Taso Foundation – Women's Fund and Memory Research Center

women leadership / research / education / home violence / harassment / feminism / migrants and internally displaced / childbirth and maternity / reproductive rights / women entrepreneurship / ethnic minorities / persons with disabilities / ecology

Georgia. Tbilisi

Coverage: Rural and conflict affected areas of Georgia

Type: NGO/NPO/Social Enterprise

Description: TASO Foundation (TF) is the national women's fund transformed from the Women's Program of Open Society Georgia Foundation (1998-2006). Since yearly 2007 TF operates independently with the mission Women's and Girls' Empowerment for Human Rights, Equality, Social Justice and Peace in Georgia.

During 20 years together with the work of the Gender Program of OSGF and Taso Foundation various working directions, grant-giving, operational and mixed programs were developed which serves to development of women's movement, quality of women's life, support of women's civic activism and improvement of women's rights condition.

Taso Foundation, as the part of women's movement of Georgia and its supporter is involved in the work aimed at the creation of peaceful and just environment, where each woman will be entitled for a free choice and self-realization and will experience her rights and freedoms without hindrance

Taso Foundation conducts the following:

  • making grants to support initiatives of women activists, women's groups and organizations;
  • implement operational programs; implement mixed (operational & grant-giving) projects;
  • act as women's memory research center (resource center with library and textual, photo and video archives);
  • participate in policy making and act as an advocate for ensuring gender equality and women’s rights;
  • prepare, publish and distribute the books including the publication of two series of TF Women´s Memory (since 2004) and Feminist Library (since 2007);
  • support documentary making through grant-giving and producing documentaries;
  • collaborate with other civil society organizations, media, state institutions, and participate in events of Georgian women’s movement;
  • participate in global networks: Foundations for Peace Network; International Network of Women’s Funds, Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace, International Human Rights Funders Group and International Oral History Association.

Aims and objectives: In order to impel the activism of women isolated from public domain, it is necessary to merge works aiming at overcoming poverty with programs for the empowerment of women for social activism. Steady and continuous work for the involvement of population in democracy development has to be based on cooperation between experienced NGOs/experts and community based women.

The Goals of Taso Foundation:

  • Strengthening women’s movement, supporting women’s groups and activists in their work for social justice and peace;
  • Protecting women’s rights and supporting equality;
  • Supporting the participation in the democratization process of ethnic minorities, rural women, internally displaced women, marginalized groups of women;
  • Social development of rural young girls and women and developing volunteering culture by rising civic awareness of women for democratic participation; supporting improvement of local governments as democratic institutes;
  • Implementing philanthropic culture and politics for strengthening civic society and democratic development.

Main activities: 

- Grant making;
- Educating, developing and networking its target groups;
- Community mobilization and enhancing leadership of girls for democratic involvement and for implementation of local governance in the community;
- Supporting women’s rights, peace and justice, environmental protection movements;
- Initiating laws for strengthening civic society;
- Publishing oral histories of women;
- Developing community philanthropy in Georgia;
- Documentary filmmaking;
- Participating in the work of International networks.

Prioritized working directions of Taso Foundation:
- Supporting women’s social movement;
- Mobilization for community development with leadership of rural, conflict affected, internally displaced and ethnic minority women;
- Partnership with local government representatives for improvement of self-governance quality and for gender sensitive budgeting;
- Establishing, developing and networking youth groups and supporting their initiatives;
- Establishing, strengthening, widening and sustaining the network of Community Foundations; supporting philanthropic activism of Community Foundations;
Legislative initiative – Law of Philanthropy of Georgia;
- Sourcing CSOs sustainable development;
- Developing women’s oral histories as academic discipline; documenting women’s oral histories and publications;
- Spreading feminist values: series of publications “feminist library”;
- Monitoring, Learning and Evaluation.