Charged Up

We’re Charged Up. With the global situation for women’s rights becoming ever more dynamic, we’re charged up about the increasingly acute need for investments in women’s solutions.

We’re charged up about the fact that – despite growing awareness of women’s human rights violations, sparked by stories from Malala’s brave opposition to Taliban restrictions on girls education to the furor over the kidnapping of 270 Nigerian school girls – funding for grassroots women’s organizing remains largely static¹.

We’re also charged up about the possibilities of the exciting initiatives and partnerships we’re investing in. We’re charged up about the potential of our anti-trafficking collaboration in Asia Pacific, about the legislative wins of grantees such as KAFA in Lebanon, and about results of our agriculture initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa – to name just a few.

But we know that being charged up isn’t just about excitement. It’s about plugging into new tools, networks, and strategies. It’s about adapting to changing times. And it’s about the powerful charge we get from being part of a global ecosystem of grantee partners, advisors, women’s funds, donors, and activists around the world.

Turning It Up: Money, Voice, and Movements

In the past year, we made a number of significant changes to get Global Fund for Women charged up for the future – focusing on the power of ‘Money,’ ‘Movements,’ and ‘Voice’. By combining our focus on Money (strategic grantmaking and fundraising) with the strength of Voice (awareness and advocacy) we aim to more rapidly accelerate Movements for women’s human rights. We’re already living into that new ambition in a number of powerful ways:

Money

We’ve focused our grantmaking in three critical areas for women’s human rights: Violence, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Economic and Political Empowerment. This focus allows us to deepen relationships, monitor impact more closely, and strengthen our internal expertise. We’ve combined these changes with a new Crisis Fund so we can respond quickly to the increasingly dynamic environment for women’s rights groups on the ground. The fund has already allowed us to make grants to groups dealing with the repercussions of the conflict in Gaza and the Ebola outbreak. Last year, we awarded 441 grants in 94 countries, totaling $7.36 million.

Voice

In March 2014 we merged with the International Museum of Women (IMOW), an online platform for digital storytelling and awareness-raising, to energize our advocacy and become a more powerful voice for women’s human rights. By combining IMOW’s multimedia talent with Global Fund’s campaigning skills and global networks, we’ve already seen significant returns – from our Imagining Equality project to our successful campaign to improve care for women raped in conflict. As a result of the merger and our high-voltage campaigns, our audience has doubled in the past year, now numbering 130,000 Twitter followers, 150,000 Facebook fans, and nearly 90,000 on our email list. Our numbers of supporters, donors, and activists grow every day, providing a vital current of resources, voices, and energy.

Movements

We know that strong grassroots movements are the most powerful guarantee of long term shifts in women’s human rights, so funding, amplifying, connecting, and sustaining those movements at different stages is at the center of our work. In 2013, 83% of our grantees contributed to building the women’s movement in their region or country as a primary result of our engagement with them. Increasingly, our work creates networks, skills, and connections within and between movements, as well as much-needed financial resources and voice.

Powering Up for the Future

As we move into the future, we’re proud to be part of a global ecosystem for women’s and girls’ human rights, bringing our high-powered skills as a creative, vocal, and bold women’s fund.

In the year ahead, we’ll be putting our ‘Money, Movement, Voice’ strategy into practice, and living into our new ambition to be not only a global grantmaker and a builder of movements, but also an advocate and thought-leader on critical women’s human rights issues worldwide.

We also move into the coming year with a number of exciting efforts:

AmplifyChange

A new fund for sexual and reproductive health and rights, managed by MannionDaniels in partnership with Global Fund for Women and African Women’s Development Fund². The fund will award 15 million euros over two years to civil society organizations working on issues such as the sexual health of young people, especially girls, and on ending child marriage, gender-based violence, and female genital cutting.

Technology

A new Global Fund for Women campaign and a new fund focused on the critical relationship between gender equality and access to – and control of – technology. We kicked off this work in November 2014 with the launch of IGNITE, an eight month long multimedia project and campaign.

Agile Grantmaking and Advocacy

We will strengthen our grantmaking and advocacy in crisis situations. When women’s rights are threatened, Global Fund for Women will be faster to respond, to invest and to broadcast the voices of women on the ground.

We’re Charged Up for a global change in women’s human rights. Are you?

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