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The Global Fund for Women
(GFW) is a nonprofit organization, established in 1987, for the purpose of
promoting the economic, legal, and social advancement of women worldwide. The letter that was sent to the Fund states
that, in the past two decades, the GFW has made great progress in advancing the
human rights of women. They state that,
since 1988, when they made their first grants, women in developing countries
now live ten years longer on an average and that literacy rates for girls have
increased markedly. (That does not
answer whether GFW is a primary driver of that improvement.)
In particular, GFW makes
grants to creative, women-led organizations that provide high-impact solutions
to local, regional, and international women’s human rights issues. Human rights is defined expansively, more so
than in Bylaw 3D4, which authorizes grants for “civil liberties or human
freedom”. They report that grants were
made for economic security, for the establishment of 600 businesses and the
training of 19,000 women and girls; for education for more than 300,000 girls
to attend school; and for grants to fund 350 conferences.
In the year ending 30 June
2011, the Global Fund for Women made $8,866,000 in grants and expended
$3,182,000 for program services, $1,370,000 for management and general, and
$2.268,000 for fundraising, a total of
$15,686,000. A total of 76.8% of
expenses were for grants and program services, a reasonable ratio. Income of $15,672 included $4,231,000 from
foundations, $1,729,000 from corporations, $7,752,000 from individuals, and the
remainder from other sources such as governments and investment income.
Bylaw 3D1 states that contributions may be made for "cooperation between and among potentially hostile groups." This bylaw reflects section 6C1 of the Fund's charter, which authorizes contributions" to projects for the promotion of cooperation between potentially hostile groups, especially between diverse national, racial, religious, sexual, or industrial groups". Bylaws 3D4 and 3D6 authorize contributions for activities likely to increase civil liberty or human freedom, and for economic self-sufficiency of a disadvantaged group. The Global Fund for Women is eligible for contributions based on any of these provisions. The Global Fund for Women is categorized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization, and is eligible for grants from both endowments. There can be disagreement as to whether women are a disadvantaged group in the United States, but the Global Fund for Women does not work on behalf of women in the United States. Women in the less developed countries clearly are disadvantaged both because their countries are disadvantaged, and in many countries also because they are women. (Some historians and economists have suggested reasonably that systematic degradation of women is a contributing factor to the present-day backwardness of the Arab world, which was more advanced than Europe in the Middle Ages.)
In 2003, the argument was made that gifts to grant-making organizations such as the Global Fund for Women might be better made to the organizations receiving the grants. In the case of the Global Fund for Women, however, the organizations receiving the grants are located in 150 countries, and it may be more effective for the Fund to support the grant-making organization.
I recommend that the Board categorize the Global Fund for Women as "eligible and currently nominated" for grants from both endowments.
Respectfully submitted,
Robert McClenon
10 June 2012