Philanthropy Women

Philanthropy Women Responds to COVID by Going FREE

Right now, what we need more than ever is feminist leadership to get us through the COVID crisis. As a result, Philanthropy Women is glad to be able to offer free registration for the next three months.

That’s why we’re excited to share some BIG NEWS here at Philanthropy Women. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, a generous donor has provided extra support so that we can make registration for Premium Access to Philanthropy Women FREE for the next three months. (Editor’s Note: This special offer is now over.)

At Philanthropy Women, we will be working extra hard to be a resource for the feminist giving community on best practices to get us through the COVID crisis. We will work to generate ideas and share news that will help us make system-wide changes that will address this crisis and prevent future crises of this proportion in the future.

We All Need Mail-in COVID Testing: Sign the Petition

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is working on a mail-in test for COVID-19 that could be available in the next two weeks. When I learned this from a news summary here, my first thought was: why would this mail-in test be restricted by zip code? Why provide this, the safest way to test (without having to go into a health care environment and risk infection) to only a select few? Why not provide it to everyone?

An article in VatorNews alerted me to the potential plans for mail-in COVID testing for Seattle, courtesy of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Image Credit: VatorNews)

According to this article in the Washington Post, these mail-in kits will be scaled up by the Gates Foundation if they are clinically valid.

#SheTransformsTech Launches with Cross Sector Collaboration

On International Women’s Day, World Pulse announced the launch of their new digital impact campaign, #SheTransformsTech. In partnership with the Vodafone Americas Foundation, EQUALS, and a network of other sponsors from the philanthropy and technology worlds, this campaign crowdsources ways women can–and do–shape the future of tech.

“Our goal is to support organizations that are empowering women and girls on a global level,” says June Sugiyama, Director of Vodafone Americas Foundation, a charitable arm of one of the world’s leading telecoms and technology service providers. The Foundation fosters social change in global and local communities, with a focus on empowering women and girls. “This World Pulse initiative is a great example of how we can rally voices on this important issue.”

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.

ReflectUS Hires New CEO to Increase Women in Texas Politics

ReflectUS, the nonpartisan coalition of the nation’s leading women’s representation organizations, is pleased to announce the hire of Tiffany Gardner as the coalition’s new CEO.

Tiffany Gardner has been appointed as CEO of ReflectUS. (Image Credit: ReflectUS)

“Tiffany’s hire comes at a pivotal moment for the organization, and her leadership will help us capitalize on the heightened civic engagement of a presidential election year and advance the number of women in public office across America,” says Madalene Mielke, ReflectUS Board of Directors Chair and CEO of Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS).

Tiffany brings a decade of extensive international experience in human rights advocacy and domestic public interest. She has worked on women’s rights, human rights and grassroots organizing throughout Africa, Southeast Asia, and the United States. She worked with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the United Nations International Law Commission and Human Rights Watch and recently was the co-founder and director of the One World Exchange Program for under-represented U.S. college students and organized international solidarity coalitions. She is a former Mergers & Acquisitions associate at the New York law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. She received a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a LL.M. in human rights law from Columbia University Law School.

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.

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