Ise is the founder of Dreilinden gGmbH, based in Hamburg, Germany. Ise’s goal is to employ money she inherited to so that gender diverse communities in the global south and east can build up the infrastructure of their movements. Ise has over 20 years’ experience of supporting human rights, women, and sexual minorities.

As early as 1996, Ise Bosch became the founding donor to the International Fund for Sexual Minorities at the New York-based Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, worldwide the only community foundation focusing explicitly on lesbian issues. Today, Astraea is one of the leading LGBTQI human rights funders, supporting more than 500 groups in 99 countries internationally.www.astraeafoundation.org

Together with eight other women, Ise Bosch founded the German women’s community foundation, filia.die frauenstiftung. Here, money, ideas, and projects with a feminist focus are pooled under the premise of “Change not Charity”. “It is an easy and direct way to invest money in the women’s movement,” says Ise Bosch. www.filia-frauenstiftung.de

Even today, women experience a major inheritance quite differently from men. The Pecunia network for women with inherited wealth, co-initiated by Ise Bosch in 2003, provides a platform to connect personally, and to support each other in finding meaningful ways to use their inheritance. The book Women Inheritors Taking Responsibility (Wir Erbinnen – Frauen übernehmen Verantwortung) was published in this context in 2016. www.pecunia-erbinnen.net

Dreilinden gGmbH champions the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer people. The creation of a society where people of diverse genders, identities, and attractions can live together, and where power is distributed more equally is what Ise Bosch is aiming for. She uses Dreilinden to bring private capital to these charitable causes. “Societies become more humane and stronger when gender roles are less strictly binary and less hierarchical.” www.dreilinden.org

Transformative Philanthropy – Giving with Trust is a book about privilege, power, and access.

How does this come about? Transformative philanthropy turns the power of money into creative and decision-making power for many. It questions mechanisms of inequality and respects the expertise of people in the field. The donors are part of the process in direct contact with the supported groups. Transformative philanthropy specifically supports young projects, it invests in organizational structures, offers flexibility in the way the money is used, commits to the long term, and keeps paperwork to a minimum. The power of money operates in favor of the local groups’ social innovation. Their actions take center stage, not the capital provided. This way, assets are invested in a more equal and more humane world with a special kind of efficiency. www.giving-with-trust.org