Black Leaders Call for $1 Billion Decade-Long Investment in Black Girls

On September 15, the 57th anniversary of the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls, a group of prominent Black women launched the Black Girl Freedom Fund. The group’s open letter and social media campaign mark the beginning of a one-billion-dollar effort championing Black girls and their families.

Image Credit: Black Girl Freedom Fund

The open letter from the Black Girl Freedom Fund notes that while Black Lives Matter attracts strong philanthropic support, “Black girls and young women still remain adultified, victimized by violence, and erased from the very same social justice movement for which they continue to risk their lives.”

The letter demands that Black girls receive the attention and support they deserve:

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WMM Summit: Laverne Cox and Netflix Exec Discuss Being Seen in Film

How many girls see themselves in office because of characters like Leslie Knope and Selina Meyer? How many teenagers cheer on their on-screen counterparts in movies like The Half of It, which features a queer, Chinese-American leading lady, and TV shows like Sex Education, where the beautifully diverse cast of high school characters has captured hearts around the world?

Laverne Cox
Laverne Cox poses in the press room during the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Image Credit: Getty Images, Frazer Harrison)

During the second day of the Women Moving Millions annual summit, Laverne Cox took the virtual stage with Darnell Moore, Director of Inclusion Strategy for Content and Marketing at Netflix, to discuss the power inherent in seeing people who look, talk, and live like us in the TV shows and movies we watch.

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Black Girls Dream Fund Launches with Support from WDN, Others

(Sept. 10, 2020) SOUTHERN BLACK GIRLS AND WOMEN’S CONSORTIUM LAUNCHES BLACK GIRLS DREAM FUND

The $100 million fundraising initiative will support making Black girls’ dreams a reality

Black Girls Dream Fund launches with support from Women Donors Network, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Lucy and Isadore B Adelman Foundation, Collective Future Fund, and the Momentum Fund. (Image Credit: Black Girls Dream Fund)

ATLANTA – Today, the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium (SBGWC) kicked off a 10-year fundraising initiative to raise $100 million to financially empower the goals of Southern Black girls and women in the United States through the Black Girls Dream Fund. The new Fund seeks to fundraise and shift current grantmaking efforts in the South, channeling greater resources toward organizations that are intentionally supporting and empowering Black girls and women. 

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Love Beauty and Planet Pledges $100k for Carbon Reduction

Women’s beauty brand Love Beauty and Planet recently announced a $100,000 grant cycle for The Love Beauty and Planet Project. This grant project offers funding ranging from $1,000 to $20,000 for projects that improve the wellbeing and health of the planet, specifically those that focus on reducing, avoiding, or sequestering carbon.

Image Credit: Love Beauty and Planet

Ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, the Love Beauty and Planet grants focus on projects that improve recycling rates, reduce plastic waste, and/or sequester carbon emissions. What’s more, the company has expressed a preference for applications focusing on marginalized and underserved communities, which are often the most adversely affected–and the least able to recuperate–from carbon emissions that harm the environment.

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(Liveblog) Ready to Lead Webinar: Black and Latinx Girls Speak Out

On Thursday, September 10th, representatives from Girls Leadership joined a panel of youth leaders to discuss the findings of the new report Ready to Lead. The webinar facilitators included report author Dr. Charlotte Jacobs and report foreword author Dr. Monique W. Morris, Morgan Stanley’s Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Susan Reid, and Girls Leadership’s Chief Program Officer, Kendra Karr.

This interactive event included accounts from the young leaders’ lived experiences of the findings from the Ready to Lead report, which centers on the readiness of girls in Black and Latinx communities to step forward as leaders. The event drew out some fascinating and emotionally charged conversations, along with frequent encouragement from audience members in the comments.

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Girls Leadership, Vodafone Team Up for Black and Latinx Girls

Part of the impact of a landmark election year is the inevitable urge to look toward the future. Where are we headed in terms of women’s leadership? Are we doing enough to support girls of color and their families? Are we supporting representation in leadership roles, mentorships, and educational leadership?

Image Credit: Ready to Lead (Girls Leadership/Vodafone Americas Foundation)

When it comes to building leadership skills in girls of color, we still have a long way to go. Organizations like LiveGirl and Girls Who Code aim to support girls of color with leadership skills, educational programs, and skills-based training programs, but the research surrounding the efficacy of these programs is unfortunately lacking. We don’t have a clear enough picture of girls’ confidence: particularly, the likelihood of Black and Latinx girls to self-identify as leaders, and see themselves represented in leadership positions within their schools and communities.

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Alliance for Girls Investigates COVID’s Impact on Diverse CA Girls

Alliance for Girls (AFG), a California-based network of girls-serving organizations, wants state and local leaders to pay more attention to the needs of girls—particularly Black girls and girls of color—in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo Credit: Alliance for Girls
Alliance for Girls’ Movement for Equity Conference, October 2019

To investigate this issue further, Alliance for Girls has launched “When Girls Thrive,” an initiative researching and advocating for an expanded understanding of how girls are being impacted by COVID. It includes an online survey, and addresses the lack of data on the needs and experiences of girls and gender-expansive youth up to 24 years of age. This group is particularly vulnerable during this time of increased health risks, extended isolation, and significant disruption and barriers to education and work. Such challenges are even more extreme for Black youth and youth of color.

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Coming Together to Make Health Care More Gender Responsive

Editor’s Note: The following announcement is from the publication Foreign Policy.

Nonprofit organization Women in Global Health is one of the sponsors of an upcoming conference on gender-responsive global health. (Image credit: Women in Global Health)

The COVID-19 crisis has been a stark reminder that global health is a fundamental security concern. The pandemic has exposed deep inequalities in health and social systems at global and national levels, including gender inequities, weakening our collective ability to tackle COVID-19 and generate improved health outcomes into the future. It is clear that the commitment made by governments to deliver Universal Health Coverage by 2030 is an essential prerequisite for global health security. Many lives will be lost to COVID-19 because gender disparities in the health workforce and wider society weaken our response. We can take steps now to build back better and bring the important conversation about equality and health into the international security arena.

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Get in on The Power of Us: Women Moving Millions 2020 Summit

On September 10th and 11th, 2020, Women Moving Millions holds its annual summit. The 2020 theme–The Power of Us–has particular resonance in a year blighted by pandemic, recession, and political struggle, and speaks to the ways we can do so much more when we work together.

Image Credit: Women Moving Millions (Facebook)

The two-day virtual event offers sessions for WMM members only on September 10th, followed by an action-packed day open to invited non-members and prospects on September 11th. What’s more–the event is completely free!

Sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and PJT Partners, the 2020 summit will focus on community, connection, and collaboration as tools to working toward a more just and equitable world.

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Examining Patriarchy with “The Girl Child”: A Six-Month Journey

To those on the outside looking in, the story of women and girls’ social advancement may look like a road paved with victories. To those within the sphere of feminist philanthropy, however, that road has more twists and turns than many realize. We cannot deny the progress we’ve made in recent years, but we also cannot ignore the inequality, violence, and oppression women and girls still face around the world today.

But where does this oppression come from? When did we as a society learn to value boys over girls, to treat women like property or lesser beings? Why do we have to fight against it in the first place?

Imago Dei Fund, through a free program presented by Emily Nielsen Jones and Rev. Domnic Misolo, seeks to answer these questions with a six-month reading journey through the history of patriarchy. Examining the liberation of women through historic and faith-based lenses, “The Girl Child & Her Long Walk to Freedom: Putting Faith to Work Through Love to Break Ancient Chains” offers participants six months a guided tour with readings, group discussions, and reflections centered around the emancipation of girls and women.

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