Gender Fund Announcement

Co-Impact is excited to announce the development of our second fund – the Gender Fund – to accelerate progress towards gender equality and women’s leadership.

Our new Fund aims to raise and deploy US $1 billion over the next decade to support predominantly women-led Global South organizations with the large, unrestricted, long-term, and flexible funding needed to transform systems to be more just and inclusive, advance women’s power, agency and leadership at all levels and shift harmful gender norms that prevent progress.

Our ambition is that in 10 years:

• More than 100 million people will have better healthcare, quality education, and opportunity to work and thrive – regardless of gender, ethnicity, caste, or race.
• There will be more women leading at all levels from the household and community to institutions and government, influencing decisions that affect their communities and society.
• Perceptions and norms about women’s roles will be challenged and shifted.

The initial group of philanthropists and foundations who are coming together to make this possible include: the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation, MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, Melinda French Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, and Thankyou Charitable Trust. We’re also delighted to be working with Tsitsi Masiyiwa and the African Philanthropy Forum to bring together a group of philanthropists from across Africa, and with Vidya Shah and EdelGive Foundation on a similar model to support this work in India. In addition, we are partnering with The Philanthropy Workshop to bring additional learning and engagement opportunities to our community of funders.

We continue to invite and welcome other funders to join us as we make our way towards the official launch later in the year.

Increasing collaborative funding for large-scale impact has always been an important objective for Co-Impact, and the core of our grant-making is in support of systems change initiatives that have the potential to scale and transform the lives of millions. This fund will continue this work, bringing significant resources to a historically underfunded space and paving the way towards more equitable, longer-term, flexible funding led by the needs of the individuals and organizations driving progress across the Global South.

Our grants will support a wide range of organizations working to advance gender equality in 6-8 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Sourcing for the first round of grants will open later in the year; 100% of country-level grants will be awarded to organizations based in the Global South, of which at least 75% will be led by women. Our focus areas include health, education, and economic opportunity, and the professional domains of law and economics.

This work would not be possible without feminist movements and organizations that continue to play a significant role in achieving catalytic change for gender equality and in holding institutions and governments accountable. Over the next 2-3 years, the Fund will provide US $10 million to feminist groups and movements across the Global South who are critically positioned to deliver this vision. Over the next 10 years, this amount will grow to at least US $100 million (10% of the fund) as we reach our funding goals.

This fund builds on the extensive work of our existing program partners who continue to demonstrate how integral gender is to achieving sustainable systems change, as well as the guidance of the many leaders who have informed our thinking over the last year. These include representatives of predominantly Global South women’s rights organizations and women’s funds, feminist activists and scholars, and cross-sector experts, donors and practitioners working at all levels. Their wisdom and guidance have been fundamental to the fund’s development and continues to inform and strengthen our programmatic approach. A report on the findings from our year-long consultation process with the gender community can be found here.

We are delighted that Laura Garcia, Theo Sowa, Rebeca Gyumi, Mabel van Oranje, Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Crystal Simeoni, and Lakshmi Sundaram will be joining an advisory group to guide the continued development of the Fund in the lead up to launch.

We thank all our partners, funders, advisors, and all those who have helped us get to this point. We look forward to moving forward in collaboration and community with you all as we make our way towards the official launch later in the year.

Introducing the Gender Fund, watch our video here.

Contact [email protected] for more information