Global Philanthropy Archives

Vote for the G.O.A.T! Join in the Fun and Build Women’s Leadership

Plan International USA is working to build women’s leadership by inviting young people ages 13-22 to “Vote for the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).” While this acronym usually applies to football stars and other sports legends, Plan is using the acronym in a much for fun, purposeful, and world-changing way. Specifically, Plan’s GOAT competition refers to the greatest female, femme or nonbinary person advancing gender equality across the categories of visibility or representation, women’s health, equal opportunity, and gender-based violence.

Plan International USA—an independent development and humanitarian organization advancing children’s rights and equality for girls—established the “Vote for the G.O.A.T” competition to heighten awareness about those working on behalf of gender equity, and to benefit needy women and families in the developing world.

Greengrants: Participatory Grantmaking as Path to Greener Future

When corporations divert rivers, when governments displace communities, and when the constant human desire for “more” disrupts the safety of our environment, women and children are often the first to suffer. Access to clean water, a full belly, and a safe place to sleep at night are rights humans should have at birth.

What can we do when these natural rights are violated?

Recently retired CEO Terry Odendahl and GGF activist Eva Rehse in London at the pre-COP21 climate march. (**Image Credit:** Global Greengrants Fund)

Global Greengrants Fund, also known as Greengrants, seeks to answer this question by taking action. By committing to a program based on participatory grantmaking, Greengrants connects under-served and under-funded communities with the resources and mentorship they need to fight for justice.

COVID-19: The Gendered Impacts and How to Respond

Well folks, we’re off the charts, quite literally. Vulnerable people are dying at an alarming rate. Markets are dropping and jumping and dropping again as more people test positive for COVID-19. Health care workers are risking their lives by going to work, and many of us are spending more time social distancing than humanity may have ever tried before. It’s all quite surreal. And we’re not even talking about the gendered impacts yet.

Some leaders in philanthropy are responding to the health crisis with concern and plans to help.

gendered impacts — The Kaiser Family Foundation is providing a database of funders for COVID-19. (Image Credit: Kaiser Family Foundation)

The Kaiser Family Foundation has put together a Donor Funding for COVID-19 Response list, and there you can find organizations funding the research and the medical response to the unprecedented outbreak. Most of the funding listed here is going to China, and all of this funding is brand new, starting in January 2020.

WPI Cancels Plugged In Conference, Plans to Move Online

Editor’s Note: The following message is from Andrea Pactor, Associate Director, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, regarding the 2020 Women Give conference.

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your patience as we wrestled with whether or not to move forward with Philanthropy Plugged In in light of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 situation. Yesterday, the Indiana University President made the decision to cancel the symposium easier. At Indiana University, as at several universities and businesses across the country, all travel outside the state is suspended through April 5 and we are discouraged from scheduling events with more than 100 attendees. Sad as we are not to see you in Chicago, we know, as one speaker mentioned, that this is the right thing to do.

Facebook Cites Tax Justice Among Solutions to Gender Inequality

Last September, at the UN General Assembly, Sheryl Sandberg announced a five-year pledge from Facebook to use its data and resources to help partners advance progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over the last 6 months, Facebook commissioned a study by consulting firm Ladysmith to learn how it can use its access to gender data to help inform social policy.

A new report by consulting firm Ladysmith, discusses how the tech community can “strengthen the gender data ecosystem. (Image Credit: Ladysmith)

On March 10th, Facebook released these findings, with an introduction from Marne Levine, VP of Global Partnerships, Business and Corporate Development:

Helping to Close the Gender Data Gap

Starbucks Fdn Awards 2020 Origin Grants for Global Women and Girls

Since International Women’s Day 2018, The Starbucks Foundation has been working toward a goal to empower 250,000 women and girls in origin communities by 2025. This effort has already made a difference in the lives of more than 66,000 women through programs around women’s leadership, access to finance, and healthy homes in coffee- and tea-growing communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Over the past year, The Starbucks Foundation has awarded additional Origin Grants to help continue to break down barriers to education, promote clean water and sanitation (WASH), and create economic opportunities for women and girls. This brings the total number of foundation grantees working in coffee and tea-growing communities to 18, with grants totaling more than $5 million.

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.

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.

Slaight Family Fdn Launches $15 Million for Global Women and Girls

OTTAWA, 3 March 2020 – The Slaight Family Foundation will launch a $15 M Global Initiative for Women and Girls which will be donated to 15 international organizations around the world to mark International Women’s Day. The Initiative will improve the lives of women and girls in developing countries around the world. CARE Canada will partner with The Slaight Family Foundation in Somalia.

The Slaight Family Foundation will support CARE Canada’s work in Somalia to innovate and improve menstrual hygiene management for school-age girls, many of whom have experienced female genital mutilation. The donation will help to develop and test new solutions with established women and girls’ groups, train women to produce hygiene products locally, improve school sanitation facilities, and increase community awareness.

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.

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.

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.

Category: Global Philanthropy