Promoting gender equality: These organizations impress me with their work

Only 0.42% of foundation funds support women's rights. In this article, I will show why that is not enough – and introduce strong organisations and impact investments that concretely promote gender equality. Personally selected in my FOFoundation List for Gender Performance.

This list is more than a collection of good initiatives – it is the result of personal encounters, impressions, and conversations. I know many of these organisations first-hand: through their founders, their projects, their impact.

What connects them: their commitment to women's rights, gender equality, and structural change. Themes that are relevant and also move me personally – because they belong in the middle of our society, and yet are often overlooked.

That is why I am sharing a selection of organisations here that have convinced me – as inspiration, as an impetus for discourse in this subject area, and as an invitation to support these organisations via my FOFoundation on bcause.

But first, a look at the facts & figures.

Violence against women remains part of everyday life

Violence against women is not a marginal phenomenon – it is a global everyday reality. More than one in three women worldwide experiences physical or sexualised violence. Very few talk about it. One who does is Tanya Selvaratnam, whose TEDx talk in Berlin deeply moved me.

Even beyond physical violence, women experience structural discrimination every day – whether in the professional world, in leadership positions, or in the healthcare system. The discrimination against women is documented. For gender-related minorities, the situation is often even more drastic.

The Gender Philanthropy Gap

A figure that is often overlooked: Only 0.42% of foundation funds worldwide go to organisations that advocate for women's rights in Germany and worldwide. Funding for queer or racialised groups is even lower – often statistically invisible.

While the Gender Pay Gap is widely discussed, the Gender Philanthropy Gap remains largely unknown. But without targeted support, equality between men and women cannot succeed.

How this is slowly changing internationally through initiatives by MacKenzie Scott or Melinda Gates – and why the issue of gender equality is not a niche but a task for society as a whole – is described by Karin Heisecke and Loubna Messaoudi on the bcause blog.

👉🏼 Gender Equality - a High-Impact Approach

These non-profit organisations are committed to making a difference

The following organisations are exemplary of courageous and effective work in the field of equality for women and protection against violence:

📌 filia.die frauenstiftung

Founded by Ise Bosch, filia has been supporting women's projects in Central and Eastern Europe and in Germany for 25 years. Particularly innovative: the Girls' Advisory Board. They select projects that apply to filia for project funding under the Girls' Empowerment Programme.

📌 medica mondiale

Founded by gynaecologist and 2008 Alternative Nobel Prize laureate Monika Hauser, medica mondiale aims to support war-traumatised women medically and psychologically. Today, the organisation works worldwide against sexualised violence in conflict.

📌 Hawar.help

It is difficult to send a donation to countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. The human rights association HAWAR.help and its founder Düzen Tekkal carry out human rights work for affected people on the ground and also work on peace policy in Germany.

📌 FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders

This is where FAIR SHARE of Women Leaders tackles the root of the problem: getting more women into leadership positions in NGOs and foundations is crucial for real equality. During my time in the foundation sector, I experienced how much there is still to be done here.

📌 Captain Nemo Foundation

Anyone interested in feminist and general gender work encounters almost only women. The encounter with Tomasz Pruszynski was therefore all the more impressive. At the Ashoka Visionary Program in Vienna, he introduced himself to me in April: as a sea captain, as the founder of the Captain Nemo Foundation, and as ... someone who used to beat women. His foundation has nothing to do with the oceans; it helps women find their way out of women's shelters into a life somewhere else. That is where help ends in Poland (and here too), causing many women to go back into danger. Women's shelters all over Poland work with his foundation, which achieves a great deal with little money through direct cash support and in-kind donations from companies.

📌 nookees & nookees foundation

My podcast co-host Janina Breitling recently spoke impressively and urgently on the podcast about the plight of girls who experience marginalisation and life-threatening danger during their periods. She produces sustainable period underwear. This works as a business, but is also flanked by the nookees foundation, which supports menstruators who cannot afford it.

📌 WASH United

At the same problem, WASH United also addresses the issue, because every year millions of girls in the Global South leave school when they reach puberty. The organisation spreads menstrual education through over 600 organisations and also helps them to influence government action more effectively.

Female Entrepreneurship: Capital as a Leverage for Equality

But even if nothing works without donations in human and women's rights work, there are also increasingly opportunities in the area of impact investment to support women in their entrepreneurial development. Female Entrepreneurship is also a path to change. Because economic independence is central to sustainable equality between women and men.

📌 Kiva – Microloans for Women

For many years now, I have been using Kiva, the first microloan platform where you can specifically support individual projects. The donation is allocated in a rotating fashion time and again, either automatically or by selecting individual women (or men) with their projects all over the world. There are few nicer emails than those from Kiva, which announce the repayment of a small loan (often just €20) and give me the opportunity to let the money keep working.

📌 AUXXO – Venture Capital for Female Founders

A new venture capital fund that finances companies founded by women works in a completely different way: AUXXO. This is because only two percent of venture financing goes to female teams. However, on average, they are even more successful entrepreneurially than male teams: from my perspective, a clear reason to take a closer look at such investments.

💭 What do you think?

So, this is the list of organisations that have impressed me lately with their work.

I look forward to details and suggestions, preferably directly on LinkedIn or Instagram or as a comment with a donation to or via my FOFoundation on bcause.

💡 Even if you are not yet registered on bcause, you can pay into the FOFoundation as a guest via “Support”. You will receive a donation receipt for your contribution.

Do you know of other organisations or networks for women in leadership positions?

Then please share them on LinkedIn or Instagram – or as a comment with your next donation on bcause.

In November, the FOFoundation dedicated itself to the topic of “Development Work - Donating and Investing on Equal Terms”.

A current guest contribution by joyoountu explores the question of how decision-making power can be shifted to where global crises have the strongest impact:

🔎 Rethinking Development Work and Philanthropy