Podcast Summary: "Happy Mwende Kinyili on Building a Global, Grassroots Feminist Movement"

Podcast: Giving Done Right
Host: The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)
Episode Date: September 11, 2025
Guest: Happy Mwende Kinyili, Co-Executive Director, Mama Cash

Episode Overview

This episode of Giving Done Right explores the crucial topic of funding global, grassroots feminist movements, featuring a deep-dive conversation with Happy Mwende Kinyili of Mama Cash—the world’s first international women’s fund. Hosts Grace Nicolette and Phil Buchanan probe Happy’s experience and philosophy on shifting philanthropy to the grassroots, the challenges of a shrinking funding environment, and tangible advice for impact-minded donors. The tone is both urgent and uplifting, mixing story and strategy with practical optimism.

Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins and Evolution of Mama Cash (00:58–04:06)

• Founding Story: Established in 1983 around a Dutch kitchen table by five radical lesbians, one of whom had wealth and wanted to drive social change.
  • “I got money and I don't know what to do with it... So how do we get this money to them so they have resources to make the change they're doing even bigger, last longer, get there faster?” (01:07, Happy)
• Funding Model: All funds annually fundraised; over 60% moves directly to feminist activists worldwide. Uniquely, the activists themselves decide who gets grants.
• Name Story: Inspired by the band Mama Cass and the universal language of “Mama” and “Cash,” making the name globally resonant. (03:11–04:06)

2. Approach to Funding & Impact Stories (04:16–10:52)

• Grassroots Focus: Mama Cash funds groups often ignored by traditional donors—those unregistered, criminalized, or not seen as “legitimate actors.”
• Examples of Impact:
  • Green Girls Platform, Malawi: Grew from 150 to over 10,000 girls influencing climate policy; invited to join national COP delegation. (06:37)
  • Diva for Equality, Fiji: Led by LGBTQI communities; influential in climate adaptation at both grassroots and international levels.
  • Lesbianas y Feministas, Argentina: Developed a hotline supporting abortion reform, contributing to the wave that decriminalized abortion across Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico.
• Long-term Partnership: Funding is core, unrestricted, and often for a ten-year horizon—enabling sustained change, not fleeting projects.

3. How Mama Cash Finds and Selects Partners (11:11–14:06)

• Global Network Building: Embeds itself in feminist movements to build trust and awareness.
• Open Application Window: Annual call for proposals; receives ~2,000, with over 1,000 eligible. Can only fund 15–25 annually, due to financial constraints.
• Selection Criteria: Self-led activism by structurally excluded people working for structural change; provides both funding and “accompaniment” (e.g., digital security, infrastructure).

4. Navigating a Backlash & Shrinking Funding Landscape (14:06–20:20)

• Global Funding Cuts: Diminishing state and foundation support, especially from former progressive governments (Netherlands, UK, Sweden, US).
  • “At least $2.83 billion per year is leaving the women's rights funding sector starting in 2025. That's big, right?...Even our sliver is getting cut down even further.” (15:06, Happy)
• Backlash Context: Rising right-wing/fascist politics threaten not just resources but the very idea of equity and liberation.
• Global Solidarity Perspective:
  • “We move through movement, building frames, networks. We so fundamentally believe that until all of us are free, none of us are free.” (17:21, Happy)
• Call to Change Philanthropy: Critique of traditional, top-down philanthropy, advocating instead for approaches led by those most affected.
  • “The people who've gotten us into this mess aren't going to get us out of it...Let's go to the people who are most affected...Here's some money to make your best idea come real.” (19:05, Happy)

5. Donor Mindset and Advice for Giving in Overwhelming Times (20:20–24:41)

• Addressing Donor Paralysis: Overwhelm leads to inaction; instead, focus on incremental action.
  • “Don't try to do everything. Do something...Move from a place of hope and abundance, and you are assured your funding will have impact.” (21:08, Happy)
• Importance of Hope and Abundance: Embracing possibility opens up more proactive and creative philanthropy.
• Small Funds, Big Impact: “Any money that people put in will have impact” especially in today’s climate of urgent and unmet need.

6. Participatory Grantmaking: Value and Nuance (24:41–31:55)

• What is Expertise?: Lived experience is a vital form of expertise; participatory decisions should always be preferred for funding at community level.
  • “I think lived experience for sure, is important in everything, even in the process of making vaccines...” (26:54, Happy)
• Participatory ≠ Slow: Rapid-response models like Urgent Action Funds can make collective decisions within 72 hours.
• Mama Cash Approach: Not a rapid-response fund; participatory decisions take months—but fit their long-term change objectives.

7. Co-Executive Leadership Model (32:27–35:08)

• Advice for Others: Co-leadership needs deliberate infrastructure and emotional intelligence.
  • “If we don't have an infrastructure to support the CO leads, I feel you're setting people up [to fail]...” (32:55, Happy)
• Emotional Intelligence (EQ): More valuable than technical expertise alone in philanthropy; essential for relationship-building.

8. Funding Relationships, Trust, and Accountability (36:30–49:48)

• Human-to-Human Connection: Philanthropy is ultimately about relationships, not just dollars.
  • “We're so busy thinking, dollars, euros, whatever…and how is my organization going to succeed? We forget. No, at the end of the day, it's about humans meeting other humans.” (36:33, Happy)
• Mama Cash’s $20 Million MacKenzie Scott Gift:
  • Transformative Impact: Allowed immediate scaling up of grants, organizational infrastructure, and support services.
  • Unrestricted Funding: “Too unrestricted”—needed to impose some structure for legal reasons, but 70%+ moved directly to movements.
  • “We got the money in 2022 and we moved it in 2022...Our purpose is to move money.” (40:00, Happy)
• How to Assure Donors about Grassroots Giving:
  • Trust First, Hold Accountable: Building trust, supporting error correction, and maintaining transparency.
  • “Humans will do is they'll human, human. They'll mess up. 100% guarantee we will mess up. So instead of focusing on messing up, it's rather, how do we repair when we have messed up and focus that around…rebuild trust.” (46:01, Happy)

9. Personal Motivation and Philosophy (49:48–55:30)

• Rooted in Liberation Theology: Grew up in Nairobi, shocked by the disconnect between church affluence and local poverty, inspired by liberation and queer theology.
  • “Fundamentally, we need to be siding with those who are most unwanted, those who are most pushed, pressured, trodden, afflicted…” (51:04, Happy)
• Personal Mission: Ensure not to make things worse, especially for future generations (her children and others).
  • “What can I contribute to our collective liberation? That’s the question...I am so committed to leaving this world better than I found it for my kids.” (52:45, Happy)
• Memorable Vision: “Liberation is a full fridge where any child can open the fridge and get food. And that has sat with me. So I am like, what can I contribute to making a world where every child can open the fridge and get food?” (54:45, Happy)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On funding scarcity:
  “We are getting a sliver of a sliver, and even our sliver is getting cut down even further.” (00:01, Happy)

• On hope and starting somewhere:
  “Let's just do one thing. That's what [my mom] would say to me every time...You don't have to solve everything, but you can solve something.” (21:08, Happy)

• On trust and accountability in grantmaking:
  “We give people trust, we assume trust. And that almost always translates to people assume trust back to us.” (46:01, Happy)

• On philanthropy’s role:
  “The people who've gotten us into this mess aren't going to get us out of it. ...Let's try that. And see how much further we can go.” (19:05, Happy)

• On why this work matters:
  “I am so committed to leaving this world better than I found it for my kids, so that they have a better starting point than the one I had.” (52:45, Happy)
  “Liberation is a full fridge where any child can open the fridge and get food.” (54:45, Happy)

Key Timestamps for Major Topics

| Segment | Topic | |---------|-------| | 00:01 | Funding cuts in women’s rights sector revealed | | 01:07 | Mama Cash founding: origin story and funding philosophy | | 03:11 | How the “Mama Cash” name came about | | 04:33 | Personal motivation—Happy’s Nairobi story, supporting Kenyan protestors | | 06:37 | Malawi “Green Girls Platform” and climate work | | 09:00 | Argentina abortion reform—hotline and movement building | | 11:11 | How Mama Cash finds grantees and selects them | | 14:06 | Global funding cuts and right-wing backlash | | 19:05 | Bottom-up approaches and evidence of impact | | 21:08 | Donor overwhelm and the call to just start somewhere | | 24:41 | Expertise, participatory philanthropy, and collective decision making | | 32:27 | Co-leadership: challenges, advice, and emotional intelligence| | 36:33 | Human relationships at the core of giving | | 40:00 | The MacKenzie Scott gift—impact and decision to move money quickly | | 46:01 | Relationship with grassroots organizations and ensuring trust/accountability | | 49:48 | Happy’s personal journey: liberation theology and motivation | | 54:45 | Child with “full fridge” as vision of liberation |

Takeaways for Donors and Philanthropists

• Even in times of global regression and dwindling funding, individual and collective giving—no matter the amount—can fuel outsized impact when done with trust, humility, and a participatory spirit.
• Giving must move from top-down, “expert-driven” models to those centering lived experience and local leadership.
• Accountability and trust go hand-in-hand; honest mistakes can be repaired, and donors can rely on well-connected intermediaries like Mama Cash to reach those structurally excluded by traditional funding pathways.
• Emotional intelligence and relationship-building are as vital as technical expertise, both in organizational leadership and in effective giving.