Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates, has announced a $10 million commitment from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in support of the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge.
Launched in June with additional support from MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos), the challenge originally planned to award two grants of at least $10 million to organizations or coalitions of organizations with the most compelling ideas for expanding women’s power and influence in the United States, with an additional $10 million to be awarded to the finalists at the time of the award decision. The additional $10 million from the Schusterman Family Foundation brings the total to be awarded through the challenge to $40 million, including three grants of at least $10 million.
Managed by Lever for Change, an affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the challenge is open to U.S.-based nonprofit organizations or coalitions of organizations with bold ideas to expand women’s power and influence in society.
“A century after women won the right to vote, we are still fighting for equal rights, for autonomy over our bodies, for economic opportunity and for political power,” said Schusterman Family Foundation board chair Stacy Schusterman. “Gender and racial inequities have long persisted in the U.S. — and the pandemic has only further exposed and exacerbated them. I am proud to join Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott in the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge and to support innovative new approaches for making progress faster and for lifting up new voices and ideas, particularly voices of women of color.”
Source: PND
