Our Visionaries

Our visionaries are individuals and organisations that know international politics must change.

Our Visionaries support us with advice, care and a significant financial contribution over the course of at least three years. We strive to foster a community of bold changemakers among our Visionaries by inviting them to exclusive events and dinners with the trailblazers and leading thinkers in our area of work.

The support is tax-deductible and we provide donation receipts.

CFFP Team

Fact 1: Women-founded and -led organisations statistically have access to fewer funding opportunities than organisations led and founded by men. (The patriarchy is everywhere!)

Fact 2: The patriarchy does not pay those working to dismantle it.

Fact 3: We need independent funds to be able to challenge, question, and confront those in power. This allows us to change how and for whom foreign policy is made.

We develop strong collaborative relationships with the members of the Visionaries programme based on deep mutual respect and the shared overarching goal of creating long-term systemic change in the field of foreign policy in order to make it more inclusive, representative and effective.

We invite our Visionaries to exclusive dinners, talks and events with leading trailblazers in our field.

Our Visionaries support us with advice and care, and most importantly, with an annual financial contribution of at least EUR 5.000,00 for individuals and EUR 10.000,00 for companies, over a period of at least three years. In this way, our Visionaries help us to fill gaps left by institutional, earmarked funding and allow us to advance ground-breaking ideas in foreign and security policy.

1. Supporting our work on race, racism and whiteness in (Feminist) Foreign Policy.

With a clear anti racist self understanding, CFFP is working to combat challenge racism and whiteness in (Feminist) Foreign Policy. The goal is to eliminate dominant perceptions influenced by white supremacy. So far, we have organised high-level discussions around these topics to discuss pathways to decolonial foreign policy; we have published two policy briefings on institutional racism and whiteness in foreign policy; we have established relations with BIPoC-led organisations, celebrated Black History Month, published a Black Feminist reading List and much more.

And we are eager to do more – we want to produce more anti-racist knowledge and amplify the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPoC) experts in foreign and security policy. Of course, at the heart of our antiracist work lies our May Ayim Fellowship. The Fellowship is designed to provide a platform for BIPoC to publish work on inclusive, intersectional policy design, to give voice to those that are not usually heard, and to increase the representation of BIPoC in the field. The funding gap for this work amounts to €150,000. Your support can help us make a case for decolonial, anti-racist, and intersectional feminist politics and to continue our efforts to decolonise an inherently racist field.

2. Supporting our work on climate justice.

The climate crisis is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. It increasingly gains significance in discourses around international politics as well as foreign and security policy. Not only does the climate crisis pose a great security threat to many, especially marginalised people, around the globe, but tackling it and achieving climate justice is deeply connected to many crucial issues that are essential to foreign and security policy (such as defence, nuclear weapons, economy and trade, conflict, gender-based violence, infrastructure, human rights, migration, and international law). We are committed to achieving climate justice and fighting the climate crisis by listening to marginalised voices, amplifying the knowledge of women, listening to science, and applying an unapologetic intersectional feminist lens to climate-related issues.

As a vital bridge between climate activists, policymakers, scientists, and the general public, we have been conducting a 7-part webinar series with the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens to discuss intersectional climate justice with various high-level experts from all over the world; we have contributed a side event at the People’s Summit during COP26, and established lasting relations with climate activists, environmental organisations led by marginalised groups, and climate-conscious policymakers. We dedicate ourselves to three primary goals to achieve the latter: producing intersectional feminist but easily accessible and understandable research on the climate crisis, fostering the alliance and exchange between feminists in foreign policy and climate activists to join forces, and promoting an understanding of the climate crisis as a security issue. Although global support for climate action has increased, there is a huge funding gap when it comes to feminist perspectives on the climate crisis and climate justice. We are ready to take on this task and to be a part of this global journey – but without secure funding, we will not get far. Your support can help tackle the funding deficit of €250,000.

3. Understanding and Countering Transnational Anti-Gender Movements

There is a lack of knowledge and awareness among policymakers and activists about what the anti-gender movement is, how it operates, the risks it poses and how to effectively develop strategies to counter it – in order to defend and advance human rights for all. In March 2021, CFFP published “Power over Rights: Understanding and Countering the Transnational Anti-Gender Movement”, the first comprehensive analysis of the anti-gender movement from a policy perspective.

Since then, we have been working to raise awareness about the work of the anti-gender movement among policy-makers and to strengthen the capacity of civil society to respond to the anti-gender movement by building an international, interdisciplinary Hub. The Hub is intended to facilitate a space for exchange, mutual learning, and strengthen alliances across policy sectors. CFFP places a particular focus on advancing the international debate about the anti-gender campaigns as both a manifestation and reinforcement of the wider anti-democratic trends. However, unfortunately, we do not have the funding to continue our work with the Hub in 2022. Remaining costs currently amount to 500,000 Euro for the next year.

Financial stability for boldness, innovation, and long-term planning.

CFFP, like many civil society organisations, is in a precarious state when it comes to funding, especially in the medium and long term. This is exacerbated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure systemic change, we need long term engagement. We need the ability to offer our staff members the financial and emotional security of long-term contracts that enable them to thrive in their careers. We need the ability to ask the tough questions that would otherwise not be asked – without worrying whether we will still exist in a year, or five. Yes, project-based funding helps us. But project funding is always limited in terms of amount, duration, and scope. We need unrestricted and independent funding to allow for CFFP to be bold, be innovative, and make even bigger waves of change.

Our CFFP Visionaries

We are immensely grateful for those who currently support us through the Visionaries scheme. Including:

Beiersdorf | BMW Foundation | Constance Sax | Ciarán O’Leary | Cornelius Adebahr | Delphine Mousseau | Eva-Maria Kirschsieper | Gesa Miczaika | Jutta von Falkenhausen | Juri Schnöller | Katja Söhner-Bilo | Madame Moneypenny GmbH | Marie Niehaus-Langer | Michael Kirch | Monika Börner | Peter Herreiner | Ralph Kinner | Sven Pink (Leela)

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