The ResourceFULL Collective is a group of three feminist organisations working together to strengthen funding for feminist movements in the Pacific and Asia, and to champion gender transformative giving among Australian philanthropists.
The Collective’s three organisations – Pacific Feminist Fund (PFF), Urgent Action Fund, Asia & Pacific (UAF A&P) and International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA) – move approximately AUD $11.1 million to feminist organisations, activists and movements in the region each year.
Globally, the Pacific has some of the highest rates of gender-based violence and lowest levels of women’s political participation, and many islands are on the frontline of the climate crisis. Resourcing women-led organisations and movements has proven to be one the most effective ways to advance gender equality and to harness the power of local solutions.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): ResourceFULL is where our three organisations came together to meet the moment. As feminist funding intermediaries, we each provide a gateway to support gender equality actors across the Pacific—actors who have historically received only a tiny fraction of global funding. That gap has only widened in the face of global crises. Our shared vision is to ensure that feminist movements in the Pacific not only survive, but thrive.
A few years ago, we began exploring the complementarities between our organisations—our mandates, networks, and reach—and saw the potential to work collectively and in solidarity with Australian philanthropy. When we formalised as the ResourceFULL Collective in 2023, it became clear just how much more we could achieve together than alone.
Michelle Reddy (PFF): The collective started from the idea of looking at a whole ecosystem. We came together realising we could be greater than the sum of our parts - we each play different roles supporting feminist movements, LGBTQI, climate and disability and reach different parts of regional movements, so it was a natural fit. We were very intentional about what values would bring us together and the activities and goals we wanted to set for and with each other. We work from a foundation of deep trust - our people have been working together in various capacities for over 20 years, which means we can navigate complexities openly, efficiently and effectively. Coming from the Pacific, that collective giving, sharing and reciprocity is anchored in the way we work together.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): Australia is in the Oceania region, so we share the same ocean. The Pacific Ocean that hits the shore of the beach I'm sitting at right now is the same ocean that hits the beach in Australia. We are in relation to each other; whether it's through the ocean, or commerce or the aid that Australia gives to this region. It’s important for Australian philanthropy to recognise this relationship, and strengthening it is an important part of our origin story as a regional Collective.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): We offer our Collective as a gateway to the region for Australian philanthropy when it comes to gender equality. We’re a really intentional Collective - between the three of us, we have wide reach across the region, offer different types of grants and partnerships so we can support the gender equality movement as a whole. As intermediaries, we are already set up to receive and redistribute funds quickly. Practically, we use a ‘shared pool’ of resources model, rather than a ‘pooled fund’ meaning any member of the Collective can receive and redistribute funds on our behalf as best suits the donor. For example, members of the Collective are registered in different tax jurisdictions including Australia and New Zealand.
Michelle Reddy (PFF): Because we come from the movements we serve, we are all able to identify trends and priorities that are needed as they’re evolving. These insights help us provide a critical analysis of what's happening and the different support that the movements need, whether it's financial or non-financial. The way we work means that we are also accountable to the movements we’re resourcing. It's a two-way relationship as opposed to our three organisations deciding what the priorities are.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): As a Collective, our ambition is to mobilise AUD$24 million over 12 months to 24 countries in the Pacific. How and where the funding flows is shaped through ongoing conversations and collective decision-making. We are also deeply committed to engaging the Australian philanthropic community—to advocate not just for more funding, but for funding that is gender transformative, grounded in feminist principles, and truly responsive to the needs of Pacific movements.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): When you're looking at postcards and tourism ads, the Pacific is portrayed as a paradise, but it’s one of the most dangerous places to live; especially if you’re a woman, a girl or a person who's nonbinary. We have some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world and the lowest representation of women and non-binary people in any kind of economic and political decision making. The Pacific is also on the front lines of the climate crisis - people on smaller islands are becoming the world’s first climate refugees because in about 30 years, their home will no longer exist. For us, the island and the ocean are not just places where we live, they’re part of our culture. When the land disappears, our sense of community and being are impacted. It's important that we find ways to support women and girls and the groups of people who are on the front line and trying to come up with local solutions to respond to some of these interconnected crises.
Michelle Reddy (PFF): When you look at the feminist movements in the Pacific, they are some of the most highly effective and self-organised. It's a region that punches way above its weight. Supporting Pacific feminist movements is critical because their lives depend on the work they do, and they can do what they do more effectively when we resource them.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): Only a fraction of global funding reaches the women’s rights organisations that are not only confronting these challenges—but holding the solutions. Right now, we’re seeing trillions of philanthropic dollars shifting generational wealth. Part of ResourceFULL’s ambition is to bridge the gap between where the funding is and where it’s most needed—to enable giving that is intentional, feminist, and amplifies the impact of local solutions already in motion.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): As Michelle said, we are greater than the sum of our parts. This is not just about how much we can raise - though collectively, we move around AUD$11.1 million each year to women’s rights organisations in the Pacific. It’s also about how we can work across more parts of the gender equality movement, from different angles, at the moments that matter most.
Much of this has been possible through both philanthropic and public-facing fundraising. And while we’ve made strong progress, we’re only at the beginning of our engagement with Australian philanthropy. There’s a growing readiness - from peak bodies to family foundations - and we want to connect that momentum to the region we’re part of, and show just how transformative resourcing feminist movements in the Pacific can be.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): The issues that confront us in this moment are not singular; they’re collective and connected and so our responses need to be connected and collective. There isn't a silver bullet that can address these nuanced and multi-led problems. Our collective approach identifies the multiple ways we can cocreate and resource local solutions with people on the ground, while also influencing the organisations that may be directly or indirectly creating the harm that these movements are trying to transform. Capitalism is built on extractive models, so it’s important that we also find ways to support the transformation of the whole ecosystem.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): What’s beautiful to me is how we each bring inspiration to the Collective while grounding one another in realism and care. We are structurally very different organisations—with different governance models, funding bases and operational realities—and yet we continue to move toward a shared vision. That’s rare, and it speaks to the strength of our values and trust.
It’s also been a powerful space to explore aligned fundraising in a context where scarcity often outweighs opportunity. The challenge is to meet the urgency of now, while protecting the deep foundations each of us has spent years building. That balance is something we hold with care, together.
Michelle Reddy (PFF): A collective mindset is the key - not just when we think of the giver, but how you give and who you give to. We know that the crises we are in are interconnected, and collective mindsets help everyone recognise and respond to the interconnectivity in our solutions. For example, collective ways of thinking about resources could be not just a group pooling resources but also considering who can offer different kinds of resources to fill different gaps – eg. time, training, financial resources, material resources. A collective mindset on who you give to could mean looking at the web of actors working together to achieve the same goal, and how you support the whole web so there are less gaps, or engaging with funding intermediaries like ourselves who are embedded in the movements and can re-grant based on need.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): An abundance mindset is also important. Because we all come from activist backgrounds, to be in this position where we need to ask for funding, can be an uncomfortable one. A lot of women in the region are very good at looking after money and redistributing and saving it but are very uncomfortable about making money for themselves. And so, for us to say that we want to mobilise AUD$24 million was challenging, especially with the global funding cuts over the past few years. But the fact that those most impacted are women and non-binary people, inspired us to choose an abundance mindset, rather than be limited by the scarcity of this moment. And now, we are recognising that AUD$24 million is actually a very small amount in contrast to the huge challenge that is before us.
Nayomi Kannangara (IWDA): Less than 10% of Australian philanthropic funding goes overseas each year, and of that, less than 1% reaches grassroots women’s rights organisations—the courageous women on the frontlines, guarding hard-earned rights that benefit us all. When women’s rights begin to erode or vanish anywhere, it’s not something any one country can safekeep in isolation.
We are deeply connected - as neighbours, as a region, as a global community. What happens in one part of the world inevitably ripples across us all. The struggles and victories of women in the Pacific are intertwined with our own futures. This means our investments in feminist movements there are not just acts of solidarity - they are essential to securing rights, justice, and equality everywhere.
Michelle Reddy (PFF): One of our ambitions is to shift away from a culture of giving to a culture of sharing resources - when we get asked if the collective is a pooled fund, we reframe it as a shared pool of resources. Each organisation brings in different forms of financial resources, but also an amazing set of non-financial resources in terms of sharing intel and context. There's a relational aspect to sharing that builds on trust which is much more transformative than a simple transaction.
Virisila Buadromo (UAF A&P): Thinking about climate change with an interconnected, regional mindset. The climate crisis has been driven by economies like Australia and other wealthy countries and yet it will be small island states that lose their land. Although we’re not responsible for the crisis, we’re bearing the impact and we’re trying to find solutions. For anyone who wants to make a big impact, investing in these solutions is where you'll make it. We might be small populations, but we have big ideas and we're able to create solutions with very little resources. Investing in the future of the Pacific is investing in the future of Australia - we will all benefit from this.
