Philanthropy Women

After the Forum: How Do We Ensure Results from #GenerationEquality?

This summer saw the return of events around the world dedicated to feminist funding, and chief among them was the annual #GenerationEquality Forum, held online and in Paris from June 3oth to July 2nd.

Topics ranged from progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the pandemic’s impact on women’s empowerment to notes on our progress from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The ultimate attitude of the Forum was one of anticipation and excitement: as the impact of the pandemic lessens around the world, we can look forward to a time of progress toward #GenerationEquality goals and recoup the social losses from COVID-19.

Over the three days of the #GenerationEquality Forum, a combination of fundraising efforts, corporate pledges, nonprofit campaign announcements, and other donations resulted in a total of $40 billion pledged to women and girls.

Gates Divorce Update: If Not Working in Two Years, Bill Gets Foundation

Editor’s Note: The New York Times reports that Bill Gates scores big in the divorce – if he and Melinda cannot work together in two years, he will gain full control of the Foundation, with Melinda receiving additional payouts for her work there.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is destined to be fully under Bill's control in two years if the couple cannot learn to work together. (Image credit: Unsplash) — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation may become fully under Bill’s control in two years if the couple cannot learn to work together. (Image credit: Unsplash)

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates have at times referred to the foundation they established together as their “fourth child.” If over the next two years they can’t find a way to work together following their planned divorce, Mr. Gates will get full custody.

Rajasvini Bhansali: Democratic Future of US Not Guaranteed

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Rajasvini Bhansali, Executive Director of Solidaire Network.

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

I wish I had known to counter any external and internalized messages about individual leadership accomplishments with the recognition that we are deeply interdependent on others for our success. I would have been even more vulnerable and drawn strength from my community and led in a way that created conditions for even greater connectedness amongst different organizations, networks, and alliances. Sometimes I focused on my own team and organization’s needs over all sectoral, movement building and ecosystem level concerns. But if the ecosystem doesn’t thrive then each organism within it also suffers. So as feminist leaders, we have to continuously nurture the whole ecosystem.

Who Gets to be Princess? Art Exhibit Deconstructs Oppression

Editor’s Note: Sometimes art can be restorative and help us, as donors and activists, to see the world in a new light. The following exhibition by Vickie Pierre provides much-needed artistic attention to issues related to women, people of color, and other marginalized communities.

The Divine Feminine Interventions of Vickie Pierre

***Totems For My Sisters (We Are Illuminous!)***, 2019. Latex and metallic paint, metal, resin and wood shelf sconces, wooden ship bookends, decorative plastic wall plaques, Avon glass perfume bottles, plastic foliage, jewelry, silk doll hair, hand-strung beads, shaped MDF panel and vinyl lettering.

Vickie Pierre: Be My Herald of What’s to Come

On View June 9 through September 5 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art Like the town crier in a fractured fairy tale, “Be My Herald of What’s to Come” rings in Vickie Pierre’s premiere solo museum show at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. Grounded in the Arts and Crafts movement, her installations have a storybook feel. A fractured fairy tale is, after all, a new twist on an old story, reimagined and restructured for a contemporary sensibility. Just as fractured fairytales can be more subversive than the traditional fables, the playfulness and whimsical flourishes of Pierre’s assemblages are underscored by her pull towards the beautifully grotesque.

Sonal Sachdev Patel: Read This Post, Then Get Some Rest

Editor’s Note: The following essay from Sonal Sachdev Patel, CEO of God My Silent Partner Foundation, discusses the poor quality of life that many professionals in the nonprofit sector live with, and ways to improve that quality of life.

We live in a society that too often equates money with power – and there are very few people with more money than MacKenzie Scott.

Sonal Sachdev Patel, CEO of God My Silent Partner Foundation. (Image credit: GMSP)

That’s why I was delighted to read her latest Medium post in which she makes the case for philanthropists getting more done by ceding power and getting out of the way.

That is, providing long-term, unrestricted funding to high-impact nonprofit organizations so they can get on with the important work of making positive change.

Ms. Foundation Welcomes Rene Redwood and Four New Board Members

The Ms. Foundation welcomes Rene Redwood, Gwen Chapman, Charline Gipson, Diane Manuel, and Pamela Shifman to its Board of Directors.

The Ms. Foundation has announced the return of Rene Redwood (bottom left) and the addition of Diane Manuel (top center), Charline Gipson (top right), Gwen Chapman (bottom center) and Pamela Shifman (bottom right) to its Board of Directors. (Image credits: Ms. Foundation for Women)

Today, the Ms. Foundation for Women announced the return of Rene Redwood and Gwen Chapman, Charline Gipson, Diane Manuel, and Pamela Shifman as new members of its distinguished Board of Directors. These additions bring background in finance along with expertise in environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG) through the lens of gender and race equity.

Co-Impact Announces Launch of New One Billion for The Gender Fund

Editor’s Note: The following announcement is from Olivia Leland, founder of Co-Impact, and the Co-Impact team.

Co-Impact has announced the launch of a new fund, The Gender Fund, to focus grantmaking on gender equality and women’s leadership. (Image credit: Co-Impact on Twitter)

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Partners,

As we begin the Generation Equality Forum, a key moment and platform to lay out joint agendas and commitments to action around gender equality, we have a chance to do something truly transformative – to be catalytic to a degree not previously possible and to re-imagine a world that serves all people equally.

That is why I am so excited to write to you today to announce the development of Co-Impact’s second fund – the Gender Fund – which seeks to raise and grant US $1 billion over the next decade to accelerate progress towards gender equality and advance women’s leadership.

How is New York Women’s Fdn Supporting Underserved Communities?

The New York Women’s Foundation has given nearly $3M in grants to organizations helping underserved communities post-pandemic.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 14: The group Developing Artists performs onstage during the 32nd Anniversary Celebrating Women Breakfast at Marriott Marquis on May 14, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The — NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 14: The group Developing Artists performs onstage during the 32nd Anniversary Celebrating Women Breakfast at Marriott Marquis on May 14, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The New York Women’s Foundation)

On June 28th, The New York Women’s Foundation announced almost $3 million in grants reflecting the organization’s fundamental strategy of early and long-term investment in community-rooted organizations led by women and gender expansive people addressing critical issues in underinvested communities. The Foundation’s latest round of grants are critically important to women, gender expansive people and their families in a post-COVID reality. The Foundation is charging ahead and bolstering investments in advancing racial equity, ending mass incarceration in New York City, increasing economic stability for low-income families, and eliminating gender-based violence.

Chiefly Female Healthcare Jobs Get Boost from Goodwill and Anthem

If this last year taught us anything, it’s that qualified healthcare workers are needed now more than ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare industry is expected to add 2.4 million new jobs, which is more than any other occupational group. And as we know, healthcare jobs are predominantly held by women, with women representing about 76% of healthcare professionals.

As we recover from the pandemic in America, Goodwill is teaming with the Anthem Foundation to introduce Rising Together and the Goodwill Healthcare CareerLaunch.

The Rising Together coalition will use its combined hiring strength to support the holistic needs of job seekers, from providing essential transportation and broadband access to offering training opportunities and job search skills. (**Image Credit:** Goodwill)

The Anthem Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Anthem, Inc., focuses on funding critical initiates that improve lives and communities. Anthem is committing $750,000 for providing the necessary resources and training needed for individuals interested in working in the healthcare industry. The program is part of the new Rising Together coalition, which gives people support to access healthcare jobs that will lead to sustaining careers.

How Desai Foundation has Shifted Now for the COVID Crisis in India

When last we spoke with Megha Desai of the Desai Foundation, it felt like the sky was the limit. But like so much else during the pandemic, critical need forced the Foundation to pivot away from their ambitious campaign goals around mask-making, and toward medical aid on the ground.

Like so many other nonprofit organizations, the Desai Foundation has been prompted to learned unexpected (but no less impactful) lessons during COVID. When one door closes, another opens, right? The Desai Foundation, however, also decided to build new doors.

Pivoting from Mask-Making to Other Areas of COVID Response in India

At the beginning of the pandemic, Megha Desai hoped to create a “Masks of Hope” campaign in India and the United States. The plan was to transition the Foundation’s production machines, ordinarily used to manufacture inexpensive menstrual hygiene products for communities in India, into mask manufacturing tools. Once the technique and designs were honed, the plan was to bring those machines back to the United States, bolstering the supplies of PPE moving to first responders and essential workers.