Fund for UN Women
Your donation to the UN Foundation’s Fund for UN Women will support programs that promote women’s human rights, their economic and political empowerment and gender equality. UN Women* relies on voluntary financial contributions for all its work. Funding for UN Women comes from contributions by governments, foundations, corporations, organizations and individuals like you.
About UN Women
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
The main roles of UN Women are:
- To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms
- To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it and to forge effective partnerships with civil society.
- To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress.
To donate to UN Women, click here.
*As of January 1, 2011, UN Women became fully operational. Learn more about UN Women here.
The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women
Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread human right violations: up to 70 percent of women and girls will be beaten, raped or otherwise abused in their lifetime.
But this is not inevitable. Violence against women and girls can be systematically addressed, reduced and, with persistence, eliminated. The UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women is the leading global fund dedicated to doing just this. Working with partners across the world, the UN Trust Fund supports concrete action to help thousands of women and girls attain justice, and to build long-term solutions for a world free of violence.
The UN Trust Fund awards grants annually through an open and competitive process. The majority of its grantees are non-governmental organizations, with grants awarded also to governments and UN country teams. Among other things, these grantees work to:
- Ensure access for women and girl survivors of violence to safe houses, psychosocial counseling, health services, legal aid, and training and support for employment;
- Support HIV-positive women and girls to counter widespread stigmatization and abuse,
- End impunity by supporting the implementation of laws; and
- Mobilize communities and engage strategic groups — such as youth, men and boys, and traditional and faith-based leaders — to take action against violence.
Established by the UN General Assembly in 1996, the UN Trust Fund is managed by UN Women on behalf of the UN system. To date, the Fund has delivered over US$86 million to 351 initiatives in 128 countries.
Join us in this vital work: donate online to the UN Trust Fund.
In the United States, you can also text UNITE to 27722 from your cell phone to give $10.
Here's How Your Gift Can Help:
Fund for Gender Equality
Women make up more than half the world’s population but the majority of those live in poverty. For their lives to change, they need access to and control of economic resources and political power: to speak out, run for office, and support themselves and their families.
The UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality helps change lives of women all over the world. The Fund’s goal is to advance women’s economic and political empowerment through high-impact, multi-year grants of up to $5 million.
The money is awarded directly to women’s organizations and partnerships between governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Spain’s donation of $65 million started the Fund in 2009, followed by Norway’s $3 million, and Mexico’s $800,000. The Fund totals $69.5 million and is one of the largest and most recent grantmaking funds dedicated to women’s rights and empowerment globally.
Since its launching in 2009, the Fund has invested $37.5 million in multi-year grants paying for 40 programmes in 35 countries. To be approved, grants must meet the highest standards and are continually monitored for effectiveness. Grantees are having an impact.
In El Salvador in March 2011, advocates helped pass a national gender equity law. In China, women of three rural provinces are demanding a place at the table and training female candidates to take a greater role in government decision-making. In Sri Lanka, a broad-based multimedia effort is training women of ethnic and religious minorities to run for office. These projects meet the Fund’s aim of political empowerment that strengthens women’s leadership –particularly of young women, Indigenous women, refugee women and HIV+ women — increasing their participation and influence over decision-making in all areas of life.
In Rwanda, 15,000 women are been helped to register to inherit and own land and property – rights only recently granted by law. In India, an effort to equip Dalit women to lobby and take advantage of new government programmes resulted in 7,200 women obtaining work. In Morocco, women living in 13 oasis communities are gaining both independence and income through vibrant cooperatives. These projects meet the Fund’s goal of increasing women’s economic empowerment, increase women’s access to and control over goods, income, and land.
The Fund works on local, national and international levels. It supports gender equality laws and policies of individual nations. It also helps the world make progress in attaining gender equality goals enshrined in international agreements, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), among others.
When the fund began in 2009, 1,239 applicants from 127 countries submitted proposals, representing more than US$3 billion in requests. Of those, the Fund could support only 1.2%.
To continue to significantly advance gender equality and women’s rights, the Fund is calling on UN member states, the private sector, and individuals to contribute to this vital source of funding for women around the world.
The time is now. Join us by contributing to the Fund for Gender Equality. Donate now.