What happens when traditional aid disappears? Women and girl leaders are already answering that question.
Today, WomenStrong International launched Defunded & Thriving: A Learning Journey, a six-part online series hosted by Emmy- and Peabody-winning journalist Stephanie Busari. Weekly episodes begin October 6 and feature grassroots leaders, technology and finance experts, philanthropists, and Indigenous knowledge-keepers from Guatemala to the U.S. to Zambia. Together they explore how new approaches to funding are changing who shapes the work and where resources flow.
The need is urgent. According to a 2025 UN report, 90 percent of women’s and girls’ organizations have experienced funding cuts, and nearly half are at risk of closing. Yet these leaders aren’t waiting. They’re pioneering new ways to finance their work, and this series amplifies their insights.
The Learning Journey launches alongside the Abundance Collective for Girls & Women, a co-investment fund of WomenStrong International, the Advancing Girls Fund at Tides Foundation, and other partnering founding investors. The $10 million co-investment fund helps girls’ and women’s organizations move to new models of funding their work through unrestricted funding, innovative financing and organizational strengthening support, and a peer Learning Lab. The founders are inviting other philanthropists to join as co-investors.
To learn more and watch the series, register at womenstrongjourney.org.
