Charlotte Mangin and Sandra Rattley have launched a new production company together named Audacious Women Productions. This new company follows the success of UNLADYLIKE2020. This award winning series has reached over 6 million viewers to date.
With a mission to uncover and elevate untold narratives of diverse changemakers in bold new ways, Audacious Women Productions extends the impact of its documentary films through the design of multimedia educational resources, and film screenings and events across the country in partnership with community and national organizations. Charlotte and Sandy are thrilled to continue working together to bring inspiring, innovative, and timely stories to intergenerational audiences.
Recently, UNLADYLIKE2020 collaborated with PBS Newshour Weekend on two of their newly aired “Hidden Histories” segments about Jovita Idar and Susan La Flesche Picotte, as part of their Hispanic Heritage Month and Native American Heritage Month coverage, respectively.
To learn more about the exciting projects we are developing and some previous projects, visit the website:
https://www.audaciouswomen.com/
One: CARE Unlocks Wins for Women with Funding from Gates, US AID and MasterCard
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit, CARE announced the creation of Strive Women, a program created in partnership with MasterCard’s Center for Inclusive Growth (the Center). The program aims to strengthen the financial health and resilience of small businesses in the economies of Peru, Vietnam, and Pakistan and will focus on small businesses led by women.
Strive Women will be funded by a $9 million grant from the Mastercard Impact Fund. This new phase of partnership between CARE and the Center follows the success of the Ignite program, which unlocked $154.9 million in loans from an initial grant of $5.26 million. Following the program, 79% of female participants increased their sales, and 89% reported increased confidence in running the business.
CARE is one of three partners selected to manage the Women in the Digital Economy Fund (WiDEF), a five year $60 million initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Launched by Vice President Kamala Harris in March 2023, WiDEF is a global pooled partnership aimed at closing the gender digital divide and has also received direct funding from Microsoft and the Government of Korea.
To read the entire Press Release, see the Link Below:
Two: Frito Lay Calling Attention to Gender Gap
Frito-Lay, the snack-food arm of PepsiCo is raising awareness of the meager funding level of funding for women-owned businesses. Women own nearly 50 percent of all U.S. businesses1, yet receive only 2 percent of venture capital (VC) funding89 – a tiny piece of the pie by publicizing the work of Stacy’s® Pita Chips
Stacy’s® Pita Chips, a brand with a history of empowering women business owners, is proud to continue championing these entrepreneurs to get a bigger piece of the funding pie through the launch of the 2024 Stacy’s Rise Project. In addition to awarding 15 founders a $25,000 grant, mentorship and community resources, this year Stacy’s is also introducing Stacy’s Rise Pies.
Just in time for the holiday season, Stacy’s Rise is offering pie-crust cookies that provide people with more ways to directly support women-owned businesses. The catch? These pie deliveries illustrate what 2 percent of the pie looks like.
View the graphic of the “pie chart”.
As a woman-founded business that grew from a humble sandwich cart to a household snack brand, Stacy’s Pita Chips has invested over $1 million in over 60 women-owned businesses since 2017. With support from longtime grant partner Hello Alice, the application numbers increase every year, totaling over 29,000 Stacy’s Rise Project applications received since its inaugural year.
To read the full Press Release from Frito-Lay, follow the link provided:
Three: Never Before Commissioned Report on Nursing Reveals Shocking Data
The American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation) released the results of a groundbreaking new study “Philanthropic Support for the Nursing Profession”. The study examines funding of the nursing profession and the importance of investing in nurse leadership, the impact of diversity in nursing, and the need to ensure nurses properly benefit from health care funding.
Despite being the largest group of healthcare professionals in the U.S, Nurses receive only a penny of every dollar donated to health care. Nurses are vital to the functioning of the healthcare system. Yet between 2015 – 2022, though private donations to health care were substantial, totaling $333.3 billion dollars, nurses received only 1% of these contributions.
“Given the extraordinary commitment and sacrifice by nurses before, during, and after the pandemic and their critical role in health care delivery, we are under-investing in nursing. Nursing receives only one penny of all private donations to health care. You must ask yourself, are nurses – who are with us from birth to end of life– really worth only one penny? Nurses are instrumental in delivering quality and equitable care. The health care system can’t function without them. Positive change starts with our genuine support,” said Executive Director of the American Nurses Foundation Kate Judge.
To read the complete press release, please use the link below:
NEW STUDY: U.S. Nurses Receive Only 1 Penny of Philanthropic Donations
About American Nurses Foundation:
American Nurses Foundation is the charitable and philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Association (ANA), with the mission to transform the nation’s health through the power of nursing. The Foundation supports research, education, and systems-transforming programs, which improve health, wellness, and patient care. For more information visit www.nursingworld.org/foundation
Four: DDP Finds Contemporary & Modern Companies Have More Equitable Leadership but Slower Post-Pandemic Recovery
Dance Data Project® (DDP) announced Part II of the report analyzing the largest U.S. contemporary and modern dance companies. For the first time, the report examines the financial scope of the Largest 75 U.S Contemporary and Modern Dance Companies and ranks the companies within two categories: the Largest 50 (#1-50) and the Additional 25 (#51-75) based on fiscal year 2021 with preliminary findings for FY2022. The breakdown provides a complete overview of the contemporary and modern dance industry.
“Our first-ever ranking report for modern and contemporary companies covered just the Largest 50 in the U.S.,” said DDP Senior Research Consultant Junyla Silmon. “Today, we are proud to announce an expansion to include even more companies, providing an increasingly comprehensive appraisal of the financial scope of the U.S. dance ecosystem.”
In the Largest 50 contemporary and modern companies, there are 30 female artistic directors (56%) and 24 male artistic directors (44%). The Largest 50 ballet companies, by contrast, include 13 female (24.5%) and 38 (74.5%) male artistic directors.
Preliminary findings for FY2022 show that aggregate expenditures for the Largest 75 increased more than twice as much as the expenditures for the Largest 75 contemporary and modern companies are up 22.19% from FY2021
“For the last four consecutive fiscal years, the largest contemporary and modern companies have had remarkably lower budgets compared to the largest ballet companies but have continued to be pillars of gender equity in leadership,” said DDP Senior Research Consultant Junyla Silmon. “These findings are very similar to our research on smaller-budgeted ballet companies, which also have had a track record of being more equitable, despite having fewer resources.
The Largest 75 U.S. Contemporary & Modern Dance Companies Report is available on the Dance Data Project® Research Page.
Five: Women Bear the Brunt Of Economic Problems
Women are conspicuously much more likely to live paycheck-to-paycheck than men, according to a recent study by Varo Bank, Morning Consult, and THRIVE Financial Empowerment Services. This means that all, or nearly all income is spent just to make ends meet.
The study found that nearly 60% of women are living paycheck-to-paycheck compared to just over 40% of men. Even worse, two-thirds of these women fall into the “financially fragile” category. One result is that basic needs often have to be sacrificed or postponed to meet daily expenses. Sacrifices include doctors’ visits, prescribed medication, mental health care, healthy food, and safe housing.
One key factor in this problem is that women are paid less than men for doing the same job. This leaves little or no money for savings, investments, or other means of attaining a degree of financial security. These hardships cross political lines, with members of neither political party exempt from these problems. A common theme is that concern about the cost of living impacts persons of all political backgrounds.
The study produced one very interesting conclusion. In the press release, an unidentified spokesperson for Varo noted that, “Whoever said ‘money can’t buy happiness was on to something…Our survey showed that those with Low social support scores and high income scores were worse off emotionally than those with low income scores but high social scores.”
For an article on the report, The Hill quoted Ayesha Whyte, the founder of Ellevator, an online platform that provides career development resources to women of color. “Women are still facing the brunt of not being as economically advantaged as men right now for a host of reasons that are generations old,” said Whyte.
The report from Varo Bank can be found here.
The article from The Hill is available here.
Related:
Firelight Finds Lack in Modern Philanthropy; We Can Do Better
