Global Philanthropy Archives

Happy Pride Month! On Taking Pride in Funding LGBTQIA+ Activism

Editor’s Note: COVID-19 has exposed the everyday struggles of the most vulnerable like never before. LGBTQIA+ activists are facing homophobia, transphobia and biphobia everyday as they continue to organize and support their community bearing the brunt of a pandemic. What does philanthropy need to do more? How can it better support LGBTQIA+ communities in the present moment? As we advance in the second year of the pandemic, Deepa Ranganathan and Juliana Camara, from FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, facilitate an engaging roundtable discussion with LGBTQIA+ members of the FRIDA ecosystem.

FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund helps support and empower LGBTQIA+ communities across the globe. (Image credit: FRIDA)

The first year of COVID-19 made donors run to provide immediate response to grantee partners navigating through it in different contexts. Learnings and reflections from this have been widely shared. However, as the pandemic continues to create havoc and shows little signs of stopping, we are acutely aware of stepping into Pride Month amidst this crisis. For philanthropy, this is an opportunity to elaborate further on how to resource LGBTQIA+ communities in ways that allow them to thrive and go beyond merely surviving in these times.

Melinda Receives WPI Award, Urges More Philanthropy Led by Women

Melinda French Gates Receives Shaw-Hardy Taylor Achievement Award for Advancing Women’s Philanthropy

Melinda French Gates is the recipient of the Shaw-Hardy Taylor Achievement Award from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute. (Image credit: WPI)

(Thursday, June 3, 2021) Philanthropist Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, today received the Shaw-Hardy Taylor Achievement Award from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

The Shaw-Hardy Taylor Achievement Award recognizes philanthropists, nonprofit leaders, volunteers, change agents, fundraisers and researchers who have moved women’s philanthropy forward and demonstrated significant impact on the field. The award has been presented triennially since 2008, with the exception that conferral of the award to French Gates, which had been slated for last year, was deferred due to the pandemic.

G.L.O.W.: Initiatives that Work For Better Period Education

In honor of Menstrual Hygiene Day on 5/28, Global G.L.O.W. has been working to fight against period stigma and poverty.

Global G.L.O.W. is an international non-profit organization that works with its partners in 23 countries on achieving gender equity. Mentoring young girls plays a large role in their activism. They feature three key initiatives in these mentorship programs.

GirlSolve focuses on the disparities that girls face in formal economic opportunities. GLOW Club helps girls to progress their ability to advocate for themselves, their emotional wellbeing, educational and community engagement and impact. The final initiative is Healthy GLOW, which works to educate girls on maintaining healthy bodies and relationships.

How Has COVID-19 Affected Women in the Global South?

A new report from the Feminist Humanitarian Network has found a drastic decrease in funding for women in the Global South.

The Feminist Humanitarian Network has released a new report viewing the COVID-19 pandemic through a gender lens. (Image credit: Feminist Humanitarian Network)

The Feminist Humanitarian Network released new findings and recommendations from its “Women’s Humanitarian Voices: Covid-19 through a feminist lens” report examining the role of Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The report shows the solutions WROs established to overcome funding challenges that worsened for organisations representing women and girls in the Global South, and illustrates the patriarchal humanitarian and government systems WROs operate within that continue to exclude them from decision-making in crisis response and recovery planning. The report brings together key learnings from research in eight countries – Liberia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Rise Welcomes Revolutionary UN Resolution to Protect Survivors

Rise celebrates the announcement of a new United Nations General Assembly Resolution to protect survivors of sexual assault.

During the State Opening of Parliament address in Freetown on 18 May 2021 H.E. President Julius Maada Bio announced Sierra Leone will become the Lead Facilitator of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution on access to justice for survivors of sexual violence.

Sexual violence is a universal issue that demands international recognition. According to the World Health Organization, 35% of women worldwide – 1.3 billion people – are sexual violence survivors. However, the United Nations General Assembly has never passed a resolution focused solely on protections for sexual violence survivors. Around the world, people are demanding recognition and justice for survivors who are denied basic rights and access to information and justice.

Activating Philanthropy – Part Four: How to Start a Giving Circle

Editor’s Note: This article is Part Four in our four-part Activating Philanthropy series. In this series, we explore ways to bring your philanthropic ideals into your everyday life, activating the lessons we’ve learned along the way. For the rest of the series, check out Part One: Philanthropy in Daily Routines, Part Two: How to Call Your Congresswoman, and Part Three: Talking to Family Members About Giving.

We’re almost finished with our Activating Philanthropy series! Thanks for joining us for this four-week series on activating philanthropy in your everyday life. Now that we’ve covered the basics, we’re tying everything together with one of the simplest and most effective forms of collaborative philanthropy: the giving circle.

On Mother’s Day, Support Migrant Mothers Reuniting with Children

Editor’s Note: The following essay is by Gema Fernández, managing attorney at Women’s Link Worldwide, urging readers to consider the plight of migrant mothers this Mother’s Day.

As the U.S. begins to emerge from its pandemic nightmare, many Americans are looking forward to seeing — and maybe hugging — their mothers for the first time in over a year as they prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day. But around the world and in the U.S., far too many mothers and families have little to celebrate, as they face the hardships of migration, violence and forced separations.

*Gema Fernández discusses the need to help migrant mothers reunite with their children.* (Image credit: *Gema Fernández*)

In the United States, children and infants have been ripped from the arms of migrant families crossing the Southern U.S. border, with hundreds of these children still disconnected from their parents and relatives years later. State-sanctioned violations of migrant women’s and families’ rights are not unique to the U.S., or even this hemisphere.

NEID Gala Highlights Gender Lens Approaches to Global Justice

New England International Donors (NEID) held their annual Gala on April 8^th, virtually of course. This gathering of international philanthropists was to celebrate the incredible work accomplished by the cohort throughout 2020. NEID is a rapidly growing community of engaged individuals and organizations whose aim is to “address the world’s big problems” by “living and giving boldly.”

NEID held a vibrant annual gala that included many noteworthy guests. (Photo Credit: New England International Donors)

Their mission is to learn from one another, join forces, and through this strategic network of collaboration, tackle inequity, climate change, and many of the world’s challenges that would’ve been insurmountable otherwise. This community is effective, to say the least, as around 45% of their members collaborate on projects together and 30% of their network support projects discovered directly through NEID.

New Report Reveals Truth about Ivanka Trump Not Helping Women

The Governmental Accountability Office audit of the program shows that it failed to fulfill its promises.

The Women’s Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018 (WEEE), put into action under the Trump administration, is often credited to Ivanka Trump and regarded as being widely successful. A new report from the Government Accountability Office reveals otherwise.

This act tasked the US Agency for International development (USAID) with utilizing a $265 million grant to assist micro, small and medium sized businesses around the world. Half of this grant was intended to go to women-owned companies. The other half was to be allocated to the “very poor”, with it being expected that there would be overlap between the two.

How Is Asia Gender Network Pushing for More Pan-Asian Advocacy?

AVPN’s Asia Gender Network becomes the first pan-Asian network dedicated to the funding advancement of women and girls.

According to recent reports from the World Economic Forum, the world at large is still decades away from achieving total gender equality. In Asia, which holds 60% of the world’s population, that number stretches to 70 years — and in East Asia, more than 160. Pair that with the backslides from the pandemic and the resulting “She-cession,” more than 2 billion Asian women are facing a road to gender equality even more difficult than in years past.

Members of the Asia Gender Network celebrate the founding of their organization with AVPN. (Image Credit: AVPN/Asia Gender Network)

To combat this crisis, the Asia Gender Network has become the first pan-Asian network committed to mobilizing financial, human, and intellectual capital toward gender equality.

Category: Global Philanthropy