360,000 Women die during pregnancy and childbirth; 14 million adolescent girls become mothers every year. Women represent nearly two thirds of the world’s illiterate, 31 million girls are still out of school around the world, The completion rates and learning levels of girls are lower than those of boys, Participation of girls in school decreases as they progress through the education system, Too many girls in developing countries are still shut out of school, denying them their fundamental right to education.
More educated women tend to be healthier, work and earn more income, have fewer children, and provide better health care and education to their children. Girls’ education literally saves millions of lives, according to UNICEF.
As there are thousands of non-government organizations focusing on Women and Girls, there are hundreds of donor organizations supporting the projects for improving the lives of women and girls and securing their human rights for a better world free of discrimination and towards the end to poverty and hunger. Here is a list of 20 Donors supporting the causes for women.
Re-published from https://www.fundsforngos.org
Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights
Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights is a global women’s fund that protects, strengthens and sustains women and transgender human rights defenders at critical moments. The fund supports Women Human Rights defenders throughout the world. Mission of the fund is to support women’s human rights defenders striving to create cultures of justice, equality and peace. For the purpose, UAF partners with women’s movements worldwide.
Urgent Action Fund builds the resilience of women’s rights and LGBT rights movements in three ways:
- Rapid Response Grant-making– Award rapid response grants to women and transgender human rights defenders in Asia, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and North America. Activists can apply for grants of up to $5000.
- Advocacy & Alliance-Building– Advocate for women and transgender human rights defenders.
- Global Consortium of Urgent Action Funds– Together with Urgent Action Fund-Africa and Urgent Action Fund-Latin America, the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights support women and girls’ activism globally.
Areas of Interest
- Women Human Rights
- LGBTI
- Disability
- Education
- Environment
- IndigenousCommunities
- Peace & Conflict Resolution
Focus Countries – Czech Republic, Georgia, India, Iraq, Serbia, United States
Link: http://urgentactionfund.org/
United Nations Foundation
The United Nations (UN) Foundation believes that empowering women and girls with educational and economic opportunities and securing their health and human rights is one of the best investments we can make for families, communities, and the world. It works with NGO, corporate and government partners to promote gender equality; advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (including family planning); advocate for increased resources and funding for programs and activities benefitting adolescent girls; eliminate gender-based violence; combat climate change; and improve maternal health care using integrated health systems and mobile technology.
The UN Foundation has designed different challenges, solutions and projects with the vision that All girls, no matter where they live, have the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, counted and positioned to be the next generation of leaders.
The Foundation mobilizes results-driven and entrepreneurial partnerships with scientists, foundations, membership organizations, and faith communities to make a difference in the important work the UN does across a broad range of issues. It provides the platform for international cooperation at the time of challenges such as climate change, disease or poverty.
The UN Foundation is dedicated to reducing childhood mortality from disease, advocating for the rights of women and girls, improving disaster relief, creating a clean energy future, and ensuring a strong, well-funded UN.
Areas of Interest
- Women’s Empowerment
- Poverty Alleviation
- Global Health
- Peaceand Security
- Climate Change
- Energy Access
- US-UN relations
Women, Girls and Population Priorities
- Strengthening Capacity
- Promoting Reproductive Health
- Investing in Adolescent Girls
- Women’s Economic Empowerment
- Council of Women World Leaders
Focus Countries – UN Member Countries.
Link: http://www.unfoundation.org/
ANESVAD
ANESVAD supports universal access to sexual and reproductive health. It works for the improvement of sexual and reproductive health in the poorest areas and regions of the countries in which it intervene with a firm consideration that every woman has the right to receive appropriate services that promote safe pregnancies and deliveries.
ANESVAD is an independent, non-denominational, non-governmental development organization dedicated to promote and safeguard health as a fundamental human right. The organization targets the most vulnerable populations, women, children / as, indigenous, people without access to health or difficulty achieving this right. ANESVAD partners with people and local entities in its focus regions to defend and promote the right to health.
Areas of Intervention
- Promote Right to Health
- Combat Sexual and Labor exploitation of Children in areas of Illegal Mining
- Women, Health and Rights
The Right to Health as Fundamental Right
- Every individual around the world should have access to health care. For it there must be establishment of health service in the region.
- The provided health service must meet quality standards and ensure patient satisfaction.
- The health service establishment must be accessible with no physical barrier. No discrimination of service.
- The service must be acceptable and respectful manner with the traditions of the local people.
Focus Regions – Asia, Africa, Latin America
Link: http://www.anesvad.org/en/
International Development Exchange
Empowering women, the most effective way of fighting poverty, is central to the mission of International Development Exchange (IDEX). It exists to effect systemic change, shift unequal power dynamics, influence giving to adopt egalitarian practices, balance learning between the global south and north, and facilitate connections.
IDEX goes to the most remote and neglected places and finds organizations that don’t yet have the kind of funding they need, but have enough internal structures and potential to grow. IDEX works in solidarity with activists in the developing world; embraces humility and cultural sensitivity so the Global North can learn from and join forces with the local leaders who have championed social change.
IDEX also identifies, evaluates, and grows the best ideas to alleviate poverty & injustice, connecting passionate and engaged supporters to visionary local leaders & organizations around the world.
Areas of Interest
- Women’s Empowerment
- Local Economics
- Environmental Justice
Since 1985, IDEX has supported more than 500 grassroots, community-led projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Annually, IDEX’s partners serve approximately 1.2 million people in impoverished communities, including marginalized women, small farmers, indigenous communities, low-income urban residents, sexual and ethnic minorities, and youth.
Focus Countries – Guatemala, India, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Link: http://www.idex.org/
IKEA Foundation
IKEA Foundation funds programs run by large and small organizations around the world. One of the funding areas of IKEA is women empowerment. IKEA believes that women can be the most important catalysts for change in their children’s lives. By empowering women-through education, skills training, improved healthcare, or providing a loan to set up a small business-we can improve children’s health, education and future opportunities.
Program Areas
- Better lives for refugee children and families
- Fighting the root causes of child labor and promoting children’s rights.
Priorities
- Creating Higher Household Incomes
- Changing Attitudes
- Improving access to Higher Education
- Developing Literacy Skills
- Improving Healthcare
In the year 2013, IKEA donated €101 million. Majorly focused on Children, the foundation’s mission is to create substantial and lasting change by funding holistic, long-term programs in some of the world’s poorest communities that address children’s fundamental needs- home, health, education and a sustainable family income.
Focus Countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, Sudan
Link: http://www.ikeafoundation.org/
Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation is working with visionary leaders and organizations to change social structures and institutions so that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full potential and have a voice in decisions that affect them. Ford Foundation commits to social justice.
Areas of Interest
- Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Justice
- Human Rights
- Educational Opportunity and Scholarship
- Economic Fairness
- Freedom of Expression
- Democratic and Accountable Government
- Sustainable Development
- Metropolitan Opportunity
The gender focused program area of Ford Foundation is dedicated to strengthening sexual and reproductive health and rights, and encouraging comprehensive sexuality education and evidence-based public discourse on sexuality. The Foundation supports sexual and reproductive health policies, innovative programs and research that address the social, cultural and economic factors that undermine improved outcomes for girls and women. The efforts particularly focus on young women from poor and excluded communities because they bear the greatest burden of violence and disease.
Gender, Sexuality and Reproductive Justice
- Advancing LGBT Rights
- Promoting Reproductive Rights and the Right to Sexual Health
- Protecting Women’s Rights
- Reducing HIV/AIDS Discrimination and Exclusion
- Supporting Sexuality Research
- YouthSexuality, Reproductive Health, and Rights
Focus Countries – Brazil, China, Colombia, Egypt, El Salvador, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Zimbabwe
Link: https://www.fordfoundation.org/
Nike Foundation
Nike Foundation invests on adolescent girls. The foundation believes that the 250 million girls living in poverty can play a crucial role in solving the most persistent development problems facing the world today. The foundation states “When a girl in the developing world is enabled to realize her full potential, she isn’t the only one who escapes poverty. She brings her family, community and country with her.”
Areas of Interest
- Adolescent Girls
- Women
- Poverty Alleviation
Nike foundation has a movement titled ‘Girl Effect’. This is a movement about leveraging the unique potential of adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves, their families, their communities, their countries and the world. It’s about making girls visible and changing their social and economic dynamics by providing them with specific, powerful and relevant resources. The girl effect is fuelled by hundreds of thousands of girl champions who recognize the untapped potential of adolescent girls living in poverty. The Girl Declaration is a call to action to put girls at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda.
Focus Countries – Belgium, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Paraguay, Rwanda, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia
Link: http://about.nike.com/pages/community-impact
Mama Cash
Each year, Mama Cash supports about 100 courageous groups, organizations, networks and women’s funds that are led by women, girls and trans people. The supported projects focus on injustices that would otherwise go unnoticed, that need to be challenged and that demand courage and vision to change. They build upon strategic opportunities to bring about change at the community, national, regional and global level.
In 2013 alone, Mama Cash supported 118 activist women’s, girls’ and trans groups with a total of 4,3 million Euros. Mama Cash provides both financial and non-financial support to women’s, girls’ and trans rights organizations worldwide.
Mama Cash supports grantees with more than money. The process is called accompaniment and includes providing and facilitating trainings, asking questions that help grantees link their activities to long-term objectives and connecting grantees to each other and to other funders.
Areas of Interest
- Women
- LGBTI
- Human Rights
Focus Countries – Developing and Developed Countries
Link: http://www.mamacash.org/
Summit Foundation
The Summit Foundation is committed to a world where people can thrive and nature can flourish—a world in which one is not sacrificed for the other. The Foundation seeks to promote the health and well-being of the planet – its people and its natural environment – by achieving a sustainable global population, protecting the earth’s biodiversity and making cities livable.
Areas of Interest
- Girls Empowerment
- Nature Conservation
- Sustainable Cities
Summit Foundation empowers marginalized girls by transforming their social, reproductive and economic lives. Summit Foundation holds the belief that focusing on women is beneficial in diverse ways – economies will grow, poverty rates will decline, health indicators of women and children will improve and the environment will benefit. For Summit, empowering girls will demand continued focus on ASRH and supporting youth leadership, but with greater attention to gender equality.
Priority Areas
- Ensure Health Services Access
- Provide Sexuality Education
- Enable the Continuation of Education
- Provide Linkages to Economic Opportunities
- Eliminate Gender Discrimination
- Provide Youth Community Spaces
- End Child Marriage
Focus Countries – Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, United States
Link: http://www.summitfoundation.org
Global Partnership for Education
The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a multilateral partnership devoted to getting all children into school for a quality education in the world’s poorest countries.
Areas of Interest
- Girls Education
- Children – Out of School Children, Early Grade Reading, Numeracy, Learning Outcomes, Teachers, Children with Disabilities, Early Childhood Care and Education
- Conflict-affected and Fragile States
The Global Partnership works to ensure that more girls enroll in school and receive a good quality education. GPE wants all girls in GPE-endorsed countries to successfully complete primary school and go on to secondary school in a safe, supportive, learning environment. GPE focuses on educating girls because it believes that with a quality education, girls can make informed choices, improving their country’s social and economic well-being by promoting the health and welfare of the next generation.
Priority
- Increase genderparity and enrollment overall
- Provide strong incentives, technical and financial support to developing country partners, to include gender strategies in their education plans
- Support the enrollment of out-of-school girls into primary school
- Ensure that girls make the crucial transition from primary to secondary school
Focus Countries – Developing Countries
Link: http://www.globalpartnership.org/
Abilis Foundation
Abilis Foundation was established in 1998 with having mission to contribute toward equal opportunities for disabled people in society through human rights, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. Special priority is given to projects on advocating for human rights of disabled people and to activities developed and implemented by disabled women.
Areas of Interest:
- Women & Gender
- Children
- Disability
- Human Rights
- Livelihood
Current Projects:
- Creating self-employment for the women with disabilities – Bangladesh
- Working together for Inclusive education– Tajikistan
- Voices of Women with Disabilities at CEDAW – India
- Advanced Level Vocational Training Sewing and Cutting to Women with Disabilities – Nepal
- Economic Empowerment of Deaf Women in Ghana– Ghana
- Literacy Programme for the Empowerment of Women with Disabilities – Ethiopia
- Identification and development of leadership skills among women with disabilities
Target Countries: Developing Countries
Link: http://www.abilis.fi/index.php?lang=en
ActionAid Denmark
ActionAid Denmark (Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke) is an associations with 70 years of experience aims to reduce poverty, mobilize and educate women and young people to hold their governments and decision -makers accountable for delivering public service and to keep within the public budgets. ActionAid Denmark also promotes understanding and dialogue between people.
Areas of Interest:
- Women & Gender
- Children
- Democracy& Good Governance
- Education
- Environment
- Health, Human Rights
- Youth& Adolescents
Target Countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Denmark, DRC, Ethiopia, EU Office, France, Gamba, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda,UK, USA, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Link: https://www.ms.dk/en
Afro-Asian Rural Development Organisation (AARDO)
African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) is a non-political body enjoys observer status with various UN and other international organisations (established in 1962). The major purpose of this organization is to improve the quality of life, restructure their rural societies and to reconstruct the economy of their rural people in the Afro-Asian member countries of AARDO.
Areas of Interest:
- Women’s Empowerment
- Poverty Alleviation
- Sustainable Agricultural Development
- Integrated Rural Development
- Decentralization and Community Empowerment
- Environmentand Climatic Changes in the context of Rural Development
Focus Countries:
Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Liberia, Liby, Malawi, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Zambia
Link: http://www.aardo.org/
Entwicklungshilfe-Klub
Entwicklungshilfe-Klub (Aid for Development Club) major purpose is to improve the condition of women, nutritional situation of people in developing countries and offers opportunity to earn a income.
Thematic areas:
- Women
- Education
- Livelihood
- Livelihood/reconstruction
- Reafforestation
- Bless you
- DisasterRelief
- Children
- Water
Focus Countries: Angola, Bangladesh, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Congo DR, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jordan, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Palestinian Territories, Peru, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Thailand
Link: http://www.eh-klub.at/
Aide et Action
The Aide et Action is an International French NGO established in 1981 which aims to promote social and professional integration of young people belonging to the most disadvantaged backgrounds. This organization builds the skills of teachers, including training, development of appropriate teaching practices and providing educational materials.
The growth in the education of girls and women is the major priority of this organization.
Areas of Interest:
- Girls and women’s education
- Access and quality of education
- Inclusive education
- Sustainable development and global citizen education
- Early childhood
- Healtheducation
- Livelihoodeducation
- Migration
- Emergency and post-emergency
Focus Countries/Region:
- South Asia
- Southeast Asia and China
- Latin America and Caribbean
- Africa
- France
- Switzerland