The State of the Network: Our 2020 Membership Enrollment Survey Results

Each year, the National Network of Abortion Funds’ Membership Team sends out a detailed survey to all abortion funds in our network. We ask them about requests received, callers supported, and dollars distributed; we collect data from across the country on out-of-state travel and increases in funding requests. We try our best to collect responses from every fund in our network. The data that we receive during this annual survey (we call it the Membership Enrollment Survey) is critical to our understanding of the health of the network overall. It guides our strategy for supporting funds and strengthening connections. Below you’ll find highlights from the results of the 2020 Membership Enrollment Survey — our largest survey yet! Please note: all the data included here is from July 2019 – June 2020.

Glossary

You may see some terms in the charts below that aren’t familiar. Please refer to this mini glossary for more clarity.

Callers: anyone who reaches out to an abortion fund for assistance.
Practical support: rides, childcare, food, lodging — anything that would help someone obtain an abortion that isn’t direct financial assistance.
Abortion funding budget: how much money an abortion fund has to directly pay for abortions and practical support.

Our Network At-A-Glance

An overview of NNAF’s member funds: where they are located, how they operate, and how the network has grown over the last year.

11 new funds joined in 2020
As of October 2021, there are 92 member funds in the network
Membership enrollment survey participation year over year:
- 2018: 53
- 2019: 79
- 2020: 87
Member Funds by Region:
- Midwest: 20
- Northeast: 16
- South: 31
- West: 17
- National: 4
- International: 3

Our international fund members are Fondo MARIA (Mexico), Abortion Support Network (United Kingdom), and Women Help Women (online, international).

Abortion Fund Operations

A snapshot of abortion funds’ budgets, staffing, and volunteer networks.

Median abortion funding budget: $52,585
41 funds were volunteer-led (no staff), 47% of funds.
46 funds had at least one part-time staff member, 53% of funds.
35 funds had full-time staff, 40% of funds.
43 member funds provided practical support (in some form), 49% of funds.
Total Volunteers: 2,275

Service Delivery

An overview of how many people reached out for assistance across the network and what level of support abortion funds were able to provide.

Requests received by member funds: 229,510
- Women Help Women: 140,000*

Callers supported: 192,627
- Women Help Women: 140,000

Callers supported with practical support: 7,376
Total $ disbursed by abortion funds: $9,437,004
Total $ disbursed for practical support: $1,353,804
Average pledge: $215
Median number of caller requests: 567
Median number of callers supported: 325

*A note regarding service delivery statistics: Our international member fund Women Help Women is in a category all of its own when it comes to receiving and supporting caller requests. WHW gets requests for support from all over the world. A big part of how they provide assistance is by sharing information, as opposed to financial or practical support. We’ve pulled out the Women Help Women numbers below so that you can see their impact, as well as a more accurate picture of our other member funds.

Year-Over-Year Abortion Funding

These charts show trends within our network over four years of Membership Enrollment surveys. As you can see, caller requests and dollars disbursed have steadily increased.