Girls Rights Project
/OVERVIEW: The California-based Girls Rights Project supports human rights, women’s and girls’ causes and violence prevention, working mainly in the developing world.
IP TAKE: This funder makes small grants to organizations working to protect, empower and educate vulnerable girls and women around the world. To a lesser extent, it funds girls’ and women’s programs in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Girls Rights Project is a supportive funder that is easy for grantees to communicate with; however, it does not accept unsolicited applications for funding making it tricky for new grantseekers. All work centers on girls in the developing world, so your project must focus significantly on this group in order to be eligible for funding.
PROFILE: The Girls Rights Project was established in 2001 as the Keare/Hodge Family Foundation and officially changed its name in 2012. It is steered by Stacey Keare, an attorney and founding board member of Summit Public Schools, a charter school network in California. Working locally in the San Francisco Bay Area and globally in developing nations, the foundation focuses on “making sure that all girls go to school, have physical autonomy, and are protected from a life of abuse, slavery, child marriage or trafficking.”
Grants for Human Rights
Recent human rights grantmaking has prioritized legal reform and initiatives to prevent the trafficking of children and women and gender-based violence. One grantee is the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California at Hastings, which “protects the fundamental human rights of refugee women, children, LGBTQ individuals and others who flee persecution in their home countries.” Another grantee, the Virginia-based Tahirih Justice Center, works to defend and relocate women and girls who are victims of gender violence and discrimination. Other human rights grantees include Thailand’s Freedom Story, Uganda’s Willow International and the Nomi Network, which operates in India and Cambodia.
Grants for Women and Girls
Grantmaking for women’s and girls’ causes focuses on education and empowerment, with grants split about equally between Bay Area and global organizations. In the Bay Area, the foundation has given to the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Peninsula and the Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative. Globally, Girls Rights has prioritized educational programs for vulnerable girls. Past grantees include Tanzania’s Nurturing Minds, Haiti’s Ecole de Choix, India’s Aarti for Girls, the literacy initiative Room to Read and the Asian University for Women.
Grants for Violence Prevention
Girls Rights has demonstrated an interest in the prevention of violence toward women and has funded several organizations working to protect and empower women and girls who are victims of gender violence around the world. One past grantee is the Equality Effect, a network of advocates and other professionals who aim to put international human rights law into practice for vulnerable women and girls in Africa. Another past grantee, the Global Fund for Women, supports initiatives to prevent gender violence and promote women’s health and safety in developing nations.
Important Grant Details:
The Girls Rights Project makes about $250,000 a year in grants, with an average grant size of about $5,000. Most of its grantmaking serves organizations that operate in the developing world. Some women’s and girls’ organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area have also received funding. For additional information about past grantmaking see the project’s grants page.
The Girls Rights Project is not currently accepting unsolicited applications for funding. General inquiries may be submitted to the organizations via its contact page.
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