$40M gender equality fund by Gates, Scott announce finalists

A gender equality philanthropic initiative spearheaded by Melinda Gates’ investment company, with support from MacKenzie Scott, has announced 10 project finalists for $40 million in funding slated to be awarded this summer.

The Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, which is hosted by Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, said Monday, on International Women’s Day, that the finalists include women-led projects aiming to support victims of domestic violence, increase the influence of Black women in the South using advocacy and double the reporting capacity of The 19th, a news organization reporting on gender, politics and policy.

The challenge was launched in June with the goal of expanding women’s power and influence in the United States by 2030. Gates, who committed $1 billion in 2019 toward advancing gender equality in the U.S., citing the low rates of women in leadership positions, said in the announcement of the finalists that solutions towards gender equality require investment.

“Gender inequality isn’t inevitable,” she said, adding that the Equality Can't Wait Challenge “has proven there’s no shortage of actionable ideas to drive progress for women and that donors are willing to meet bold ideas with big resources.”

Three $10 million gifts will be awarded this summer, and another $10 million will be distributed among all the finalists. The funding will particularly enable “Black, Indigenous, and other women of color, to be in positions to make decisions, control resources, and shape policies and perspectives in their homes, workplaces, and communities,” according to Lever for Change, an affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation that manages the challenge.

Erica Barnhart, the director of the Nancy Bell Evans Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the University of Washington, says investing in organizations...