Girl Effect is an independent non-profit organization, launched in September 2015 with the goal of ending poverty globally. [1]
With the focus on adolescent girls in the Global South, the initiative is attempting to shed light on the exceptional potential these young girls hold on ending world issues.
The organization's framework was inspired by neoliberalism ideologies and the slogan, Girl Power.
Girl Effect was created in 2004 by the Nike Foundation, [2] in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation and United Nations Foundation. It launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Farah Ramzan Golant was appointed as the CEO. Maria Eitel, President and CEO of the Nike Foundation, was appointed chairman of the organization. [3] In 2019, Jessica Posner Odede replaced Golant as CEO.
It has since become an independent organization.
This campaign has been the focus of feminist and academic critiques. The campaign was said to rely on essentialist views of womanhood. Further, these type of campaigns that do not take into consideration men and the relations of women and girls with their households and community often have the effect of overburdening women who are already responsible for childcare and all types of formal and informal labor. [6] [7]
Critics have also argued that the organization limits girls in the Global South as subjects and investments for the ideal world, which adopts notions from orthodox beliefs that these individuals are concurrently attempting to dismantle.
The United Nations Foundation is a charitable organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that supports the United Nations and its activities. It was established in 1998 with a $1 billion gift to the United Nations by philanthropist Ted Turner, who believed the UN was crucial for addressing the world's problems. Originally primarily a grantmaker, the UN Foundation has evolved into a strategic partner to the UN, mobilizing support to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and help the UN address issues such as climate change, global health, gender equality, human rights, data and technology, peace, and humanitarian responses. The UN Foundation's main work occurs through building public-private partnerships, communities, initiatives, campaigns, and alliances to broaden support for the UN and solve global problems. The UN Foundation has helped build awareness and advocate for action on, among others, antimicrobial resistance, regional action on climate change, local implementation of the SDGs, as well as global campaigns such as Nothing But Nets against malaria, the Measles & Rubella Initiative, the Clean Cooking Alliance, Girl Up, Shot@Life, and the Digital Impact Alliance, among others. In March 2020, the UN Foundation was also a key founder of the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), helping to raise over $200 million USD within the first six weeks to support the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Philip Hampson Knight is an American billionaire business magnate who is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chairman and CEO. In April 2023, Knight along with his family was ranked by Forbes as the 24th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $47.7 billion. He is also the owner of the stop motion film production company Laika. Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was part of the track and field club under coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon with whom he would later co-found Nike.
Heifer International is a global nonprofit working to eradicate poverty and hunger through sustainable, values-based holistic community development. Heifer International distributes animals, along with agricultural and values-based training, to families in need around the world as a means of providing self-sufficiency. Recipients must agree to "pass on the gift" by donating animal offspring, as well as sharing the skills and knowledge of animal husbandry and agricultural training with other impoverished families in the community. The organization receives financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BlackRock, Cargill, Mastercard Foundation, Walmart and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.
Swarovski is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Austria, and has existed as a family-owned business since its founding in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski.
ONE Campaign is an international, non-partisan, non-profit advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support policies and programs that save lives and improve futures.
Wieden+Kennedy is an American independent global advertising agency best known for its work for Nike. Founded by Dan Wieden and David Kennedy, and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, it is one of the largest independently owned advertising agencies in the world.
The Global Fund for Women is a non-profit foundation funding women's human rights initiatives. It was founded in 1987 by New Zealander Anne Firth Murray, and co-founded by Frances Kissling and Laura Lederer to fund women's initiatives around the world. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Since 1988, the foundation has awarded over $100 million in grants to over 4,000 organizations supporting progressive women's rights in over 170 countries. Ms. Magazine has called the Global Fund for Women "one of the leading global feminist funds."
Yves Béhar is a Swiss-born American designer, entrepreneur, and educator. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm. Béhar is also co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of August Smart Lock, a smart lock company acquired by Assa Abloy in 2017; and co-founder of Canopy, a co-working space based in San Francisco.
The SENS Research Foundation is a non-profit organization that does research programs and public relations work for the application of regenerative medicine to aging. It was founded in 2009, located in Mountain View, California, USA. The organization publishes its reports annually.
Nike, Inc. has been accused of using sweatshops and worker abuse to produce footwear and apparel in East Asia.
Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri is an Indian artist, film director, and photographer.
GlobalGiving is 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in the United States that provides a global crowdfunding platform for grassroots charitable projects. Since 2002, more than 1.6 million donors on GlobalGiving have donated more than $750 million to support more than 33,000 projects in 175 countries.
Nadja Lyn Swarovski is an Austrian-American businesswoman. She joined the Swarovski family company in 1995, 100 years after it was founded by her great-great-grandfather Daniel Swarovski in 1895 in Wattens, Austria. She was the first female member of the executive board, and led the global brand strategy and communications of the business, which turned over approximately €3.5 billion in 2017. She served as the Chair of the Swarovski Foundation and headed the global Swarovski Waterschool program. She stepped down from the company at the end of December 2021.
Mindy Grossman is the former CEO of WW International. The Financial Times listed her in the Top 50 Women In World Business in 2010 and 2011, and she was ranked among Forbes' 100 Most Powerful Women In The World for the years 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2014 she was ranked 22 in Fortune's Top People in Business.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is a philanthropic organization that encompasses all of the charitable giving of founder Michael R. Bloomberg. Headquartered in New York City, Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses its resources on five areas: the environment, public health, the arts, government innovation and education. According to the Foundation Center, Bloomberg Philanthropies was the 10th largest foundation in the United States in 2015, the last year for which data was available. Bloomberg has pledged to donate the majority of his wealth, currently estimated at more than $54 billion. Patti Harris is the CEO of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Maria Eitel is the founder and Chair of the Nike Foundation, which supports the work of The Girl Effect, of which she is the founder and Chair. Before founding the Nike Foundation, Eitel was the first Vice President for Corporate Responsibility at Nike Inc.
The Clara Lionel Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 by singer Rihanna, that funds groundbreaking education and emergency preparedness and response programs around the world.
MATCH International Women's Fund is a non-profit, non-governmental, grant-making organization created to make lasting changes in the lives of women and girls. Their company aims to support projects that dismantle barriers, change systems, challenge perceptions, and transform society and is based in Ottawa, Canada. MATCH is dedicated to funding women's rights movements and grassroots organizations working on women's rights worldwide with a particular interest in the global South. MATCH was founded in 1976 by two Canadian women, Dr. Norma E. Walmsley and Suzanne Johnson-Harvor. Since then, MATCH International has helped women's rights organizations from numerous countries with investments totaling $12 million for improvement of women and girl's rights. In 2013, the organization re-launched under the name MATCH International Women's Fund with the same aim to invest in women and girls in the global South. As the only international women's fund in Canada, their motto is, "Holding Ground and Breaking Ground" on women's, girls', and transgender rights. The organization's funding comes from individual donors, corporate partners, and the government of Canada.
Mira Kaddoura is a Lebanese-Canadian conceptual artist and founder of Red & Co., an advertising agency headquartered in Portland Oregon USA with a cohort in Amsterdam Netherlands. She is known for her work on Nike, The Girl Effect, Netflix, and Google’s Made with Code. In addition, her conceptual projects like The Wonder Clock, have tested cultural assumptions around feminism and biology.
Hannah Jones is the founder and President of Nike Valiant Labs.
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