Earlier this year I conducted a study on funding resilience within the human rights movement, and I am excited to share with you here the findings.
The study was for a large philanthropic organisation, and it investigated how funding can build cultures of wellness that benefit grantee and partner organisations, and in turn the communities they are supporting. The focus was on building sustainable human rights movements, but I believe many of the findings are relevant for humanitarian and development organisations too.
Here is what I found:
- In a world of multiple protracted conflicts (including Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan) the possibility of long-term, ongoing trauma affecting humanitarians and human rights defenders living in these contexts is very real – and requires a longer term vision for mental health, wellbeing and protection support if they are to continue with their work.
- Whilst both grantmakers and grantees are paying greater attention to staff mental health needs since Covid, the terminology regarding ‘wellbeing’ and ‘resilience’ is problematic. I spoke to human rights defenders in different countries who were sceptical about how these terms often have individualistic, commodified (and westernised) connotations (think massage therapies, bubble baths, yoga and meditation). They called for a decolonising of language so they could define wellbeing in their own terms, and with more of a focus on the systemic causes of emotional or mental distress among human rights defenders.
- A focus on the systemic causes requires grantmakers themselves to consider their working cultures and routines: often with a lot of pressure on themselves, and a lot of pressure on grantees, with little recognition or discussion of the emotional toll this may be having. In this respect, grantmakers cannot commit to funding the wellbeing of their grantees without also addressing how the power dynamics of this relationship contribute to the stresses and strains of human rights movements.
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What is to be done?
What could grantmakers and donors be doing differently to show their commitment to building humanitarian organisations and human rights movements whose staff and members feel supported and aren’t at risk of burnout or other mental illness?
Listen to this episode of the Embodying Change podcast with Melissa Pitotti, where I discuss these issues and much more!
You can also read the key recommendations from my research here:
1. Donors and grantmakers need to provide funding and support that takes care of the entire ecosystem.
In the case of human rights movements, this means building local and global communities and networks that support human rights activists through shared learning and capacity building (including on wellness strategies).
It means helping to build the basic infrastructure of a partner organisation – its human resources and operational functions – so that it can respond more consistently to the needs of staff.
It means ensuring humanitarians or human rights defenders are paid fairly and equitably for their efforts, to provide them with the financial security they need to do their work. Funders (and indeed the senior leaders of NGOs too) need to stop seeing humanitarian workers or human rights defenders as continuously self-sacrificing and remember that there is a human being behind each person’s work: someone who, like any one of us, wants to raise or spend time with their family, have a secure roof over their heads, a pension to look after themselves in old age. Human rights movements in particular are at risk of losing their best and brightest due to financial and housing insecurity, and funders could be doing a lot more to highlight and support these basic needs.
2. Promote cultures of care within funding organisations
Part of recognising the human being behind the humanitarian or human rights defender requires grantmakers to reframe what ‘support’ actually means. Not making every communication transactional or task-oriented. Instead, checking in about family life or any other concerns outside the work itself. Breaking bread together.
Funding organisations – and this is equally relevant to NGOs too – need to keep building upon the learning from Covid, and support spaces and support mechanisms that promote a more caring culture. For example, funders could ensure their programme staff have access to psycho-social support to help them process traumatic incidents, and train them in trauma-informed responses to help them engage more sensitively with the communities they are supporting.
Photo by Mr.vicpix on Shutterstock
3.Expand and diversify wellbeing and protection approaches
Funding wellbeing isn’t just about, for instance, providing psycho-social support in the event of a security incident.
I was really inspired by some of the incredible, innovative and locally led approaches being taken by human rights defenders and feminist movements I spoke to in Africa and Meso-America. They were challenging westernised approaches that often focus on talking therapies and short-term protection interventions, and considering the longer term, broader needs that ensure activists feel secure and supported.
This included long term accompaniment for human rights defenders forced to relocate, supporting them to access local services and build community within their new location. And identifying local healers and clinics that were more sympathetic and understanding towards the specific mental, emotional and spiritual needs of different groups such as indigenous movements.
There is the opportunity to keep learning from, and collaborating with, feminist groups who are already doing this pioneering work and showing how wellbeing can be decolonised and diversified to build more sustainable human rights movements.
4. Ultimately, a feminist, decolonial approach to funding requires partners and grantees to define what wellbeing means for them
The number of grantmakers I spoke to who were providing funding specifically for wellbeing initiatives felt very encouraging, and certainly a big change from a few years ago.
However, funders need to remain flexible in how they earmark and administer this type of funding. Making it supplementary to, rather than a percentage of, the core funding they provide partners. And allowing partners to define for themselves how that money should be spent, Examples from my research include funding used by grantees for group retreats, individual coaching, healthcare, nutritious meals (particularly staff on low salaries), even hiking boots (particularly during the Covid lockdowns when walking in nature was encouraged).
By taking a flexible approach, donors and grantmakers can continue to learn from their partners and grantees about what sustains them to do their work, and what resilience really means in different contexts.
Want to find out more about what funders can do to support cultures of wellness? Listen to my interview for the Embodying Change podcast with Melissa Pitotti. And get in touch if you would like me to support your efforts to build cultures of wellness in your organisation.