Beyond Survival:
Investing in the Future of the South Asian Gender Justice Movement
Executive Summary
South Asian gender-based violence organizations have spent decades supporting survivors and preventing violence, yet remain chronically underfunded and overlooked by philanthropy. As the funding landscape grows increasingly uncertain, the organizations serving survivors face mounting pressure to sustain essential services. In SOAR’s 2025 needs assessment, 95% of member organizations reported severe losses or reductions in government and private funding, threatening their ability to meet survivors’ needs and sustain their work.
In response, South Asian SOAR launched the Murmurations Movement Fund (MMF), the first fund dedicated specifically to South Asian anti-violence organizations in the United States. Within six months, SOAR raised $50,000 and distributed flexible, unrestricted grants to 30 grassroots organizations across the country. The experience revealed both the urgent financial realities facing the field and what becomes possible when resources move quickly, flexibly, and with trust.
Beyond Survival: Investing in the South Asian Gender Justice Movement builds on these findings to examine the funding gaps threatening the sustainability of South Asian gender justice organizations and offer a path forward. The report calls on institutional funders, private and family foundations, philanthropists, and individual donors to increase sustained, unrestricted, and values-aligned investment in this historically underfunded field.
By connecting gender-based violence to broader priorities such as public health, economic security, and the well-being of future generations, the report challenges funders to recognize this work as essential to thriving communities. Our goal is to turn awareness into action, mobilizing the resources South Asian gender justice organizations need to support survivors, prevent violence, and build a future rooted in safety, healing, and abundance.
Summary of Key Findings
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Nearly 90% of organizations reported that they are not financially secure over the next 12 months, meaning that they do not have the reserves or revenue to sustain organizational operating and personnel costs for the next 12 months. For many organizations, this instability is already affecting operations: 43% report scaling back, operating lean, or being at risk of pausing core programs altogether. Smaller organizations with median budgets of less than $325,000 face the greatest vulnerability, suggesting that financial instability may disproportionately impact organizations based on organizational size. Geographically, there is also a disproportionate impact on organizations in the South, with zero of the 13 organizations reporting being secure for the next 12 months, compared to three of the 12 organizations in the Northeast reporting secure funding. Financial insecurity is a reality facing organizations across the field, but its impact is compounded by factors such as organizational size, budget, geographic location, and the regional sociopolitical environments in which organizations operate.
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40% of participating organizations receive more than 80% of their revenue from a single funding source. Funding is dangerously concentrated to a single source, primarily government or individual donors. This level of concentration leaves organizations particularly vulnerable when a major source of funding changes or disappears. For those heavily reliant on government funding, recent federal and state funding uncertainty makes that risk especially acute.
Diversifying revenue could provide greater stability, but organizations have limited options for doing so. Foundations are the primary funder for only 1 in 5 organizations, and direct service leaders describe foundation funding as highly competitive, slow to move, and often misaligned with the realities of culturally specific work. This leaves organizations with few options for reducing their reliance on any one source of funding.While some midsize organizations rely heavily on foundation dollars, larger organizations receive a smaller share of their overall budgets from foundations.
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Political and economic shifts are already having a trickle-down impact on funding. Organizations relying on government funding repeatedly note that cuts, shifting priorities, and grant terminations threaten their survival. Additionally, organizations are seeing a downturn in individual giving due to economic insecurity, limited access to foundation grants due to increased competition, and lower giving across the board, especially for organizations vocal on controversial issues based on the current sociopolitical landscape.
Without new resources, many organizations are being forced to scale back, delay payroll, or even shut down core programs — putting critical survivor services on the brink. Leaders describe struggling to keep doors open, unable to sustain programming or even cover basic operations like rent, staff salaries, and utilities. As grants expire, funding is cut, and dollars become more restricted, organizations are struggling to sustain the services survivors rely on for safety and support.
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Among the MMF grantees, 68% used unrestricted funding to support core survivor programs, including case management and counseling services. 65% of grantees used the funds for direct or emergency survivor assistance such as rent or utility payments, to ensure basic needs were covered. Oftentimes, grants have stipulations that prevent organizations from supporting survivors' basic needs through direct cash assistance, which can be integral in moving a survivor through their journey towards stability and independence. It is unsurprising that organizations are prioritizing survivor needs for unrestricted funding, given the rise in demand for services. The SOAR 2025 needs assessment found that 76% of member organizations have seen an increase in the need for services, particularly for legal services and housing support. These findings demonstrate the importance of flexible funds so that organizations who are closest to the communities being served can respond to what survivors need and when they need it.
Without new resources, many organizations are being forced to scale back, delay payroll, or even shut down core programs — putting critical survivor services on the brink. Leaders describe struggling to keep doors open, unable to sustain programming or even cover basic operations like rent, staff salaries, and utilities. As grants expire, funding is cut, and dollars become more restricted, organizations are struggling to sustain the services survivors rely on for safety and support.
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Much of the larger government grants available to organizations are tied to programs and direct services. Those dollars are essential, but they do not always fund the internal systems and organizational infrastructure, including non-program staff, needed to sustain and grow services. When asked how they would use unrestricted funds, 41% of organizations would use unrestricted funding for staff wellness and burnout prevention. 32% would put it toward rent, utilities, and core operations. In the 2025 needs assessment SOAR conducted, 62% of participating organizations reported they were facing high rates of staff turnover and retention crises. That crisis continues today amid a rising demand for services with limited funds to sustain the demand. Nearly 1 in 3 MMF grantees used or planned to use their grant for staffing, operations, organizational capacity, or other costs associated with sustaining their services.
Without new resources, many organizations are being forced to scale back, delay payroll, or even shut down core programs — putting critical survivor services on the brink. Leaders describe struggling to keep doors open, unable to sustain programming or even cover basic operations like rent, staff salaries, and utilities. As grants expire, funding is cut, and dollars become more restricted, organizations are struggling to sustain the services survivors rely on for safety and support.
Recommendations
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Increase institutional funding for GBV organizations, particularly culturally-specific and grassroots organizations that have historically received fewer philanthropic resources.
Treat gender-based violence as integral to investments in gender equity, health, economic security, racial justice, and community well-being.
Reach organizations beyond existing philanthropic networks, including through trusted intermediaries and pooled or community-led funds where helpful.
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Increase multi-year, unrestricted general operating support.
Allow organizations to use funding for immediate survivor needs that restricted grants may not cover, including housing, transportation, food, legal expenses, and other emergency assistance.
Reduce unnecessary application and reporting requirements and trust organizations closest to their communities to determine how resources are best used.
Provide bridge funding when government reimbursements are delayed or organizations face sudden funding gaps.
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Fund development staff, operations, technology, leadership development, and other organizational infrastructure alongside programs and services.
Support competitive salaries, benefits, staff wellness, and retention.
Invest in fundraising capacity so organizations can build new sources of revenue and become less dependent on any single funder.
Give smaller organizations the resources and time to strengthen their systems and grow, not simply deliver more programming with the capacity they already have.
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Continue investing in direct survivor services and emergency assistance.
Increase funding for prevention, community education, organizing, policy advocacy, research, narrative change, and movement building.
Recognize that different funders can play different roles across this continuum; no single funder needs to support every strategy.
Invest in the connections and shared infrastructure that allow organizations working across these strategies to access knowledge, resources, and collective support.
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Acknowledge that philanthropy cannot replace government funding at its current scale, particularly for organizations that rely heavily on public dollars.
Provide multi-year funding that gives organizations enough stability and time to develop other sources of revenue.
Fund development staff, donor cultivation, communications, fundraising systems, and other capacity required to build individual and philanthropic support.
Organize and engage peer funders to sustain and grow investment in GBV work, bringing new funders into the field and coordinating support to resource multiple strategies including direct services, narrative shift, and systems
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Engage South Asian donors and family foundations that care about gender justice, gender equity, health, or community well-being but may not yet see GBV as part of their giving.
Encourage South Asian individual donors to increase their giving to GBV organizations, whether in their own communities or to organizations working nationally.
Build donor knowledge about the prevalence of gender-based violence in South Asian communities and the organizations working to address it.
Urge individual donors and family foundations to make sustained, flexible gifts rather than relying primarily on one-time contributions.
An Invitation
As part of SOAR’s role as the national field catalyst, we are bringing together funders, donors, and field leaders through a series of funder briefings to learn from one another, hear directly from organizations doing the work, and explore opportunities to increase resources for the broader GBV ecosystem.
