | Groups doing policy-level economic justice work |
| Zimba Grant | $20,000(1year) | Girl-led, Creative in Francophone Africa |
Application Process
- Open date: April 2025
- Webinars for help
- English: May 6, 2025 and French: May 7, 2025
- Deadline to Apply: May 27, 2025
How to Apply
The application should be submitted online only. Please do not send private emails and external documents
Download the application Guideline
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