MacKenzie Scott, Melinda Gates donate $40mn to gender equality groups

Philanthropists Melinda Gates and MacKenzie Scott have awarded a $40million donation to four gender equality promoting projects. Along with the two, billionaire Lynn Schusterman's family Foundation has also extended support to the group, which works towards advancing tech, higher education, caregiving, and minority communities. The announcement of the donation was made on Thursday, July 29.

The awarded money was the winning prize for 'The Equality Can't Wait Challenge' competition that was launched in June 2020. The awardees were selected from a pool of over 500 proposals that were submitted from across the country. Each of the four projects will receive an amount of $10million. According to an announcement released on Thursday by Lever for Change, an affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation managed the challenge, the Associated Press reported. The competition has aimed to expand women's power and influence in the United States. Separately, additional funding of $8 million will be split between two finalists. One of which is a project working to combat physical, sexual, and other forms of violence inflicted by romantic partners. The second one is aimed at helping young women become more politically active.

"Equality Can't Wait Challenge"

The focus of the Equality Can't Wait Challenge was promoting ideas and practices that help develop and motivate women to participate in bringing change. It also aimed to bridge the gender gap in society. The competition will fund the following winners:

• Building Women’s Equality through Strengthening the Care Infrastructure- a project by a coalition of organisations working on the societal perceptions of caregiving.
• Changing the Face of Tech- an initiative to offer women more opportunities in the tech sector.
• Girls Inc.’s Project Accelerate- which aims to help young women through college and career entry.
• The Future is Indigenous Womxn- an initiative to support businesses owned by Native American women.

The funders and their contributions to gender equality projects in the past

Melinda French Gates has an investment and incubation company Pivotal Ventures that hosted the competition. The company has pledged to devote $1 billion towards such projects in the U.S. The step is to mitigate low rates of women in leadership positions in the U.S. work culture. The money is slated to be spent through Pivotal is unlike a traditional charity. The organisation will invest in high-risk, for-profit entities and become more politically involved in the invested projects. Additionally, the funder also doesn’t have to disclose information on all the groups it funds. Ms Melinda Gates also serves as a co-chair and trustee at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest charitable foundation in the world.

“We can break the patterns of history and advance gender equality if there’s a commitment to support organisations, like the awardees that are ready to lift up women and girls.” Ms. Melinda Gates said

Ms MacKenzie Scott is another name who devotes her funds to uplift women's presence in society. She has given more than $8 billion in three rounds of funding since last year. She also praised the awardees for having “strong teams working on the front lines and from within communities to help women build power in their lives and careers.”

(Input: AP)