Pivotal Ventures announced this week that $40 million in funding has been awarded as part of its Equality Can’t Wait Challenge that was established last year by Pivotal Ventures in partnership with MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. The Challenge is managed by Lever For Change that oversees the ambitious goal of creating a more equal America for women of all backgrounds.
Over 550 ideas were reviewed to find the top few with the greatest potential to expand women’s power and influence in the U.S. Four awardees who will receive $10 million each rose above all other proposals that came from all across the U.S. Submissions were made by girls in high school, highly accomplished wome and innovators in finance, education, technology, climate, and more.
Seeking breakthrough solutions for gender equality, the Challenge chose the following award winners:
The Building Women’s Equality through Strengthening the Care Infrastructure, an advocacy coalition bringing together a community to demand caregiving solutions that meet the needs of today’s families,
The Changing the Face of Tech project, Ada Developers Academy, seeking to expand its tuition-free coding bootcamp for women and gender-diverse adults. Their attendees’ double their starting salaries and supports greater participation by women in technology,
Project Accelerate, led by Girls Inc., taking on corporate leadership by expanding its programming to help girls make successful transitions from high school to college and into their career, and,
The Future is Indigenous Womxn, focusing on Native women entrepreneurs who have historically been denied access to capital that is critical for them to start and grow their businesses. They will provide entrepreneurs with funding and training grounded in Indigenous matriarchal cultures.
The awardees reflect a diverse universe of breakthrough solutions that will give greater roles to women by helping them reach key decision-making positions, influencing the control of resources and shaping policies and views in their homes, workplaces, and communities. Pivotal Ventures and its partners commit to funding innovative solutions that move all women forward.
The Challenge aligns with Melinda French Gates’s long time support of women. “The overwhelming response to the Challenge proves there’s no shortage of transformational ideas about how to accelerate progress for women and girls. The next step is to make sure those game-changing ideas get the support they need to become fully realized and improve people’s lives. We can break the patterns of history and advance gender equality, but we must commit to lifting up organizations, like the ones receiving awards today, that are ready to lift up women and girls.”
Two additional finalists received recognition and funding given the intense competition of great ideas that were presented: FreeFrom’s A Call to Action: Holding Society Accountable for Intimate Violence, a project to economically empower survivors of intimate partner violence and IGNITE’s Training Next Gen Women to Flex Their Political Power, which will help young women express their political power as voters, activists, policymakers, and candidates.
The soon-to-be launch of Equality Can’t Wait Challenge Idea Lab will keep a spotlight on the outstanding projects that have been vetted.
Projecting that the work for equality is just starting, the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge and the new Idea Lab are spurring greater participation in women’s causes through its unrelenting focus on gender equality, moving past studies on gender inequality, and by providing critical resources that will bring about solutions sooner.
Pivotal Ventures in its funding and partnering efforts seeks to extend the power of women to make meaningful change.
Learn more about Melinda French Gates Advocates Gender Equality in the Post-Pandemic World, Foundation to Fund $2.1 Billion
