Take it from Phaidra Knight, retired professional rugby player, who speaks in the above video about the value of funding initiatives like Sports 4 Life:”It really doesn’t matter your speed, your size, it’s just what you bring, your unique self, to the game,” said Knight. She went on to emphasize that with sports, young people have the opportunity become part of a team, which can lead to personal growth and improved self-confidence. “I think it’s so important, especially that girls from disadvantaged backgrounds have that opportunity. That is sometimes their ticket and access to greater things across the board.”
The Sports 4 Life Initiative is particularly aimed at increasing and retaining African-American and Hispanic girls in youth sports programs. Sports 4 Life was cofounded by the Women’s Sports Foundation and espnW in 2014. This year, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation also joined the initiative, providing regional support to eight organizations in Southeast Michigan and Western New York.
The team from Leaf Wearables, winner of the $1 million prize in the Anu and Naveen Jain Women’s Safety competition. The prize was facilitated by XPRIZE, a new platform that specializes in “designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges.” (Photo courtesy of XPRIZE.)
Finding new ways for women to be safe in the community is still a high priority for feminist philanthropists everywhere. Now, with a new competition funded by Anu and Naveen Jain, more tools will be available for women to access emergency response.
The Anu and Naveen Jain Women’s Safety XPRIZE recently announced the winner of its $1 million competition: an Indian company called Leaf Wearables, which created a new device for triggering emergency response. The low-cost device, called SAFER, is aimed at making as many as one billion families safer.
“Safety is a fundamental human right and should not be considered a luxury for women,” said Anu Jain, who, along with her husband Naveen is co-founder of InfoSpace and is a Community Relations leader at Viome. The focus of much of Anu Jain’s philanthropy is centered on empowering women and girls. “With so many advances in innovation and technology today, it was unacceptable to us that we didn’t have a solution to help curb this sexual assault pandemic.”
Statistics about the high levels of harassment women face in India are startling. As many as 92% of women in New Delhi report experiencing some form of violence in public spaces over the course of their lives.
“We have been working tirelessly to solve the problem of safety using technology,” said Leaf Wearables team leader Manik Mehta. Leaf Wearables comes to the prize with the advantage of having significant market experience and success with an early version of SAFER that has aleady sold thousands of units in Indian markets.
“Women’s safety is not just a third world problem; we face it every day in our own country and on our college campuses. It’s not a red state problem or a blue state problem but a national problem,” said Naveen Jain, co-founder of the Women’s Safety XPRIZE and board member for XPRIZE. Naveen is the founder of multiple tech companies including Moon Express, Viome, Bluedot, TalentWise, Intelius and InfoSpace.
The competition launched in October of 2016. Eighty-five initial teams engaged in the competition, coming from 18 countries worldwide including the United States, India, Switzerland, Canada, Spain, Germany, China and United Arab Emirates. Prototypes for the competition were submitted in April of this year, and the five finalist for the prize engaged in a process of testing their solutions to see how the devices would function in diverse environments including high rise office buildings, college campuses, in public transit, and at home. Importantly, all of these devices are designed to work in areas where no cellular connection is available.
XPRIZE is a platform that specializes in helping nonprofits conduct competitions aimed at solving big world problems. Active competitions include the the $15M Global Learning XPRIZE, the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, the $7M Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE, and the $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE.
From the Prize Announcement:
GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($1M USD)
SAFER Pro from Leaf Wearables (New Delhi, India) – Led by Manik Mehta, a smart safety device that sends emergency alerts with location details to a users’ guardians when they sense danger. SAFER Pro is a small chip that can ultimately be put into any device or jewelry with a discreet emergency alert button. When the alert is received, it additionally lets you record audio from the time of the alert.
ADDITIONAL FINALISTS
Artemis (Lausanne, Switzerland) – Led by Dr. Nicee Srivastava, Artemis is developing a device that can be used to trigger an alert not just by a gesture, but also by seamlessly tracking emotional threat levels.
Nimb & SafeTrek (Los Altos, CA and St. Louis, MO, United States) – Led by Leo Bereschanskiy and Nick Droege, Nimb collaborates with SafeTrek to provide their customers an option to call for professional emergency services with just a touch of the thumb. The company was founded in response to rising concerns about safety on and off campus. Both teams work together to make the world a safer place.
Saffron (Bellevue, WA, United States; Tsinghua, China) – Led by Nicholas Becker, Saffron is a collaboration between the University of Washington and Tsinghua University through the Global Innovation eXchange (GIX), focused on developing wearable sensors and machine learning algorithms to create inconspicuous technologies that improve the safety and well-being of women around the world.
Soterra (Bethlehem, PA, United States) – Led by Lena McDonnell, Soterra used a combination of global positioning services, cellular data and bluetooth to build a versatile, reliable and affordable network to connect women to emergency support systems.
Yes, it’s today. Yes, it’s now. Today is Rhode Island’s first statewide giving day, and an opportunity to support your favorite community causes. More than 90 organizations in Rhode Island are participating in this new philanthropy event.
Rhode Island is celebrating its first annual giving day. Who will you give to? Consider the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island
Here is a note from Kelly Nevins, Executive Director of Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, discussing why today is a great day to support WFRI.
Engaging Men as Allies; Women Fighting All Forms of Discrimination; Negotiation Skills Workshops; Gender Equity in the Workplace and in Sports; Public hearings on reproductive health/freedom, fair pay and increased minimum wages… these are the issues and activities that the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI) has tackled in the first half of 2018, through the support of volunteers and donors like you.
Rachel’s Network distributes $60 million annually to address both climate change and gender equality. Its intersectional ecofeminist approach is uniquely powerful.
Funders for social progress appear to be increasingly recognizing the intersection of women’s rights and climate change. For example, the million dollar Roddenberry Prize, recently discussed on Philanthropy Women, seeks to support organizations with new solutions to both gender inequality and climate change. Additionally, substantial research, such as this recent issue of Gender and Development, highlights how environmental issues are closely related to gender equality problems. All of these organizations are recognizing how interesectional ecofeminist approaches in philanthropy can be highly strategic and impactful.
Here’s where Rachel’s Network comes in. One of the most significant funding networks in the intersectional ecofeminist space, Rachel’s Network has a mission of promoting women as the leading strategists in addressing environmental issues and climate change. Rachel’s Network is made up of female advocates for environmental justice and women’s empowerment, many of whom work in major environmental organizations across the globe. These women annually donate about $60 million to organizations and projects that are helping our planet and addressing gender inequality.
With a robust board of directors, staff members, environmental leadership liaisons, circle of advisors, and member population, this powerful funders’ network has significant reach. Their advisors include lifelong activists such as Dr. Jane Goodall and their environmental leadership liaisons include voices from the National Parks Conservation Association, U.S. Climate Action Network, Defenders of Wildlife, and Alliance for Justice. In the organization’s 2017 Annual Report, President Fern Shepard and Board Chair Kef Kasdin remark, “We often think of our namesake Rachel Carson, and the courage and tenacity she displayed during her own politically – and personally – challenging times. She inspires us to hold on to what’s true and right, and to fight every day for what matters – a healthy world for all.”
Over the past year, Rachel’s Network has been working on several projects, one being When Women Lead. Through this project, Rachel’s Network is taking an approach that recognizes the critical connections between female leadership and environmental justice. According to the League of Conservation Voters Environmental Scorecard, data shows that environmental advocacy is more often voted for by female federal legislators than male federal legislators. The 2017 Annual Report for Rachel’s Network, entitled Building Our Power, discusses how Rachel’s Network partnered with the League of Conservation Voters to host a women’s candidate training in Washington, DC, where hundreds of women learned how to run for office in their communities.
Rachel’s Network has also partnered with the Sierra Club to fight against walls and barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. Other partnerships include work with the Greening Youth Foundation to improve access to jobs in conservation for minorities, and As You Sow, which works to reduce the use of antibiotics on farms. These projects are just a few examples of what Rachel’s Network has done for women through its philanthropy for environmental justice around the world.
Feminist philanthropy has a critical role to play in funding ecofeminism — continuing the work that began over 30 years ago when women leaders started to call attention to the parallels of environmental destruction and other forms of human domination and exploitation. As we approach critical mass for women in both government and business, chances are we will see more intersectional ecofeminist approaches. Funder collaboratives like Rachel’s Network are moving us forward, providing progressive leadership with a deep understanding of the connections between funding feminism and environmental justice issues.
The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer takes readers into the world of feminist philanthropy, and captures powerfully the dilemmas and difficulties of the work. (Cover: Riverhead Books. Author photo: Nina Subin)
A novel about a feminist foundation is incredibly rare. A novel about a feminist foundation that is both compelling and reifying is even rarer still. I think it’s safe to say that The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is the first of its kind: an adventure and social critique novel about feminist philanthropy.
At one point Faith Frank, the central feminist in the story, talks wearily about how saying the words “feminist foundation” usually causes most people to stop listening immediately. But as many of us know, some of the most important and fascinating work is happening in the gender equality funding sector. The Female Persuasion helps to elucidate this strange and powerful world where money and idealism collide.
The story follows the life of Greer Kadetsky, a young woman who discovers feminism through her best friend at college, Zee. Greer goes on to become so passionate about the work that she takes a job with her feminist idol, Faith Frank. Through Greer’s experience, we get to see a foundation for feminism in all its administrative imperfection and human foibles.
The book also explores the many and varied ways that people can live feminist lives. After a series of unfortunate events, Greer’s high school boyfriend, Cory, ends up living a different version of feminism, resigning himself to a life as a caretaker for his mother. And at one point, Zee reflects on her career as a trauma specialist for abused women, realizing that her feminism is the kind that doesn’t get special treatment or attention.
Meanwhile, Greer goes on to the Big Apple and takes a job with Loci, Faith Frank’s feminist foundation. Loci provides Greer with opportunities to be part of new forms of feminism, including rescuing girls from trafficking in Ecuador.
In The Female Persuasion, feminist women both empower each other and undermine each other, just like in real life. The story returns us to themes of weighing ethical compromise in the face of potential personal, and feminist movement, gains. We see story lines that show how women often end up feeling unable to lift up others, for fear of losing opportunities for themselves.
The story also reveals the moral compromises that those working in philanthropy face. The difficulties of seeing how the sausage sometimes gets made in philanthropy can be painful. In the case of Loci, the foundation featured in the book, they end up mismanaging some funds in the process of rescuing girls from trafficking in Ecuador. Loci decides to give the mentoring contract to a consultant recommended by the investment firm supporting them, and this consultant walks off with the funding for hiring mentors for the girls. Greer gets saddled with holding up the facade that a mentoring program actually happened.
Overall, the book is rich in exploring the difficulties of relationships, particularly in our current age with its new wave of feminism. I recommend it to anyone who works in feminism or gender equality giving, since it contains excellent food for thought.
