Research Archives

A Bloody Problem: Dominika Kulczyk on Ending Period Poverty

A bloody problem: period poverty, why we need to end it and how to do it

Dominika Kulczyk launches new report on period poverty and joins a group of world-class philanthropists as part of a partnership with Founders Pledge

Kulczyk Foundation and Founders Pledge launch first-ever report on effective funding recommendations to address period poverty
Dominika Kulczyk, a Polish philanthropist and businesswoman, provided seed funding for the pioneering report and calls upon the international community to unite efforts and commit to ending period poverty
Report finds lack of developed and existing evidence base in the field on the most effective interventions to address period poverty
Eight organisations including Days for Girls and Irise International highlighted as best practice

[15 October 2020, London / Warsaw] – Kulczyk Foundation, a Polish private family foundation, and Founders Pledge, a community of entrepreneurs committed to finding and funding solutions to global challenges, have launched a new report on period poverty. A bloody problem: period poverty, why we need to end it and how to do it – which reviews the current state of funding and solutions to ending period poverty – finds that there is no unified approach to data collection, fundraising or implementation of period poverty programmes.

Six Anti-Choice Companies Called Out by Feminist Campaign

New Corporate Accountability Campaign Puts Six Major Companies On Notice For Anti-Choice Political Giving

The #ReproReceipts Campaign by UltraViolet Highlights Hypocrisy in Corporate America and Calls for Accountability at AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber

(October 2, 2020) WASHINGTON, DC — Today, UltraViolet announced a new campaign to hold six corporations accountable for their political giving to anti-choice, anti-women candidates and calls on them to end their support for such politicians entirely and to commit to investing in reproductive health and justice. AT&T, Coca Cola, Disney, Nike, Procter & Gamble and Uber all target female consumers and promote women-friendly work environments, yet they bankroll candidates who actively work against women’s rights.

PACs and Others Join to Defend Women Leaders from Fake News

As many of us know too well, we are living in a time when disinformation can kill you. Disinformation can also derail strong campaigns for leadership during an election season. In the case of our current political climate, there is great need for funders to step into the breach and defend news and information so that voters can make informed decisions.

Kamala Harris has already been the target of racist and sexist attacks this campaign season. The Women’s Disinformation Defense Project will spend $20 million to defend Harris and other candidates from baseless attacks. (Image Credit: Biden on Twitter)

To that end, I was thrilled to hear about a new project called the Women’s Disinformation Defense Project, which will work extra hard to defend our women and people of color candidates from being shredded mercilessly by fake news in the next 5 weeks. Convened by UltraViolet, the project is being dubbed a new “war room” that is creating and disseminating journalism that will counter the disinformation being targeted to voters.

Ensuring “Post-Traumatic Growth” for Women in The COVID Economy

Editor’s Note: The following dialogue is between Dr. Diandra J. Prescod, associate professor and program coordinator of counselor education at the University of Connecticut, and Erin Milroy, president of Kuder, Inc., an award-winning career guidance solutions provider. Their exchange offers perspectives on how to prepare and support American workers, particularly women, as we deal with COVID and its economic and social impacts.

With millions displaced due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, America’s workforce, and American families from all walks of life, have been hit hard.

*Dr. Diandra J. Prescod, associate professor and program coordinator of counselor education at the University of Connecticut*. (Image Credit: Diandra J. Prescod)

Many women and men have been laid off or furloughed by their employers and have been forced to seek employment elsewhere, re-entering what is one of the most difficult climates since the Great Depression. Other households continue to struggle to find daily work-life balance, a dilemma made worse for those who, amidst social distancing measures to avoid infection, have been faced with unprecedented challenges, such as homeschooling their children during their workdays.

WPI Receives $1.9 Million Gates Grant for Women’s Giving Research

The Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy is partnering with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on a new nearly two million dollar grant whose goal is to “advance actionable, global research on women’s giving to inform and equip donors and nonprofits.”

Jeannie Sager, Director, Women’s Philanthropy Institute
Photo Credit: Women’s Philanthropy Institute

The funding will fuel WPI’s ongoing research on domestic and global women’s giving, and empower organizations, donors and fundraisers to put these research insights into practice. Since 2015, WPI has conducted research on gender and philanthropy that helps inform the foundation’s Giving By All initiative, which is focused on growing giving and helping donors give more effectively and strategically.

Liveblog of WPI: How Giving Circles Diversify Philanthropy

On July 16, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute hosted a live Q&A with Sara Lomelin of Philanthropy Together, to discuss the ways philanthropy can be democratized, empowered, and fueled by diversity. In light of current pressing issues like the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19, WPI and Philanthropy Together seek to answer the question, “How can giving circles transform the future of trust-based giving?”

Image Credit: **WPI and Philanthropy Together**

WPI Director Jeannie Sager kicked off the conversation by encouraging the participants to share their locations – people chimed in from all over the US and beyond.

Sager introduced the concept: “For too long, philanthropy has been seen as an exclusive club. Yet today, our country is experiencing a drastic reckoning… Who is called a philanthropist?”

Crisis Fundraising for Nonprofits: Training Course Begins July 24!

So far, 2020 has thrown a lot at nonprofits. This unprecedented year has been full of crisis, conflict, and budget crunching, and many social change organizations have had to scramble to pull together funds simply to keep their doors open. In Fundraising During A Crisis, a twelve-week course from Wright Consulting Group, Alyssa Wright and her team hope to arm nonprofit leaders with the skills they need to successfully raise funds in the midst of uncertainty.

Through “Fundraising During A Crisis,” Alyssa Wright and her team will arm nonprofit professionals with the skills and tools they need to successfully raise money during unprecedented times. (**Image Credit:** Alyssa F. Wright)

“Fundraising During A Crisis is a online 12-week course that includes an analysis of the current philanthropic landscape, a check-in for fundraisers as to how they measure their success and who they want to become as purpose-driven professionals, and time to connect with guest speakers who you wouldn’t normally see as part of the development field,” says Wright, Founder of Wright Consulting Group. “It’s a really important program because it teaches nonprofit leaders how to adapt to ever-changing circumstances and also, what to value and how to measure their success during this very uncertain time.”

Ms. Foundation: Donors Must Step Up for Women and Girls of Color

As feminist giving strategies have evolved, an awareness about intersectional factors for women and girls of color has grown. With that growth has come bold new imperatives to earmark funding specifically for women and girls of color, in order to ensure maximum impact. Now, Ms. Foundation for Women and Strength in Numbers Consulting Group (SiNCG) have come out with research that gives more information about how these intersectional strategies are progressing and where they stand in relation to the rest of philanthropy.

“*Pocket Change–How Women and Girls of Color Do More With Less*” examines the funding crisis for organizations that serve, are led by, or are founded by women and girls of color. (**Image Credit:** Ms. Foundation/Strength in Numbers Consulting Group)

Pocket Change–How Women and Girls of Color Do More With Less tells us just how little funding women and girls of color receive, and how often their survival is threatened due to this chronic underfunding.

Donors: Support Research on Drug Dosages for Women

Here’s another way inequality has negatively impacted women’s health: incorrect drug dosages. Since most drug trials exclude women, based on false and outdated beliefs, drug dosages are set to work for men, not women. As a result, women take higher than needed doses of many medications, and suffer more adverse side effects.

Women metabolize medications differently from men, resulting in many women being overmedicated and suffering more adverse side effects. (Image Credit: Biology of Sex Differences)

Donors who are working at the intersection of gender equality and women’s health should take heed of new research published in Biology of Sex Differences that found that “The common practice of prescribing equal drug doses to women and men neglects sex differences in pharmacokinetics and dimorphisms in body weight, risks overmedication of women, and contributes to female-biased adverse drug reactions.”

Going On the Record to Fight for Gender Equality

With COVID-19 dominating news feeds, it’s more important than ever before to keep our attention on movements like #MeToo and the fight for gender equality. The music industry, like many male-dominated fields, is rife with stories of harassment and assault. And the disconcerting trend we see over and over in cases of sexual assault pops up in the music industry, too: the silence of women scared that speaking up will mean losing their careers.

From left to right: Sil Lai Abrams, Drew Dixon and Sheri Hines attending Sundance Film Festival, Park City, USA – 26 Jan 2020. (**Image Credit:** *Photo by Katie Jones/Variety/Shutterstock*)

Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick seek to break this mold in On the Record, an intense and poignant account of one woman’s fight to tell her story. Drew Dixon, formerly a music executive at Def Jam Recordings and Arista Records, is one of the first women of color to speak up publicly about sexual assault at the hands of a prominent industry giant. On the Record tells her story, and those of several other women alleging sexual assault, harassment, or rape by music mogul Russell Simmons.

Category: Research