Q:

Isn’t all funding that improves peoples’ lives human rights funding?

A:

Humanitarian funding that provides services and opportunities for people to improve their lives may be considered human rights funding if the programs are directed to assisting people in exercising their rights to these services, opportunities, and improved standards. Support for programs that only provide services to those who are underserved or in need, or who have fewer opportunities, can be valuable efforts. Human rights funding can add value to such funding by focusing on the dignity of the person, and recognizing that all people have inherent, universal, inalienable, and indivisible rights to the basic standards of living.
John Kostishack, Executive Director
Otto Bremer Foundation

A broad interpretation of human rights would include “good works;” a narrower interpretation would include only those that apply or advance existing or emerging human rights law and methodological approaches. Whether a more inclusive definition of human rights will give strength to the movement by attracting new constituencies or will weaken it by diluting its credibility can be the subject of debate.
Mary Page, Director of Global Challenges Program
Raoul Davion, Program Officer
MacArthur Foundation

Q:

What does a human rights approach add to humanitarian work?

A:

Q:

What does a human rights approach have to contribute to social justice work?

A:

Because human rights is based on global norms and standards and uses a commonly understood language, it links U.S. social justice work to other worldwide struggles to create a more just world. Rights activists in this country increasingly are aware of the global interconnections between social justice efforts in the U.S. and those in other countries; and in that context human rights becomes a powerful organizing tool in communities as well as a framework for better understanding the causes and consequences of injustice.
Robert Crane, President
JEHT Foundation

Q:

What does a human rights approach have to contribute to other fields?

A:

The protection of human rights is vital for the prevention of violent conflicts, poverty reduction, sustainable social and economic development, peace and security.
Lara Iglitzen, Executive Director
Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Q:

How has human rights funding contributed to the ability of communities to empower themselves?

A:

Human Rights NGOs have worked to build networks and provide places for communities to organize against the continuing injustices where they live. They work with communities to create grassroots leaders and organize minority groups in empowering them to take action against civil and human rights violations and to promote self-determination through cultural identity and pride.
Lara Iglitzen, Executive Director
Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Q:

How are outcomes or successes “measured” in human rights work?

A:

Outcomes and successes in human rights work are as varied as the work itself. Examples include: the successful prosecution of human rights violators; legislation that protects specific human rights or vulnerable groups; more effective enforcement of existing laws; the mobilization of communities to prevent violations and secure human rights protections; the effective documentation of previously ignored human rights violations; and more. Ultimately, the success of human rights is measured in terms of concrete improvements in peoples’ lives.
Mona Younis, Consultant
Mertz Gilmore Foundation

Q:

Isn’t human rights advocacy essentially lobbying, which could threaten my status as a foundation in the U.S. or in other countries?

A:

Not necessarily. If you campaign for or against a specific bill, that’s lobbying, but if you educate legislators on an issue, it isn’t. And even lobbying itself isn’t prohibited, just limited in ways not too hard to comply with. You can’t support candidates, but you can certainly support issues, be they human rights ones or any others.
Valentine Doyle, Program Officer
Lawson Valentine Foundation

US law only prohibits tax-exempt organizations from lobbying on specific laws or in support of political candidates. Priority funding for education on issues, organizing work and networking on human rights will not threaten status as a foundation.
Shalini Nataraj, Vice President of Programs
Global Fund for Women

No. Much human rights work is focused on education and providing information, neither of which fit into the IRS definition of lobbying. Other human rights advocacy is focused on encouraging governments and officials to follow existing laws or constitutional requirements and is not prohibited lobbying. The great majority of human rights work being done can be supported without running afoul of the IRS lobbying restrictions. As with all kinds of funding, it is important to know and follow the IRS rules on funding and to avoid the limited kind of lobbying prohibited by the IRS. It is also important to comply with State Department prohibitions against funding in certain listed countries even though huge human rights violations often exist in these countries. But it is easy to find, understand and comply with all the necessary rules so that funding in the field does not pose risks to the foundation.
Chet Tchozewski, Executive Director
Global Greengrants Fund

Private foundations, as independent entities, have an excellent opportunity—indeed, the responsibility—to support human rights work around the world even where it is controversial. Especially in environments where, post 9/11, political and popular tolerance for restrictions on dissent and civil liberties has grown, foundations, as actors not beholden to political pressures, are needed to support human rights groups that are working to fight such restrictions and create stronger civil societies.
Mary Ann Stein, President
The Moriah Fund

Nonprofit organizations are permitted by US law to promote broad changes to a country’s approach to human rights, but not to advocate a specific way to vote on a piece of legislation. Advocacy activities are only lobbying if the organization is proposing changes in current law or writing laws.
Nancy Stockford, Administrator
John Merck Fund

Advocacy that is aimed at raising public awareness, protecting and defending individuals’ and communities’ rights, or promoting social change that is consistent with human rights standards can involve virtually no lobbying. Even with explicit lobbying, however, U.S. foundations tend to be overly and unnecessarily cautious. Although private foundations are not themselves permitted to lobby or earmark funds for lobbying, they will not be penalized for (1) extending general operating support to NGOs that do so or (2) providing project grants to them as long as the amount is not greater than the non-lobbying portion of the organization’s budget. As for public foundations, the U.S. federal tax code is the same as that for public charities, which permits lobbying. For more information about lobbying limits, see the Alliance for Justice’s important publication: “Worry Free Lobbying: How to Use the 501(h) Election to Maximize Effectiveness or Being a Player: A Guide to the IRS Lobbying Regulations for Advocacy Charities.” (See “publications” on this site.) For assistance, contact the Foundation Advocacy Initiative (FAI), which is a program of the Alliance for Justice that addresses foundation concerns regarding funding for public policy and advocacy work. Among other things, FAI provides technical assistance and accessible publications and organizes workshops to assist foundations with the laws governing support for, and engagement in, advocacy activities.
Mona Younis, Consultant
Mertz Gilmore Foundation

Q:

Our foundation doesn’t fund advocacy. Are there other ways for us to support human rights work?

A:

Your human rights funding can focus on public education informing people of their rights and how these rights can be exercised—data collection, analysis and monitoring, and the promotion of legal mechanisms.
Lara Iglitzen, Executive Director
Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Yes. You can fund human rights education, organizing around human rights issues such as dumping of toxic wastes in poor communities, or technical assistance for small community-based human rights groups. There are many other ways to contribute.
Shalini Nataraj, Vice President of Programs
Global Fund for Women

There are many ways to support human rights work that do not involve “advocacy.” Support for education about human rights is crucial. Building awareness about human rights is an important tool for ensuring that communities have the capacity to promote and protect their own human rights. Helping communities develop access to clean water, health care, sustainable environments and other hallmarks of basic human rights are important to the overall achievement of human rights.
Chet Tchozewski, Executive Director
Global Greengrants Fund

Q:

Does human rights funding support work in the global North?

A:

Although HR funders have traditionally viewed human rights questions as arising outside the U.S., increasing numbers are beginning to understand and appreciate the importance of addressing human rights in a U.S. context as well. Some of that increased interest is due to specific concerns such as opposition to the death penalty in this country, or the right of people to have adequate shelter; but much of the renewed interest in human rights in the U.S. is directly related to a broader concern about America's deeply held sense of "exceptionalism" and the sense that it is out of sync with our role in the world and the inescapable globalization of our lives.
Robert Crane, President
JEHT Foundation

If human rights violations occurred only outside the United States, that would be true. Since violations of economic, social and cultural rights, and also of civil and political rights, also occur here, there is plenty to do without leaving home. Discrimination has not ended, the criminal justice system is far from compliant, and minority and immigrant communities often suffer disproportionately from government actions.
Valentine Doyle, Program Officer
Lawson Valentine Foundation

While human rights are predominately seen as issues pertaining to countries outside of the United States, organizations all over the country are modifying their programs in order to rightfully be called human rights organizations. Environmental, civil rights, youth and disability groups are reaching out to increase awareness of how human rights pertains to daily life in the U.S.
Lara Iglitzen, Executive Director
Henry M. Jackson Foundation

The civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights, which include rights to a healthy environment and development, that constitute the core human rights are universal and exist for everyone. Support for programs that enable people in the United States, Canada, and Europe to exercise these rights is by definition human rights funding.
John Kostishack, Executive Director
Otto Bremer Foundation

Q:

How can small foundations with limited resources support human rights?

A:

They can support small organizations dealing with human rights issues, to whom a modest check makes a big difference. Or they can contribute to a pooled fund that does work in a variety of areas.
Valentine Doyle, Program Officer
Lawson Valentine Foundation

By looking to link the work they are doing and the changes they are funding to teaching and learning about human rights. We used to say: "give a person a fish, he will eat today, but teach him to fish and he will eat forever." Now one might add "and teach him that having enough to eat and being able to fish for food are his essential right and we might be able to change the world."
Ruth Messinger, Executive Director
American Jewish World Service

There are organizations—like the Fund for Global Human Rights, the Global Fund for Women and Global Greengrants—whose work makes it possible for smaller donations to be pooled with other funds and directed to areas of need. By bringing together resources, these funds enable small foundations to have a greater impact without having themselves to make the administrative investment.
Regan Ralph, Executive Director
Fund for Global Human Rights

Much of the most important human rights work is community-based, performed by grassroots organizations. These groups can often perform near miracles with a small amount of money but they have the hardest time obtaining funding. Seeking out and supporting these groups directly or through intermediaries such as the Fund for Global Human Rights can be an important contribution to advancing human rights as experienced by real people.
Chet Tchozewski, Executive Director
Global Greengrants Fund

Q:

How can a foundation without foreign offices or resources for site visits make grants to groups around the world and ensure due diligence?

A:

It can contribute to a pooled fund. Or it can work in partnership with a larger organization it trusts, be it funder or NGO, who will find worthy organizations on the ground and guide funding to them.
Valentine Doyle, Program Officer
Lawson Valentine Foundation

There are good options available to funders for supporting organizations doing important work affecting human rights outside of the US without having to develop and fund an expensive infrastructure. Regranting organizations such as the new Fund for Global Human Rights, the Global Fund for Women, Global Greengrants Fund and Ploughshares Fund all support grassroots organizations working on theses problems and have developed effective and efficient methods for performing the necessary due diligence and monitoring to ensure that funds are well used.
Heather Ryan, Associate Director
Chet Tchozewski, Executive Director
Global Greengrants Fund

Foundations and individuals wanting to support human rights groups around the world can take advantage of several re-granting organizations, such as the Fund for Global Human Rights, Global Greengrants, and the Global Fund for Women, which are designed to investigate, screen and monitor grants in other countries. These groups rely on international networks of advisors to inform their grantmaking.
Mary Ann Stein, President
The Moriah Fund

Foundations lacking an international presence can make use of the vast pool of human rights experts in the US and around the world, many of whom are eager and willing to facilitate the work of human rights advocates internationally. These experts can be found in human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights; or at foundations that have foreign offices or more resources, such as the Ford Foundation.
Nancy Stockford, Administrator
John Merck Fund

Q:

Doesn't human rights funding involve interference in the internal affairs and national sovereignty of other countries?

A:

Human rights funding goes both to international groups and to domestic ones that may well be trying to change their home government. It may interfere with a government’s “rights” to arbitrary imprisonment, summary execution, mass eviction or homeland destruction, but human rights treaties have already denied the legitimacy of such actions.

It can be a hard call, though, in less obvious cases, particularly when government is not the object of the protest. When is one arrogantly to imposing one’s own standards on others and when is one defending a universal principle? It can be difficult to say at what point someone else’s cultural practice becomes a human rights abuse – is it a violation of international child labor standards, for instance, if children help their parents on the farm? It could be. It is important to be sure that protests come from the community involved and not from some international NGO acting without local partnership and initiative.
Valentine Doyle, Program Officer
Lawson Valentine Foundation

Efforts to promote and protect human rights increasingly emanate from an understanding of human rights as universal goods to which all people may lay claim. Foundations’ support for human rights does not occur in a vacuum, but in response to violations of or failures to respect rights identified by the people of the society in which they are occurring. In this way foundation grantmaking seeks to support local efforts to promote, protect, defend, and claim rights.

The report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty defines sovereignty as the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens. In situations where a population is suffering serious harm and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, the report suggests that the state cede its sovereignty to an international responsibility to protect. By helping to ensure the protection of people’s human rights, foundations are helping the state to meet its responsibilities thereby strengthening, not weakening state sovereignty.
Mary Page, Director of Global Challenge Program
Raoul Davion, Program Officer
MacArthur Foundation