Words by Smiley Team
On International Women’s Day 2021, Google’s philanthropic team have announced that they are offering grants of between $300,000 and $2 million to charitable initiatives helping women and girls to prosper. To support these projects they will also give the organisations opportunities for mentorship from Google.
President of Google.org Jacquelline Fuller wrote: “When women and girls have the resources and opportunities to turn their potential into power, it changes the trajectory of their lives and strengthens entire communities.”
Living in India, Fuller saw first hand how health projects had much more success when put under the control of women and local communities. She is inspired by 20 years of philanthropic work during which she saw women and girls thriving thanks to a variety of innovative projects. Today she hopes to use her position at Google.org to support similar initiatives.
Despite much cause for optimism, Fuller also acknowledges that women have a long way to go to achieve gender equality.
She is strongly aware that women are at an alarming disadvantage, being almost twice as likely to experience insecurity at work and lose their jobs due to Covid-19, with over half of job losses in the US hitting women. The larger proportion of unpaid care work is shouldered by women and about 20 million girls worldwide are at risk of dropping out of education.
“We have a collective responsibility to make sure that generations of women and girls from all walks of life can live in a world where they are treated equally and reach their full potential,” she wrote.
Google.org has partnered with Vital Voices, a global coalition of women leaders; and Project Everyone, a non-profit to support the UN’s sustainable development goals, to organise the awards.
Their panel of judges is made up of female leaders from over 15 different countries with expertise in global public policy, advocacy, research, business, technology and more. Together they will select ideas based on which ones they believe will have the most powerful impact.
To apply, organisations must submit an initial proposal, explaining in English how they intend to have a positive impact on the lives of women and girls. Successful projects will go through a second round in which they must submit additional information. Applications close at 23:59 GMT on 9th April 2021. Organisations can apply here.
