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2021, Here We Come!
Dear John,

This was a year of numbers. Every day, we counted the number of Covid cases – in our city, in our country, around the world. We counted votes. We counted protests and protesters. We counted down to this day, the last day of this very long year.

And as the numbers grew, UAF’s work grew to match them. In 2020, we made 300 grants – just about double what we made the year before. Most of this growth happened in response to Covid, with 152 grants going to frontline activists responding to the pandemic.
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Our Covid grants reached women with disabilities in Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, Roma women in Serbia, elderly women in Palestine, women, and girls displaced by war in Iraq. In the US, we funded members of the Navajo Nation and other Indigenous peoples grappling with the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on their communities. We supported 32 trans groups in the US that were organizing to address homelessness, abuse, and unemployment exacerbated by the pandemic.
We saw that for many women and trans people, the public health guidance to ‘stay home’ was not necessarily synonymous with ‘stay safe’. Domestic violence skyrocketed. We made 81 grants to feminist activists around the world seeking safety from gender-based violence. Almost half of those grants were to protect them from family members. Our funding was also defined by Black women’s leadership. Thirty-one grants went to organizing activists led by Black women in the US, connecting the struggle for racial justice with the impact of the pandemic.

Of course, feminist activism extended far beyond the pandemic. UAF responded by providing an additional 148 grants that supported work at critical moments. For example, in Poland, women-led the fight for abortion rights and LGBTQI equality. In Yemen, women reported on the prevalence of child marriage and advocated for freedom of the press. In Syria, women spoke out for the liberation of political prisoners.
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We did it all with 14 staff (up from 12!), 9 board members, 334 advisors, 394 donors, in zero offices, and through approximately one million zoom calls.

There are so many stories to tell about 2020. Some of them can be told through numbers in an email. Many are best told in quiet conversation. Some should be shouted from a megaphone. I hope that 2021 brings us an opportunity to continue telling our stories in all of these ways (with fewer zoom calls, please). And may our stories be bright, strong, powerful, and full of hope. Because the future is feminist, and the future is ours to build. Starting tomorrow.
2021, here we come!
Kate Kroeger

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