Abortion Bridge Collaborative Sends $1.21M to the Repro Movement
Resourcing the Right People, Funding the Right Solutions
The Abortion Bridge Collaborative (ABC) Fund sent out $1.21M to the reproductive health and justice landscape in our latest round of grantmaking. To date, this brings our grants to $2.6M. Under the leadership of our movement-centered Grantmaking Advisory Council with a low barrier-to-entry proposal and nomination network, we are moving millions to the most impacted realms of the abortion ecosystem!
This round, ABC funding is helping recipients to:
- Expand clinics into high-need areas.
- Respond to new legal environments.
- Fund abortion procedures.
- Assist with transportation needs.
- Scale tools to provide safe and accurate information about abortion, including to people who live in states where abortion is illegal.
- Hire much-needed staff, including staff with track records of working with communities of color and low-income communities. In some cases, ABC funding will help organizations move from a volunteer-based system to paid staff infrastructure.
- Provide more language translation services.
- Help the reproductive health and justice workforce pay for rent, childcare, groceries, and other essential living costs.
Urgently Bridging Funds Where They’re Needed Most
Post Dobbs, abortion opponents could have brought the reproductive healthcare system to its knees in half the states across the U.S. But abortion providers and frontline workers are stepping up to the line boldly, and taking a stance for reproductive freedom – often in new and innovative ways. Institutional donors too frequently limit funding to well-known organizations with traditional models. Smaller organizations innovating outside of the norm are often the ones rooted in the communities they serve, especially BIPOC, immigrant, LGBTQIA+, low-income, disabled, youth, and other communities at greater risk of criminalization. At the ABC Fund, we say loudly that these organizations are the lifeblood of the reproductive justice and health movement. We are incredibly proud to support their work. Read more about each grantee from our latest round of funding:
CHOICES
$100,000 grant
CHOICES is a full-spectrum reproductive healthcare practice providing both prenatal and abortion care in Memphis, TN. ABC funding will support CHOICES’ expansion into Carbondale, IL (within a few hours travel from Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, and New Orleans, and much of Missouri and Indiana) to allow the clinic to nimbly provide for Midwestern and Southern patients in a time of continued political uncertainty.
DC Abortion Fund
$200,000 grant
The DC Abortion Fund provides logistical and financial support to people within and traveling to the Washington, D.C. region at all stages of pregnancy. ABC funding will allow DCAF to move from a volunteer workforce to paid staff infrastructure, and to begin fully funding abortion procedures ensuring that callers do not have to forgo basic necessities to afford their health care.
Endora
$75,000 grant
Endora is a new effort to research and disseminate information about anti-abortion extremists in the U.S. and create a centralized hub for researchers, reporters, and activists to organize, share their data, and identify best practices for security. ABC’s investment will jump-start the project and ensure Endora has the seed funding necessary to get at-risk populations up to speed on security protocols, minimizing points of attack and legal vulnerabilities.
The Feminist Front
$50,000 grant
The Feminist Front is a youth of color-led organization committed to fighting white supremacy and all systems of domination, and working for reproductive justice nationally and in the Southwest. Feminist Front’s #FeministUprising project is building a base of committed abortion defenders who are educated and organized for the sustained long-term power building necessary to challenge abortion bans. ABC funding will help build out and sustain local hubs and regional organizers.
INeedAnA
$150,000 grant
INeedAnA is a patient navigator that relies on non-identifiable information to connect people seeking abortions with providers, applicable abortion funds, information on relevant laws, and organizations that offer financial, logistical, and emotional support. ABC funding will allow INeedAnA to hire additional engineers, scale tools for people in states where abortion is illegal, provide additional language translation services, and develop additional tools to respond to new legal environments.
Online Abortion Resource Squad
$50,000 grant
Online Abortion Resource Squad (OARS) runs r/abortion, a support community and resource hub on Reddit where thousands of people go daily for abortion information and support. ABC funding will be used to develop new materials and intensive training workshops for the expert volunteers who deliver timely, accurate assistance to people seeking abortion in a shifting legal and service landscape.
Provide
$100,000 grant
Provide partners with workers across the healthcare and social service spectrum (including those in domestic violence and sexual assault services, substance use, family planning and HIV prevention, and primary care) to prepare them to respond to people facing unintended pregnancies and seeking abortion care. ABC funding will be used to provide operating support and build new technologies to expand their virtual offerings.
ReproJobs
$150,000 grant
ReproJobs is the movement’s only organization focused entirely on the rights and well-being of the repro workforce. ReproJobs launched the Worker Aid Fund for people who are out of employment due to the Dobbs decision. ABC’s funding will replenish the Worker Aid Fund allowing affected workers – disproportionately in the South and Midwest – to pay rent, childcare costs, groceries, and other essential living costs.
SASS
$260,000 grant
Self-Managed Abortion, Safe & Supported (SASS) is an international organization that trains individual activists, reproductive justice organizations, and state-based groups about how to use abortion pills and how to legally share that information with others. ABC funding will support the hiring of two additional outreach coordinators from the South who have track records working with communities of color and low-income communities.
SHERo
$75,000 grant
SHERo (Sisters Helping Everywoman Rise and Organize), is a Black women’s reproductive justice organization, working to support pregnant Mississippians get to available appointments in clinics located in Florida, Illinois, and New York. ABC funding will support SHERo to continue assisting the transportation needs of Mississippians through flight vouchers, rideshare vouchers, and gas for volunteer transporters and patients driving across the country.
The ABC Fund Was Set Up To Move Millions – Throw Your Weight In With Us
The ABC Fund was created to fill a gap in funding: our fund is meant to move money quickly to organizations that either needed to adapt and expand in a rapidly changing post-Dobbs world or were meeting the moment with new and innovative ideas. It’s meant to be more nimble and more risk-taking in a shifting legal landscape than a lot of traditional philanthropic vehicles.
Our intentional structure centers expertise and efficiency: the ABC Fund’s Grantmaking Advisory Council is a powerhouse of individuals with deep knowledge of the field. They represent all regions of the U.S. and they each bring a nuanced expertise and real-time perspective on what is needed in this moment. The Grantmaking Advisory Council meets monthly and the grantee process is as streamlined as possible, thanks to a partnership with JustFund, whose platform we use for our application process.
Women Donors Network as the ABC Fund’s home: WDN has long-standing investments in the abortion access space, strong and extensive networks within the movements for reproductive health and justice, a record of successful and effective rapid grantmaking, the ability to move more quickly than traditional foundations, and the capacity to leverage our nationwide donor network. While we’d heard from the field that there was this kind of funding need in the repro movement, we wanted to make sure we weren’t re-creating something that already existed. We outreached thoroughly to see if any other organizations were better positioned and could absorb this kind of work. When the answer was no, we determined that WDN was best positioned with our existing operational resources to support it.
Support the ABC Fund with a donation, today. We welcome all donations.
If your organization or an organization you know should apply for ABC funding, share our request for a proposal for the winter cycle. Grants will be made on a rolling basis.
