In Michoacán, a Women’s Health Organization Faces Funding Cuts – and Finds a New Balance
The social sector has been rattled by an unprecedented funding crisis — and women’s groups are among the particularly vulnerable. Mujeres Aliadas, a Mexico-based, women’s health organization, tells its story of perseverance through funding cuts and sociopolitical hurdles — and how, through the unrestricted funding and tailored support of WomenStrong, it is able to continue its mission of promoting sexual and reproductive health rights for adolescents and rural women.
When two long-expected grants collapsed in quick succession earlier this year — one canceled the day before it was due for submission — Mujeres Aliadas, a women’s health organization in the state of Michoacán in central Mexico, was forced into crisis management. The flurry of adaptations to this funding crisis — precipitated by unprecedented rollbacks of foreign assistance from the U.S. government — resulted in the layoff of three staff members. Another three staff went from full-time to part-time roles. The organization was also forced to downsize its goals for the year. “It was complicated, it was difficult, but, well, it was achieved,” says Lisel Lifshitz, the organization’s executive director.
That ability to keep moving forward — even during a financial crisis — is no happenstance. It’s the culmination of years of deliberate work, much of it focused inward: building a stronger team, reflecting deeply on the organization’s purpose and values, and sharing decision-making power so that changes bubbled up from the rank-and-file of the organization rather than being imposed by the board or executive leadership. Much of this organizational strengthening and resilience was made possible through the help of WomenStrong, an organization that seeks to move power and money into women-led organizations across the world through a combination of unrestricted funding, organizational strengthening, tailored support, and peer-to-peer learning.
For example, when the cuts hit, Mujeres Aliadas didn’t wait for its board of directors to dictate the terms. The board suggested the need to scale back to avoid bankruptcy, but the specifics of what to cut came from the staff themselves. This made the changes easier to accept, Lifshitz says, and helped preserve morale.
The foundations of this shared decision-making process were established during a months-long strategic planning effort that continues to the present. Not only did WomenStrong’s flexible funding allow Mujeres Aliadas to continue its strategic planning even during the crisis, the power-sharing ethos that pervaded the process was also inspired by WomenStrong. Lifshitz notes,
“WomenStrong has played a very important role in this because they socialized and shared their strategic planning process and shared the results with everyone, so that kind of sparked a concern about how to do it in a participatory way.”
In addition, an ecosystem of organizational support — also established in part by WomenStrong — helped Mujeres Aliadas learn from, lean on, and even cry with counterparts in other parts of the world facing similar challenges. “It’s helped us reflect together, to see other realities. Because there are organizations from all over the world, from all continents, with diverse contexts,” says Lifshitz of the collaborative discussions and peer-to-peer knowledge-sharing that take place in the WomenStrong Learning Lab,
Violence, Machismo and Staff Turnover in a Difficult Environment
But the recent funding cuts are only the latest in a series of operational and funding challenges that have defined the organization’s evolution. Based in Michoacán’s Purépecha region, the group runs a professional midwifery school, three midwife-led clinics, and community education programs on sexual and reproductive rights. When Lifshitz arrived four years ago, Mujeres Aliadas already had strong roots in the community and had recently won accreditation for its midwifery school — a bureaucratic feat in a country where red tape is legendary. But the group was still navigating tensions between different areas of work, managing strained relationships with alumni, and operating under a strategic plan shaped mostly by the board.
Since then, the team has strengthened its relationships with local government, universities, and national networks advocating for midwifery and reproductive rights. It has also clarified the extent of its responsibilities with graduates eager to receive government sanction for their academic career, and with authorities with whom such approvals ultimately lie.
However, despite its successful efforts to improve relationships with the government and the community, Mujeres Aliadas’ staff continue to work against a backdrop of entrenched machismo, distrust of midwifery among medical authorities, and the ever-present risks of organized crime.
Lifshitz recalls that there have been moments when team members had to hide under furniture during shootouts nearby. Some pregnant women come to the clinic without their husbands’ knowledge, risking family backlash. Roads have been blocked by self-defense groups or criminal factions, complicating emergency transfers to hospitals.
These conditions contribute to frequent staff turnover — some leave because they can’t adapt to small-town life, others because of ideological differences. Over time, Lifshitz says, the group has learned to cope with departures, treating change as inevitable and adopting a mindset of adaptation.
The Internal Work of Building a Stronger Organization
Survival and resilience in this kind of environment have required a certain flex and give — a realization that, as Lifshitz puts it, “Organizations are living entities that change constantly, and we have to adapt to that and grow, and that’s it.” WomenStrong International, whose unrestricted, trust-based funding model has allowed Mujeres Aliadas to invest in itself, has also been a key partner in this evolution. In fact, while WomenStrong’s funds are unrestricted — leaving it up to the recipient organization to decide how they’ll use them — the organization also provides additional partner support funding to address organizational strengthening needs such as professional development, team-building retreats, and mental health. “Translated into Mexican pesos, [it] is a significant amount of money for training,” remarks Lifshitz. “So, we’ve had sustained training for several years that has allowed us to build ourselves as a stronger team.”
Also significant is the posture of solidarity and understanding with which WomenStrong has approached the relationship. “WomenStrong has simply listened to us with great attention and care,” says Lifshitz.
Funding Cuts Threaten Women’s Groups’ Existence
Mujeres Aliadas’ story is one of many from women-led and women-focused organizations facing existential threats. A report published by UN Women in May found that 90 percent of surveyed women’s organizations are being pushed to a breaking point due to continued cuts to global aid — with half of respondents saying they may shut down within six months.
This hits close to home for WomenStrong and its partners. “Many of our partners still rely heavily on traditional funding sources,” said Patricia Essel, Senior Advisor for Programs. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen varying levels of fallout among our partners as a result of this ongoing crisis — some have had to scale down their initiatives while others have had to let go of a majority of their staff in order to carry on.” For example, one partner saw a 75 percent funding cut, according to Essel.
To equip its partners with the skills necessary to overcome times of crisis, a key aspect of WomenStrong’s model of support is helping partners diversify their funding sources. In fact, according to a recently published, independently conducted outcome evaluation commissioned by WomenStrong, half of participating organizations in a “critical moments” exercise (three out of six) recognized WomenStrong’s role in helping them secure additional funding, whether by brokering key connections, providing access to important platforms, or by offering direct assistance in grant writing.
How Other Groups Can Absorb Shocks and Move on With Purpose
Even with fewer people and smaller budgets, Mujeres Aliadas knows exactly what it wants to do next — diversify income beyond US foundations, strengthen communications, and maintain the balance between local service and broader political advocacy. The ultimate goal is communities where women, girls, and adolescents have the agency to make their own sexual and reproductive health decisions, free from fear and taboos.
Asked what advice she’d give to other groups facing similar headwinds, Lifshitz doesn’t hesitate: strengthen the team first. “Change is constant. We have to adapt no matter what,” she says. “Have the difficult conversations. If there’s conflict, talk about it. Otherwise, it won’t go away.” It’s advice born of experience — and of an organizational culture shaped by years of internal investment and supported by a funder that sees listening, trust, and reflection as part of the work. That culture has not only allowed Mujeres Aliadas to absorb a shock that might have flattened a less prepared group but also to approach the future with a purposeful stride.
The interview for this story was conducted in Spanish; all direct quotes have been translated.
