Dare to Trust: the power of unconditional funding
At Both ENDS we cherish our long-term relationships with partners in our global network. These relationships are based on equality and built on trust. The trust we have in each other has developed from years of strategic cooperation, including joint advocacy around common agendas, knowledge sharing, networking, and mobilising and sharing resources to advance environmental justice.
With respect to the latter, Both ENDS builds upon that mutual relationship of trust when leveraging our relationships with funders to mobilise and distribute funding to partners, trusting them to make the decisions about their priorities and the use of available resources. In this sense, our way of funding can be described as ‘trust-based funding’, a term increasingly used within the philanthropic community.
14 women’s groups worldwide
Both ENDS has always endeavoured to make our funding procedures as simple as possible for partners, to keep requirements and conditions at a minimum. But we longed to take this principle a step further, to fully translate the relationships of trust to the financing processes. Trust to use funding with no conditions at all and, together, share what we learned from the process. In 2022, with a generous special project grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery, we were able to do just that. With the Dare to Trust initiative, we regranted funds to 14 partners, no strings attached, to support the work of Women Environmental Human Rights Defenders (WEHRDs).
Creating a chain of trust
A chain of trust was created: the Dutch Postcode Lottery put its trust in Both ENDS to spend the funding well. In turn, we trusted the long-term partners we work with and they again put full trust in the WEHRDs with whom they work to identify their most pressing challenges and implement the most suitable solutions, based on their own analysis, contexts and capacities. Within the chain of trust, each of us played our special role. Both ENDS coordinated the project, distributed the funds and is sharing the lessons learned with a wider audience to encourage others to also engage in this type of funding. Partners applied their knowledge of the local context and provided direct support to WEHRDs. Finally, and most fundamentally, WEHRDs had complete ownership over their activities and the results of their work, thereby ensuring maximum effectiveness.
Summary of their stories and our lessons
In the stories below, we showcase the expected and unexpected marvels that WEHRDs and their organisations can realise when they receive support to implement their visions and plans, whatever they may be. It is inspiring and impressive to see how parts of the funds were directed toward diverse yet often underfunded activities that WEHRDs themselves identified as priorities - including essential initiatives such as care for each other and women’s mental health.
In the special magazine about Dare to Trust you will find a summary of their stories, including links to their videos, news articles, radio shows, podcasts, photos and a scrap book. We also share important insights and lessons from the process to inspire others. We show that a chain of trust is both possible and effective, particularly for those who, like WEHRDs, face major barriers in their access to resources.
Our collaborate call to action
‘Dare To Trust’ is a call to donors, policymakers and other grantmaking institutions to show more trust. More unconditional funding ensures that local actors can address their challenges, needs and opportunities in an effective way.
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Publication / 1 April 2025
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News / 24 December 2024LILAK's Dare to Trust projects: Dreams transformed into actions
LILAK has worked alongside indigenous women communities for over a decade, focusing on building capacity and advocating for rights to land, the environment, and bodily autonomy. Despite gaining recognition and trust from allies, the journey was challenging. Starting with limited resources, LILAK faced resistance, particularly from patriarchal leaders and the state, which often labeled them as adversaries. Nevertheless, they adapted and…
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News / 24 December 2024Dare to Trust: a journey of culture, renewal, and empowerment of Sengwer women
Historically, the Sengwer community has lived in harmony with their environment, relying on forest resources for sustenance and integrating conservation into their daily lives. However, recent government policies aimed at forest protection have limited their access to these ancestral lands. Although these regulations intend to protect the environment, they often disregard the traditional conservation practices of indigenous communities like the Sengwer, who have been natural stewards of these lands for generations. Faced with these restrictions, the Segerger Women’s Conservation…
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News / 24 December 2024Forum Suape empowers women's groups with Dare to Trust-grants
Forum Suape decided to help several women’s groups in their network. First, they wanted to understand the desires and needs of each group, with the aim of fostering collective thinking and understanding their collective interests and goals. Five groups were selected, one group had difficulty in…
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News / 24 December 2024Dare to Trust: Sowing dreams irrigated with droplets of trust (Colectivo CASA)
Collectivo CASA in Bolivia, with support from Both ENDS and Dare to Trust, found great satisfaction in assisting women defenders with personal and economic needs. This support allowed the women to express their needs and develop a shared vision for their improvement. Although managing funds sustainably posed challenges, the women defenders demonstrated their skills by quickly creating a “Plan for Good Living,” (“Buen Vivir” in Spanish)…
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News / 24 December 2024NTFP-EP supports grassroots women’s organisations with Dare to Trust-grants
The pilot of Dare to Trust, facilitated by NTFP-EP, was implemented in two grassroots women’s organisations in the Philippines and Cambodia. The Dare to Trust project provided them with the independence to utilize the resources they have and thus handed to them the agency for more grounded and better judgment. By giving more liberty to the communities we are moving them away from bureaucratic processes and power structures, and…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: LSD supports women to speak up after losing their houses
Lumière Synergie pour Développement (LSD) has helped 63 individual women who all have had problems due to the development of a controversial train project (TER) in Senegal and a recent big earthquake. These communities are displaced by the train project, involuntarily resettled, their property…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: Beneficiaries Tell Success Stories of Kebetkache Development Empowerment Project
The Dare to Trust-initiative, led by Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre with support from Both ENDS, empowers individuals with business potential who face financial constraints. The program has successfully supported 40 beneficiaries, enabling them to grow their businesses…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: Mama Sorghum Peace Movement Maintains Biodiversity
Yasores as an organisation was supported by the Samdhana Institute in our Dare to Trust-project, a no-strings-attached way of funding. The only administrative duty was to send a creative report about the activities. The Samdhana Institute send this story about the history and founding of…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: WoMin supports women's livelihoods in Madagascar
In the Dare to Trust project, WOMIN South Africa has worked with local women’s, youth and farmer groups in Madagascar. They worked on increasing…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: RWA Eswatini agroecology centre
In the Kingdom of Eswatini, rural women have been the custodians of local and indigenous seeds and preserving biodiversity for generations. Officially founded in 2011, the Swaziland Rural Women’s Assembly (SRWA) has brought together over 20.000 women across the country to reclaim their traditional knowledge of seed sharing. In the Dare to Trust project, the SRWA has developed a new Agroecology Demonstration Center as a learning…
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News / 23 December 2024Dare to Trust: Our stories (Instituto Cordilheira)
Institutio Cordilheira in Brazil has a vast network of grassroot organisations in Brazil. With a lot of creativity they were able to assist many of them with…
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News / 9 July 2024‘Dare to Trust’: Both ENDS and the Dutch Postcode Lottery team up to show the power of trust-based partnership
For more than thirty years, Both ENDS has collaborated with partner organisations around the world to advance environmental justice. Our relationships with partners, many of which span decades, are based on shared values, respect and trust. Together, we are strengthening knowledge, networks and…
