$6.5 Million to Study and Treat Women’s Mental Health in Canada

One of the benefits of my ongoing work as a mental health practitioner is that I never lose sight of the problems caused by the ongoing oppression of women. For this reason, I was particularly excited to learn about a new initiative coming out of Canada called womenmind. Launched by The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada, womenmind is being supported by two gifts totaling $6.5 million, and aims to “put a defined focus on closing the gender gap in mental health.”

 (Pictured above, left to right) Sandi Treliving, Philanthropist & Member, CAMH Foundation Board of Directors, Deborah Gillis, President and CEO, CAMH Foundation and Dr. Catherine Zahn, President and CEO, CAMH. (photo credit: CAMH)

With $5-million in funding from Sandi and Jim Treliving and family and another $1.5-million donation from Hudson’s Bay Foundation, CAMH is creating womenmind for the purpose of “fuel[ing] philanthropy focused on accelerating discovery related to improving the mental health of girls and women and supporting female-identifying researchers to become leaders in the sciences.”

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Leading Women: The Highest and Best Use of My Worth

Twenty years ago, I moved out of corporate America to focus on social change. I had been successful on Wall Street and then at a large global conglomerate, working on mergers and acquisitions, capital financing, building brand equity, launching new products and finally restructuring country portfolios in the consumer products industry. It had been quite a run. My colleagues and friends were puzzled as to why I would give up a productive career to work in a field that was not lucrative and seemed poised for uncertain gains.

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S. Mona Sinha, Board Chair of Women Moving Millions, reflects on the path of her career and the highest and best use of her worth: working to increase gender equality. (Photo credit: S. Mona Sinha)

I was moving on because, as an advisor to a human rights organization at that time, I experienced an epiphany while offering simple business frameworks and tools that were met by the nonprofit organization’s leaders with delight and surprise. A small pivot in my business-trained mindset was seen as a huge and innovative intervention. It made me realize that my corporate and business school training could shift the ways that these critical organizations functioned, and could even make them sustainable. And thus began my path.

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Texas Women’s Foundation is 100 Percent Invested in Women

The Texas Women’s Foundation (TWF) recently announced that 100 percent of its $36 million dollars in financial assets are now invested in a “gendered impact” portfolio.

The gender impact strategy seeks a strong return on investment while having the investment itself—and not just the return that accrues to Texas Women’s Foundation—benefit women and girls. This approach makes TWF the first and only women’s fund or foundation to move all of its financial assets—which include endowments, operating investments and donor-advised funds—into gendered impact.

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The Texas Women’s Foundation recently announced the gender-alignment of 100% of its assets. (Image Credit: TWF)

“We hope that we can inspire others to become part of what is now a global movement around impact investing,” says Roslyn Dawson Thompson, Texas Women’s Foundation president and CEO. “Specifically for women’s funds and foundations, we can demonstrate how, by mission-aligning 100% of our assets with our philanthropy, we can powerfully accelerate the change we seek in the world.”

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Blow to Gender Equality as UN Curtails CSW Due to Coronavirus

NEW YORK, March 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Curtailing a major United Nations meeting on gender equality over coronavirus fears could be a blow to progress in women’s rights and needs to be rescheduled to include diverse voices, participants and observers said on Monday.

CSW was scaled by to a one-day meeting due to the global outbreak of coronavirus. (Image credit: UN Commission on the Status of Women)

The annual two-week U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) promoting equality and women’s empowerment was scaled back on Monday to just one-day next week due the global outbreak.

In its abbreviated version, the CSW will hold a procedural meeting on March 9 – the day after International Women’s Day – to adopt a draft political declaration marking 25 years since the historic women’s rights declaration signed in Beijing.

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Alliance for Women in Media Announces New Board

The Alliance for Women in Media and its Foundation (AWM/F) are pleased to announce their 2020 National Board of Directors.

The Alliance for Women in Media recently announced is 2020 National Board of Directors. (Image credit: Alliance for Women in Media)

New to the AWM Board are: Katina Arnold, vice president, corporate communications, ESPN; Abby Auerbach, executive vice president, chief communications officer, TVB; Michelle Ray, executive director, The Walter Kaitz Foundation; Sandra Rice, senior vice president, outreach and strategic partnerships, Center for Talent Innovation; and, Esther Mireya Tejeda, senior vice president, head of corporate communications & PR, Entercom.

Officers of the board have been announced as Keisha Sutton-James, Chair, vice president & CEO, Sutton Button Productions LLC, serving as chair, Heather Cohen, executive vice president, The Weiss Agency, serving as incoming chair, Christine Travaglini, president, Katz Radio Group, serving as immediate past chair, Josie Thomas, CBS, serving as treasurer, and Annie Howell, co-founder and managing partner, The Punch Point Group, serving as incoming treasurer. 

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Rachel’s Network and People Over Petro Battle Industry Giants

Ecofeminist funder Rachel’s Network is collaborating with the People over Petro Coalition in combating the petrochemical industry in the Ohio River Valley.

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Rachel’s Network is collaborating with the People over Petro Coalition to increase civic engagement.

The Ohio River forms at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers in Pittsburgh, and flows southwest nearly 1,000 miles to southern Illinois where it meets the Mississippi River. Several corporations, notably Shell, have projects in the works to produce plastics and chemicals in the Ohio River Valley, and have already begun building ethane cracker plants, pipelines, storage facilities, and other dirty infrastructure. These projects will foul the air and water, exposing residents of parts of Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia to toxic emissions, sending health costs from just three proposed plants into the billions over the plants’ lifespan. Moreover, such production exacerbates climate change and make local economies vulnerable to the boom-bust cycles typical of the energy industry.

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Verizon Creates Future Fund with $5 Million for Women in Film

Verizon “Future Fund” supports females in entertainment and technology

LOS ANGELES, CA (February 11, 2020) – Today, Verizon announced the creation of the Future Fund, a $5 million dollar commitment to support new and emerging female talent across entertainment and technology. In addition to funding, Verizon will provide Future Fund recipients with access to state-of-the-art production facilities, including the Verizon Media RYOT 5G Studio in Los Angeles and Verizon 5G Labs, as well as distribution opportunities across the Verizon Media ecosystem, which reaches nearly 900 million global consumers per month.

Verizon recently announced a new philanthropic effort called the Future Fund, which will support more women film makers. (Image Credit: Verizon Corporate Giving)

In addition to introducing the Future Fund live on stage at The 2020 MAKERS Conference in Los Angeles, Verizon Chief Marketing Officer Diego Scotti named the first project to receive its support: a feature documentary called NOT DONE. This film will examine how feminist change makers of today are carrying the torch and making real progress toward true equality.

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Bloomberg’s Billions and Why it Matters to Women’s Giving

Editor’s Note: This post is not intended as an endorsement for any candidate for public office. Philanthropy Women is partially funded by fiscal sponsorship through the Women’s Funding Network, a 501c(3) organization, and therefore cannot make any political endorsements.

Many of us have probably read the articles about Bloomberg’s multiple lawsuits involving sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment for women. This post isn’t about that, and that topic is deserving of its own discussion in feminist giving circles. This post is about Bloomberg’s philanthropy for women, and the way his billions impact not just gender equality movements, but also environmental movements and movements for racial justice.

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Platforms for Good: Summer Sanders and Plan International USA

On February 20, 2020, global development organization Plan International USA announced its newest Ambassador, Summer Sanders Schlopy.

An Olympic athlete and most decorated U.S. swimmer in the 1992 Olympics, Summer is known for using her platform for good. She rose to precedence as a member of Stanford’s swimming team, taking on the 1992 National Championship and Olympic Games. In Barcelona, Summer became the most decorated U.S. swimmer with one bronze, one silver, and two gold medals.

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Summer Sanders Schlopy joins Plan International USA as their newest celebrity ambassador. (Photo Credit: Outside Online)

In the early 1990s, Summer turned to television, commentating the NCAA Swimming Championships for CBS Sports, and hosting MTV’s surf-and-sun competition show Sandblast. Her numerous television accolades include correspondent, co-host, and host for a range of sporting events, TV series, and competition shows.

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New YouTube Documentary Follows Gender Justice Pioneers

(Feb. 20, 2020) Today YouTube and Global Fund for Women unveiled the official trailer for “Fundamental. Gender Justice. No Exceptions” – a brand new 5 episode documentary series that follows dynamic activists from five countries who are disrupting the status quo and radically altering the course of history.

Global Fund for Women and Youtube recently announced a new documentary series focused on gender justice pioneers. (Image Credit: Global Fund for Women)

What does it really look like to be a feminist leader in 2020? Partnering with Refinery29 on the series, the first episode of “Fundamental” will launch on March 4, 2020 on Refinery29’s official YouTube channel and YouTube.com/Learning.

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