Mongolian Women’s Fund (MONES)

I don't often provide direct support for NGOs and such in any of Thomo's sites, however, I particularly like the aims of this organisation and what they have achieved to date. Mongolian women in particular do it hard - and you may see another blog entry from me later about some of the reasons. Read on then about MONES and if you wish to contact them, there is an email link at the end of this blog entry.The Mongolian Women’s Fund (MONES) is a Mongolian non-profit, non-governmental organization established in 2000. MONES is the first national grant-making organization and is dedicated to mobilizing resources and providing financial support to Mongolian women’s advancement and progress. MONES is a member of several international networks such as Grant Makers Without Borders and the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).

Program areas MONES supports are:

1. increasing the household income of women from vulnerable groups


2. fighting all kinds of violence against women and girls


3. supporting marginalized groups of women and girls.

We have supported 110 projects in the past 5 years. Our grantees range from experienced and well-known women’s NGOs such as the National Center Against Violence and the Gender Centre for Sustainable Development, to small branches of women’s NGOs in remote rural areas, such as the Women’s Council of Khar Khorin Soum, Uvurhangai Aimag, and the Rural Women’s Development Foundation of Tumurbulag Soum, Huvsgul Aimag. Almost half of the grants went to rural women’s groups.

MONES supports various activities within its program areas that contribute to promoting women’s advancement and progress. At grassroots level we support community development, and enable women from vulnerable groups to generate a sustainable income through development of basic skills such as felt-making, handcrafting, baking, producing dairy products, and through providing help in obtaining start-up materials and equipment. MONES also provides assistance to awareness raising activities that help women to understand their rights. At institutional level our support goes to building organizational capacity through training, technical support and administrative costs. At policy level MONES supports research work, publications and conferences, as well as broad-ranged awareness work to promote women’s issues in society.

MONES also focuses on developing and increasing awareness of philanthropy and promoting volunteerism among the public. One of MONES’ major goals is to strengthen the charity mind-set of the public, to direct public philanthropy to the civil society sector and to increase social responsibility. To achieve these aims we organize training, conferences, and public awareness campaigns.

Our donors are Mongolian individuals; previous grantee groups; Government; non-governmental and private sector organizations; foreign individuals and organizations; and public and family foundations. MONES organizes a wide range of fundraising activities to increase its funding capacity.

MONES is an expanding organization, and each year its grant-making and organizational capacity increases. Since its beginnings five years ago MONES has become well recognized and respected in Mongolia as a credible and reliable foundation committed to women’s rights and issues. MONES will continue to seek to bring about change in women’s lives across Mongolia and to contribute to strengthening civil society through supporting and working with women at all levels.

To contact MONES, send an email to mones@magicnet.mn and tell them "Thomo sent you" :-)