Media contact: Bilen Mesfin, Change Consulting, 510-681-5978, bilen@change-llc.com
The largest philanthropic network in the world dedicated to women and girls unveils interactive online tool to amplify the stories of women, their families, and their communities.
SAN FRANCISCO – September 20, 2016 – Women’s Funding Network today announced the launch of a new Economic Security Digital Storytelling Platform at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting. The uniquely interactive digital tool seeks to bring attention to a leading challenge facing women in the U.S. and around the world—economic security—and lift up the vital work of women’s foundations that are addressing this issue.
“Worldwide, the face of poverty belongs to women and children; women’s foundations are changing this, community by community,” said Cynthia Nimmo, CEO of the Women’s Funding Network. “The extent of the profound work our partners are doing for women and their families worldwide is clear to us. If we want our communities to thrive, we must ensure the economic security of women.”
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s 2015 Status of Women in the States report, women are now 30 percent more likely than men to live in poverty in the U.S. In 2015, Women’s Funding Network members around the world invested more than $74 million in moving women and their families from poverty to prosperity. To date, investments have supported programs that provided wrap-around services for women and families to gain access to sustainable economic opportunity, promoted policies that advance women’s issues at the local, state, and federal levels, and engaged and trained diverse groups of women in civic participation, among other strategies.
The Economic Security Digital Storytelling Platform is data-driven, yet narrative, evidence of women’s foundations’ ongoing commitment to ensuring women’s economic prosperity. The platform gives users the opportunity to explore the data alongside the powerful stories of the women, the programs, and the organizations making an impact on this issue, breathing life into facts and figures. The responsive and flexible format encourages user engagement and learning by featuring links and downloadable files throughout, as well as links to social media to make these important stories easy to share.
Along with the platform, at the Annual Meeting, Women’s Funding Network also announced its CGI Commitment to Action, joining No Ceilings: The Full Participation Project, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, Vital Voices Global partnership, WEConnect International and a coalition of 30 multi-sector organizations to address significant gender gaps and advance the gender equality targets of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Through its CGI commitment, Women’s Funding Network will promote women’s economic security by fostering connections to good jobs as a catalyst for family and community change. Women’s Funding Network aims to establish a multi-year, multimillion dollar program, Advancing Women in the Workforce, that will work with up to 10 U.S. women’s foundations to get no- and low-income women into secure jobs in the U.S.
“Never before has addressing gender inequality been so integral to global development,” said Nimmo. “The U.N.’s adoption of the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving global gender equity by the year 2030 marks the beginning of a new era for women’s economic security. This is a huge goal, but women’s foundations will continue to rise to the challenge.” Nimmo joined Chelsea Clinton onstage at the CGI Annual Meeting for the announcement of this coalition of work, which will collectively impact the lives of over 900,000 people across more than 60 countries.
The Digital Storytelling Platform is funded by the Walmart Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation, with support from Dallas Women’s Foundation and Women’s Foundation of Southwest Florida through their partnership with Prosperity Together.
WFN’s Economic Security Digital Storytelling Platform can be previewed at economicsecurity.womensfundingnetwork.org/. Interviews with Women’s Funding Network CEO Cynthia Nimmo are available upon request.
About Women’s Funding Network
With more than 100 women’s funds and foundations spanning six continents, Women’s Funding Network is the largest philanthropic network in the world devoted to women and girls. The Women’s Funding Network accelerates women’s leadership and invests in solving critical social issues—from economic security to reproductive health and justice—by bringing together the financial power, influence and voices of women’s funds. Fore more information on the work of Women’s Funding Network and its members, please visit www.womensfundingnetwork.org or connect with us on Twitter @womensfunding and on Facebook at facebook.com/womensfundingnetwork.
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 190 sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,500 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.
For more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow us on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.