From Sex Workers to Chicken Farmers: Trust Based Philanthropy at Work in a Pandemic

by Shari Turitz and Olivia Nightingale

When COVID-19 hit eastern Kenya, it shuttered entertainment spaces, brought strict curfews, and even stricter social distancing laws. Facing a sudden loss of income, some local sex workers turned to our grantee, EMAC, for help. They, in turn, came to us with a novel idea: training sex workers to become chicken farmers, giving them a sustainable source of income during the pandemic.   

 While we had funded EMAC’s human rights work for years, pivoting to the poultry-rearing project meant a shift in our grantmaking policies. EMAC was not alone. At the outset of the pandemic, American Jewish World Service (AJWS) saw significant need for basic supplies from personal protective equipment (PPE) to sanitary products to medications, all of which fell outside our thematic areas of Civil and Political Rights, Sexual Health and Rights and Land, Water and Climate Justice. The moment called for a largescale pandemic response strategy.   

That March, we pivoted. It paid dividends: all 502 of our grantees have remained operational over the last two turbulent years. It is now clear that this pivot not only helped during a moment of crisis but remain crucial in supporting resilience and advancing impact for the long run. As the pandemic rages on and community-based organizations struggle to return to business as usual, we are calling on our peers to rethink rigid grantmaking models, listen to their grantees and provide permanent flexibility to grassrooted groups striving to support their communities.  

When COVID first hit, we grew concerned that the scale of needs among our grantees would outstrip our capacity to respond, forcing some to shut down. So, we took a deep dive into our portfolios to better understand the landscape. Even as we considered a pivot, we sought to retain our core values, which are rooted in trust. AJWS has in-country colleagues embedded in the countries in which we work who partner with our grantees. These 28 in-country colleagues in turn coordinate with our U.S. based team. Rather than dictate solutions brainstormed in our New York or D.C. offices however, we trust our grantees to identify pressing needs and solutions. Using this accompaniment model, we decided to: 

• Shift from project-based to general operating grants  

• Waive reporting requirements and issued no cost extensions 

• And increase our grantmaking resources by 20 percent (with Board approval)

We ended up making three types of grants: funds to continue operations and planned activities (a minority); funds to address COVID directly (like securing PPE); and funds to “keep the lights on” to sustain influential local activists. Our goal was to ensure that grantees not only had the necessary resources to protect their health and wellbeing, but that their governments would be more responsive to community needs.   

For example, when the Dominican government launched a national vaccination campaign in February 2021 that excluded hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent and immigrant communities, AJWS grantee OBMICA sprang into action. We typically fund their research and grassroots advocacy work. However, with the additional COVID funding, OBMICA launched a vaccine equity campaign which led to a high-level meeting with top government officials during which the Dominican government reversed course, granting vaccine access to all.  

Other partners found opportunities to collaborate with previously antagonistic governments. In Sri Lanka, several grantees forged partnerships with local government officials and used their COVID funding to supply hand washing stations, PPE, food and hygiene kits to struggling communities.   

In Mexico, our grantee partner UCIZONI, which typically does work on land, water, and climate justice issues, found themselves providing psychosocial support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. As with many places around the globe, lockdowns and rising poverty led to increased domestic abuse. The COVID funds supported UCIZONI’s program at a time when calls into domestic help hotlines had spiked 36% nationwide. 

Now, two years later, we are reflecting on lessons learned and grappling with big questions like: how do we balance grantee requests for immediate needs with our mission to invest in structural and sustainable change? 

We believe all funders should be considering this question. We must find ways to respond to grantee’s needs to both adapt to rapidly shifting contexts and to build their resilience to withstand future crises. And we must trust them to not only identify the problems unique to their communities but to devise the short- and long-term solutions. Out of necessity, many grantmakers rose to the challenge of COVID-19 and increased their flexibility and adopted a more trust-based approach. We are now called to the more difficult task of making those critical changes a sustained part of our operations.    

Trust based philanthropic approaches have the power to not only address damaging historic power imbalances but to also ensure that our investments withstand inevitable and increasing cycles of crisis. 

Consider EMAC in Kenya. The poultry-rearing project that enlisted sex workers is an unmitigated success. The hatchery produces 5,000 chicks per month. The sale of eggs raised more than 700,000 Kenyan shillings last year alone. But the security that comes with this new sustainable way of life is priceless.

Shari Turitz is the Vice President of Programs at the American Jewish World Service.

Olivia Nightingale is the Program Associate at American Jewish World Service.