Message from the Executive Director
What a year it’s been! 2022 caps off a season of growth for us at Gender Justice Fund (GJF). Since the Fall of 2019, we’ve brought on nine new board members, changed our name, started a quarterly newsletter, amped up our social media presence, and launched two new grantmaking initiatives – the Trans Resilience Fund and the Culture Change Initiative. This year, we awarded over $500,000 in grants, more than ever before. We are grateful for this expansion of our work, and for the partners and collaborators that have enabled us to exponentially increase our impact.
GJF is relatively small by mainstream philanthropy standards, but we believe we’re making a real difference, both in the organizations we choose to fund and how we engage in grantmaking. For many of our grantees, we were their first funder, enabling them to build a base from which they were able to grow. We also strategically lend our own efforts to issues where we think our direct involvement can move the needle. And, as many of my colleagues in philanthropy will tell you, we’re relentless in our efforts to connect grantees to other funding opportunities and encouraging increased overall philanthropic funding for gender issues. This ongoing advocacy for increased funding is, we feel, an essential part of the work toward gender justice: a recent study by the Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy indicates that women’s and girls’ organizations continue to receive less than 2% of overall charitable dollars.
Maintaining the momentum we’ve gained in recent years requires tremendous energy and a strong central core. As we look to 2023 and the need to continue shoring ourselves up for the long haul, we’re reminded as an organization that taking time for rest and reflection is essential. First off, rest: We’ll be closed between December 9th and January 9th. Then, reflection: In the new year, we’ll be engaging in strategic planning; evaluating and strengthening administrative systems and infrastructure; and focusing on building out our existing body of work. I look forward to sharing updates with you as we gear up to meet new challenges and continue this work together.
Executive Director
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Grant Updates
CULTURE CHANGE INITIATIVE
GJF's Culture Change Grant Program provides one-year grants to organizations whose work addresses ending rape culture and promoting consent. The most recent grantees are:
SYSTEMS CHANGE GRANTS
GJF's Systems Change Grant Program provides two-year general operating grants to organizations working towards gender justice through advocacy, policy, and/or community organizing. This year, in recognition of their impact and the burden of 2.5 years of of the COVID-19 pandemic, we automatically renewed all grantees whose work remained unchanged, adding one new grantee to replace an organization whose focus had shifted.
TRANS RESILIENCE FUND
The Trans Resilience Fund provides one-year grants to organizations supporting trans communities in the Philadelphia region. Grantees are selected by a group of primarily BIPOC trans and nonbinary individuals from the region. The 2022 grantees are:
DISCRETIONARY GRANTS
Discretionary grants are one-year grants made to organizations with specific short-term needs or whose work fits GJF's priorities but does not meet requirements of specific grant programs. Recent discretionary grantees include:
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Grantee Spotlight: Philadelphia Justice Project for Women & Girls
GJF grantee Philadelphia Justice Project for Women & Girls (PJP) was founded in 2020 with a mission of ending the mass incarceration of women and girls (& everyone!). Their work centers on: Direct services through expert assistance for women and girls fighting wrongful convictions and unjust sentences, including research, strategy, and expert testimony; Policy-relevant research on gender and mass incarceration that centers and amplifies the voices of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls; and Educational programming, training, and technical assistance for stakeholders including families, advocates, students, attorneys, and members of the judiciary.
Although Philadelphia is home to several organizations and coalitions doing critical work related to commutation, pardons, and/or wrongful convictions, few have an explicit focus on women or center them in their work. In addition to highlighting the lack of support for women in the system, PJP is currently involved in two efforts to free women incarcerated in state prisons: Sylvia Boykin & India Spellman. In the coming year, they will also be conducting educational workshops in state correctional facilities with a goal of increased the number of women applying for and receiving commutation of life and near-life sentences in Pennsylvania.
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Image from PJP's #FreeIndiaSpellman campaign
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PJP is largely an all-volunteer initiative. Founder and executive director Dr. Jill McCorkel, and student volunteers rely on the critical insight of Inside Advisors, all of whom are currently incarcerated and are compensated for their work. PJP's central organizing principle is that incarcerated women and girls are experts in understanding and diagnosing problems associated with gender violence and mass incarceration. Philadelphia Justice Project is also an active member of the Still We Rise Freedom Coalition (formerly the Incarcerated Women’s Working Group), a collaborative effort by service providers, advocates, and formerly incarcerated individuals to improve conditions for women, trans, and nonbinary people in and from the Philadelphia area.
Gender Justice Fund is proud to stand with Philadelphia Justice Project for Women & Girls as a partner and supporter of their critical and collaborative work. Follow them on Instagram or Twitter, read more about India Spellman’s case in the Nation, and support them by buying merch at their Bonfire store.
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Issue Spotlight: Comprehensive Sex Education
What was sex ed like for you as a young person? Did it reinforce harmful gender stereotypes and binaries? Did it use shame as a deterrent? Did it prioritize abstinence over everything? Did it exclude sex/gender fluidity, pleasure, and/or consent? Alas, sex education is often just as abysmal today as it was decades ago. Although 38 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education in K-12 settings, the actual content is woefully inadequate. For example, only 18 states require program content to be medically accurate, only 20 states and DC require the provision of information about contraception, and 28 states require that information on abstinence be “stressed” in their sex education curriculum. Nineteen of those states go further, requiring instruction stressing the “importance” of limiting sexual activity “to the context of marriage.” The ineffectiveness of this strategy shows. The US still has the highest rate of adolescent pregnancy among high-income countries and STI infection rates are on the rise.
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A member of grantee organization Educators for Consent Culture leading a workshop about consent
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Despite research highlighting the importance of comprehensive sex education, Pennsylvania is one of the dozen states that have no comprehensive sex education requirement. This allows the proliferation of misinformation, gender-based oppression, and rape culture, which is particularly egregious when considered in conjunction with decreased or threatened access to reliable contraception, abortion, and other reproductive health care. Comprehensive, inclusive, fact-based, sex-positive, sex education is an essential component of reproductive justice, and without reproductive justice, there can be no gender justice.
Gender Justice Fund is proud to support programs providing consent-based, inclusive sex education to Philadelphia’s youth through the Culture Change Grant Program, and to participate in the PA Coalition for Sex Ed, a statewide coalition focused on expanding and protecting access to high-quality comprehensive sex education. To learn more, or stay abreast of the issues, we recommend following the Guttmacher Institute on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
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