In May 2024, Melinda French Gates named Gary Barker, President and CEO of Equimundo, one of 12 global leaders who will each distribute a $20 million fund to charitable organizations doing urgent, impactful, and innovative work to improve women’s health and well-being in the United States and around the world.
Gary named the Pivotal Ventures fund “The Caring Masculinity Fund,” which will become active in December 2024. As the name suggests, the fund will be supporting advocacy, programmatic work and research to promote caring versions of manhood in the US and globally, with about 50% of the funds invested in the Americas region.
Approximately 60% of the funds will support work and organizations in alignment with Equimundo’s strategic pillars, 30% will be allocated to partner organizations focusing on healthy masculinities and male allyship more broadly, and 10% will be distributed as small grants for emerging voices and global strategic events with women’s rights partners.
Rather than issuing a call for proposals, Equimundo is engaging in one-on-one consultations with partners to discuss ideas or initiatives that may align with these funding areas, while also mapping potential new partners in selected geographies and identifying promising emerging organizations committed to our shared cause.
We’re excited to take this new phase forward, to learn from our partners, and to achieve even greater impact with them. Together, we’re seizing the moment to accelerate investments in caring masculinity for the good of everyone.
A note from our CEO:
