Category: Male Allies

Share the Joy and Unique Promise of Giving for Gender Equality

Editor’s Note: I wrote this post a year ago, but I 100% endorse it again as the best use of your Giving Tuesday resources.

Since starting Philanthropy Women, we have chosen to embrace Giving Tuesday each year in different ways, but always as a great opportunity to give back to women. This year we are celebrating Giving Tuesday by naming our Top 10 Picks for feminist giving for the day. We hope you enjoy the list and relish the experience of making an intentional gift to one or all of them on Giving Tuesday.

giving tuesday 2020
Did you know that research from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute showed that in 2018, women gave the majority, 64.9%, of dollars donated on Giving Tuesday? Perhaps that’s because women generally look for opportunities to give, and when a new holiday is established where the sole purpose is to give to charity, women are all over it.

#1 Women’s Fund of Rhode Island or Your State’s Women’s Fund

There is really no better bang for your charity buck than your own local women’s fund. Ours here in Rhode Island does a fantastic job of gender equality education and training, civic engagement, and grantmaking. Imagine if every adult in Rhode Island (roughly 800,000 people) gave just $1 to the Women’s Foundation of Rhode Island? That would mean $800,000 in resources that would exponentially increase the education, engagement, and grantmaking for one of the most influential women’s organizations in the state. Then we could really see what WFRI is capable of in terms of helping our state move toward gender equality. If you don’t live in Rhode Island, you can find your local women’s fund by visiting the Women’s Funding Network where most state and regional women’s funds are members.

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Cynthia Mendes: Exciting New WOC Leadership Possibilities in RI

Readers of Philanthropy Women know that we closely follow the feminist giving strategies on getting more women into politics. Now, an exciting announcement comes from our home state of Rhode Island, as State Senator Cynthia Mendes and Former Secretary of State Matt Brown have announced their joint campaign for Lt. Governor and Governor of Rhode Island.

Cynthia Mendes and Matt Brown announced today their joint campaign for Lt. Governor and Governor of Rhode Island. (Image credit: cynthiaandmattforri.com)

Not only are these two uniquely qualified candidates running together, they have cultivated 50 more progressive candidates running for a large swath of positions in Rhode Island. Together, this could make for a new paradigm of leadership in the state.

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Kamala Harris: “We’re Gonna Get It Done.”

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on August 18, 2020, before Kamala Harris became the first female Vice President of the United States.

“We’re gonna get it done.” These were some of the first words spoken by Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris in her phenomenal half-hour interview with Errin Haines, Editor-at-Large for the 19th, during the 19th Represents Summit on Friday. Harris’s plans to “get it done” refer to the upcoming Presidential election, and her goal to join Joe Biden in leading the U.S. out of one of its worst crisis periods in history.

Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris spoke with Errin Haines of The 19th on Friday, August 14th, giving details of her experience becoming the first woman of color nominated to the U.S. Presidential ticket. (Image Credit: The 19th video, Youtube)

Haines began the interview by asking what it was like for Kamala Harris to be in competition with women she respected and worked with, other candidates who were running for President and were in the lead to be asked to fill Biden’s ticket for the Vice President spot.

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Which is More Important: Women on the Moon or Gender Equity on Earth?

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 8, 2020.

Is repeating space/moon travel a more pressing issue than addressing gender equality on earth?

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos shared a video of his rocket engine on Instagram, with notes about the “thrust” and “deep throttling” of the machinery. (Image credit: Jeff Bezos Instagram)

Jeff Bezos seems to think so. The world’s richest man appears to be in something of a billionaire space-nerd contest with Elon Musk to see who can make the biggest cyber-splash with their private space travel enterprises.

Meanwhile, here on earth, we’re having much more pedestrian problems, such as mass deaths due to a preventable disease ravaging our populace, largely due to the extreme negligence of our country’s leadership.

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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.

Rise is a survivor-led international organization dedicated to protecting and empowering survivors worldwide. (Image credit: Rise)
Rise is a survivor-led international organization dedicated to protecting and empowering survivors worldwide. (Image credit: Rise)

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. 

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Gender Equality: It’s Never Been Just for Women and Girls

Editor’s Note: Racial and gender equality won’t happen without men. The following conversation explores ways to help men and boys join movements for gender and racial equality.

Activist and philanthropist Suzanne Lerner, co-founder and CEO of Michael Stars, engages in a candid discussion with Ted Bunch, co-founder of A Call to Men (ACTM), an organization that she has supported for the past five years.  ACTM works with the NFL, NBA, NHL, U.S. military, universities, and global corporations to educate and empower men and boys to become stronger allies for gender equality.

Suzanne Lerner and Ted Bunch discuss the many ways we can empower men and boys to be drivers of racial and gender equality. (Image credit: Suzanne Lerner)

We’re finally starting to see real money flow from companies and financial institutions to racial and gender equality initiatives.

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Attorney Ken Eulo on Navigating Flawed Systems, Recognizing Bias

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Ken Eulo, a criminal defense lawyer in Central Florida’s Smith & Eulo Law Firm. Eulo has a strong commitment to supporting domestic violence survivors through access to legal services, as well as supporting feminist movements as a male ally.

Ken Eulo is a leading criminal defense attorney in Central Florida. (Image Credit: Smith & Eulo)

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

I wish I had known that my law career would involve advocating for my clients’ rights against the very justice systems sworn to protect them. I consider my first real-life foray into criminal law as having occurred when I went on several “ride-alongs” with Los Angeles’ local police. I was an undergrad studying Criminal Justice and Pre-Law at University of Central Florida at the time, and these experiences with cops in my hometown allowed me to see criminal procedures up close and personal.

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New Hires Nicole Lazarre and Deepal Chadha Join URI Leadership

URI has brought on Nicole Lazarre and Deepal Chadha to help the organization in continuing to empower the underserved populations of NYC.

Deepal S. Chadha (Image credit: URI)

Urban Resource Institute (URI), the nation’s largest provider of domestic violence shelter services and a leading homeless shelter provider in New York City, has named two new senior staff members to their Office of General Counsel: Nicolaine (Nicole) Lazarre as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, and Deepal S. Chadha as Deputy General Counsel. The notable new hires in the legal department reflect URI’s strategic vision of growth for the organization.

“URI is building on its programmatic areas, facilities, and assets as we continue to innovate and provide the highest quality service to our clients,” said Nathaniel Fields, Chief Executive Officer of URI. “We are pleased to welcome Nicole Lazarre and Deepal Chadha to our team, where their extensive experience will provide enhanced legal capacity to support this dynamic organizational growth.”

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eGirl Power Awards Awake Security CEO’s Gender Equality Activism

eGirl Power has chosen to honor Rahul Kashyap, CEO of Awake Security, at the PIFA Awards Masquerade Virtual Gala for his activism in making STEM jobs more accessible to young girls.

Rahul Kashyap, CEO of Awake Security
Rahul Kashyap, CEO of Awake Security, will be honored by eGirl Power at the PIFA Awards Masquerade Virtual Gala. (Image credit: Fortune)

eGirl Power is hosting the “PIFA Awards Masquerade Virtual Gala” in February 2021 to honor Rahul Kashyap, CEO of Awake Security and launch their 501c3 nonprofit organization’s newest programs that align and work towards advancing the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These programs include: Leadership & Mentorship, Cybersecurity & STEM, and Mi9 Agenda 2030, The Rise of Ms. Direction. All of eGirl Power’s program goals aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education opportunities for all, and to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls.

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Olivia Wells: Quality Support for Women Survivors in Conflict Zones

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Olivia Wells, Director of Programs and Communications for Nadia’s Initiative, a nonprofit founded by Nadia Murad that supports “community-driven and survivor-centric sustainable development programs.” 

Olivia Wells, courtesy of Olivia Wells

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession? 

Bureaucracy; you learn about it in school, and you begin to see it when you enter the workforce but you don’t realize how many bureaucratic impediments there are to humanitarian work until you’re in the thick of it. You naively think that at the end of the day, we all want the same thing – to help those most vulnerable – so we should streamline processes to get those in need the help they deserve as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. The humanitarian sector is still saturated with top-down approaches to development. Many government and private funders insist on funding large organizations like the various UN entities, rather than investing in local NGOs. Local NGOs have a direct line to the communities they serve and are often able to implement projects more efficiently and for less money. These are the organizations we should be investing in.

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