Equality Can't Wait

Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates' incubation company, with additional support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, is launching the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, which will award $40 million to help expand women’s power and influence in the United States by 2030. Grants will be awarded to the organizations or coalitions of organizations with the most compelling proposals.

Up to 10 participants will be named as finalists. Finalists are eligible to receive a one-time award of $100,000 and have the opportunity to revise and resubmit their proposal. Once resubmitted, at least three grants of a minimum of $10 million will be awarded to the top proposals, to be paid out over five years. An additional $10 million will be allocated among finalists and determined at the award decision stage.

We are looking for innovative ideas from U.S.-based organizations or coalitions of organizations.

Eligible lead applicants can include:

• An entity under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS").
• A private foundation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS.
• A tribal government or tribal-owned enterprise.
• A public university, junior college, or college.

Eligible organizations are welcome to partner with for-profit companies, foundations, schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, individuals, and other entities in order to implement the initiative. Use the Organizational Readiness Tool to find out if you’re a good fit for the grant, refer to the rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements, and please contact [email protected] with any questions regarding eligibility.

We have seen a groundswell of energy and activism to accelerate progress toward gender equality in the U.S., but the pace of change has not moved fast enough. Women are still vastly underrepresented in the places where agendas are set and decisions are made.

Additionally, women of color, women living in poverty, and LGBTQ women face additional barriers to equality, both at home and at work. We are looking for creative solutions to accelerate progress for women of all backgrounds in the United States by expanding their power and influence. This means we want more women, especially women of color, in positions to make decisions, control resources, and shape policies and perspectives in their homes, workplaces, and communities.

Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ investment and incubation company, with additional support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, is hosting the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, in partnership with Lever for Change.

Recent events have highlighted the urgent need for equality in America, and we have to stay committed to advancing systemic change for women of all backgrounds. Accelerating progress toward gender equality will require many things, especially strategic capital and stakeholder collaboration. Through this competition, we are looking for innovative ideas that will bring additional capital and energy into one or more key areas that can expand women’s power and influence:

• Dismantling the barriers that hold women back. We need to remove the barriers that affect women most, by challenging biased narratives, addressing racial inequity, ending sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and helping women balance their career, home, and families.
• Fast tracking women in critical sectors. Our research shows that there are essential sectors that have an outsized impact on society. By creating entry points and consistent support for women to advance within industries such as 1) public office, 2) tech, 3) academia, 4) media and entertainment, 5) finance, and 6) entrepreneurship, we can take important steps to expand women’s power and influence.
• Calling society to action. We must change outdated systems, institutions, and beliefs by enlisting society to take action. By arming key stakeholders – including CEOs, community leaders, consumers, and employees – with resources and data around the issues, we can influence and exert greater pressure from every angle.

Please note: We welcome ideas on other strategic approaches as they relate to the goal of expanding women’s power and influence. To be successful, the ideas must demonstrate that they can have equitable, measurable and rapid improvement over one or more of the metrics listed – wages and wealth gap, unpaid care, leadership roles held by women, content created by women, or public perceptions of women’s power and influence.

Your proposal should be able to increase the rate of change for women’s power and influence in the U.S. through at least one of these key indicators:

• Wages and wealth: narrowing the gap between earnings and wealth for women in comparison to men
• Unpaid care: improving the division of caregiving and other household responsibilities done by women in comparison to men
• Share of leadership roles: increasing the percentage of women in senior roles across the public, private, and social sectors
• Content creation: increasing the percentage of intellectual and cultural content created by women
• Public perceptions: increasing the percentage of the public who feel women should have more power and influence

Throughout the multi-stage challenge, proposals will be evaluated on the ideas that are most 1) transformative, 2) equitable, 3) innovative, and 4) feasible.

After the submission deadline is reached, the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge team will perform an administrative review to confirm each submission meets the rules and application requirements before advancing eligible submissions to peer-to-peer review.

During peer-to-peer review, each lead organization will score and comment on five applications from other organizations. Top-scoring applications will move on to the evaluation panel and receive an additional review and comments from five expert reviewers. All reviewers will use the scoring rubric and all scores will be statistically normalized to ensure fairness.

We will review the top-scoring submissions and request additional information as needed to select up to 10 finalists based on considerations that may include, but are not limited to, ranking from the evaluation panel, organizational capacity, geographic diversity, and feasibility. Pivotal Ventures, MacKenzie Scott, and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies will make the final determination of the 10 finalists and winners of the awards. At least three grants of a minimum of $10 million will be awarded to the organizations or coalitions of organizations with the most compelling proposals. An additional $10 million will be allocated among finalists and determined at the award decision stage.

Using the online assessment, assess your fit and eligibility for the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, and then register no later than Tuesday, September 1, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Registration is required and is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password, and then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, submit your application online no later than Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

An applicant can be a lead and a partner on multiple proposals, as long as the proposed solutions are different and separate. Regional or location-specific branches of national organizations can apply separately as lead organizations as long as the proposed solutions are different and separate. They can also apply as partners in multiple applications led by different entities. There should be no overlap in team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that is transformative, equitable, innovative, and feasible.

COVID-19 has impacted how we live, work, and care for one another. Although the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge is not in response to COVID-19 nor a funding mechanism directly suited for COVID-19 relief, we recognize that your proposals might be shaped by current circumstances. We know this pandemic will magnify the structural inequities that disproportionately affect women and threaten to roll back what progress we have made. Therefore, we are open to strategies as long as they track back to the success metrics listed – i.e. wages and wealth gap, unpaid care, leadership roles held by women, content created by women, or public perceptions of women’s power and influence.