Adolescent girls and young women* of color are driving change, from their households to the forefront of social movements around the world. The Advancing Girls Fund supports their leadership, well-being, and advocacy so they can create the world they want and know is possible. [*By girls and young women, we include young people around the ages of 11–25 who identify as girls, as well as non-binary and gender expansive youth.]

Even though girls intimately understand the best solutions to address the challenges they face in their lives, families, communities, and societies, the world around them doesn’t always recognize their contributions or future potential. To shift power and help girls thrive, there is an urgent need to support girl- and BIPOC-led change efforts that benefit the health and well-being of girls of color. When it comes to philanthropic support for the gender justice movement, very few dollars go toward supporting women and girls of color. At the same time, in recent years the anti-gender movement has become heavily resourced by philanthropic dollars.

 

The Advancing Girls Fund at Tides Foundation brings donors together to invest meaningfully and collectively in adolescent girls and young women of color so that they have the resources to dream, learn, play, and lead.

 

A young Black woman and two young women with medium skin tone leaning in together for a photo

Building a New Chapter, For and By Adolescent Girls of Color

In August 2020, the NoVo Foundation transitioned its Adolescent Girls Grantmaking Initiative to Tides Foundation. The Advancing Girls Fund, with input from our grantee partners, will launch a new grantmaking strategy to support girl-led change in the U.S. and the global south. 

Our goal is to support this work into the future through the establishment of a pooled donor fund and shared investment models.

Guiding Principles

  • Girl-Led: We believe adolescent girls and young women of color, despite experiencing persistent inequities, are resilient, creative, brave, and capable leaders, who when invested in will change the world for good for themselves, their families, and communities.
  • Intersectionality: We understand that adolescent girls and young women of color live at the intersections of multiple identities and social issues, and therefore any solutions to support their health and well-being must also work at those intersections.
  • Gender Expansive: We believe gender is self-determined, and include cis-girls, gender-non-conforming youth, and transgender girls in our community of adolescent girls and young women of color.
  • Systems & Services: We believe it is necessary to invest in both systems and services in parallel in order to support adolescent girls and young women of color while they participate in long-term efforts to disrupt systems that create disparities at the intersection of race, gender, and class.

Funding Strategies

  • Convening a pooled fund of aligned donors learning and investing in the leadership, health, and well-being of adolescent girls and young women of color globally.
  • Providing multiyear, general operating grants to Black, Indigenous, and people of color-led and serving organizations, programs, and strategies that are girl-led and reflective of girls’ and young women of color lived experiences.
  • Engaging adolescent girls’ and young women of color’s perspectives and ideas in decisions on resource distribution and programmatic investments.
  • Resourcing the design of and holding space for adolescent girls, young women, and adult allies to come together and build relationships across geographies, environments, and cultures, as well as to learn from each other and build capacity and collective power to move social justice for girls and young women of color globally.

→ Download the Advancing Girls Landscape Analysis to read input and ideas from adolescent girls, staff in girl and young women-led and supporting organizations, local intermediary funders, corporate funders, institutional funders, researchers, and consultants that has informed Advancing Girls’ approach

→ Download the Advancing Girls graphic framework