Sex Worker Giving Circle Grant

The Sex Worker Giving Circle Grant, launched by the Third Wave Fund, prioritizes funding for grassroots movements led by individuals directly impacted by gender oppression, especially within the sex work community. With a commitment to gender justice, the grant supports organizations that operate with a participatory approach to grantmaking, enabling them to address systemic inequalities. In recent years, the fund has distributed significant resources to empower and sustain these vital movements across the United States.

NOTE: Invite Only for 2026. Interview selections are typically made about five weeks after the deadline. You will receive an email either way.
About Third Wave Fund
Third Wave Fund resources and supports youth-led, intersectional gender justice activism. We build on the brilliance of our communities using responsive and participatory grantmaking so we can sustain our movements and thrive—now and long term. Since gender oppression is tied to capitalism, classism, racism, ageism, and ableism, gender justice can only truly be achieved when all forms of oppression cease to exist.
Our grantmaking and donor mobilizing advances the community power, well-being, and self-determination of young Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) most directly impacted by and best positioned to end gender oppression.
About the Sex Worker Giving Circle
The Sex Worker Giving Circle (SWGC) launched in the spring of 2018. The SWGC was created because sex workers are best positioned to confront and transform the oppressive conditions of their own lives. However, movements led by sex workers and people with experience in the sex trade are critically under-resourced despite increasing political attacks.
The SWGC is a giving circle made up of individuals with current or past experience in the sex trade. The Fellows participate in grantmaking trainings and make all high-level funding decisions and grantmaking recommendations.
While we navigate growth and capacity shifts within Third Wave Fund, participation in the 2026 Fellowship is by invitation only. We are grateful to have a community of past advisors and fellows to call upon to distribute over $800,000 to first time and returning SWGC grantees from across the United States this year.
Between 2018 to 2025, 64 current and former sex workers have led the Sex Worker Giving Circle (SWGC) in granting out over $3 million to 62 sex worker-led groups building safety, self-determination, community power, and systems of mutual aid for sex workers across the U.S.
The giving circle (a cross-class, multi-racial, and intergenerational giving circle housed at Third Wave Fund) is made up of a group of Fellows with current or past experience with sex work or the sex trade. Fellows annually mobilize resources, make all high-level funding decisions and grantmaking recommendations, bring their voices and leadership into philanthropy, while strengthening community power.

Eligibility

All applicants must meet the following criteria to be eligible for funding:Location: Based in the United States or U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands.Tax Status:501(c)3 organization, fiscally sponsored project, or willing to secure fiscal sponsorship before funds are disbursed. We can share a primer on fiscal sponsorship.Third Wave Fund will work to support groups we recommend for funding to become fiscally sponsored as a condition of grant eligibility.Budget Size: Grantee applicants must have a budget of less than $500,000. Grant size for 2026: At least $350,000 dollars total in new two-year grants of $35,000 dollars per year.Leadership: Led by and for people with current or previous sex work or sex trade experience.

Ineligibility

Capital campaigns Direct services such as case management or traditional healthcare services Work that frames all sex work or sex trade involvement as coercion or trafficking Work that contributes to criminalization of sex workers or people in the sex trade