The Hadassah Foundation awarded its 2023 inaugural “core” grants to five organizations that address biases in hiring and advancement practices and that elevate the role and number of women and girls in leadership in Israel and the United States.
Each of the following nonprofits will receive $80,000 over three years: Forum Dvorah (Israel), the Gender Equity in Hiring Project (U.S.), Israel Women’s Network (Israel), Itach Ma’aki Women Lawyers for Social Justice (Israel), and QueenB (Israel). These organizations are helping women and girls advance in a variety of critical fields – from Israel’s tech industry and national security sector to U.S. Jewish communal organizations. Three – Forum Dvorah, Gender Equity in Hiring Project, and QueenB – are first-time Hadassah Foundation grantees.
The new round of grants represents a shift in the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy emerging from a recent strategic plan designed to increase the Foundation’s impact. The Foundation now considers Israeli and U.S. proposals at the same time and is awarding four different types of grants, depending on an organization’s size, maturity, and track record. Later this summer, the Foundation will announce the three startup organizations chosen to receive its new Spark grants ($20,000 in unrestricted funds.
In another change, the Foundation now focuses its grantmaking around specific themes related to gender equity, changing them on a rotating basis and maintaining flexibility to ensure it meets the needs of the field. The current focus, reflected in the five Core grants announced today, is on addressing biases in hiring and advancement and increasing the number and influence of women and girls in leadership.
“We’re extremely excited about the work these five organizations do to promote gender equity in Israel and the United States,” said Roz Garber Toledano, a Hadassah Foundation board member and co-chair of the Core grants committee. “From Israel’s lucrative tech sector to its influential national security establishment to American Jewry’s top leadership positions, all five grantees are creating critical opportunities for women and girls to succeed in areas where they are currently underrepresented.”
ABOUT THE CORE GRANTEES:
Forum Dvorah is the only organization in Israel focusing on gender equality in key decision-making positions in the fields of national security and foreign policy. It manages a network of over 200 leading women in Israel in these fields and supports the next generation of leadership among young women in them.
The Gender Equity in Hiring Project challenges gender bias in hiring and employment processes in Jewish organizational life, to help women rise into positions of leadership. It equips Jewish organizations with knowledge and support as they develop the mindset, skills, and strategies necessary to support the Jewish community as they advocate for and experiment with organizational change and culture shifts.
Israel Women’s Network (IWN) has been advancing gender equality and women’s rights in Israel for more than 38 years. Alongside its efforts to eradicate gender-based violence and to promote gender equality awareness and education in Israeli society, the IWN promotes gender equality in the workplace, in public spaces, and in government allocations of resources. The Foundation’s grant to IWN will cover efforts to increase awareness of women’s rights in the workplace.
Itach Ma’aki, Women Lawyers for Social Justice is an Israeli advocacy organization working to advance the status of women in Israeli public and private life. From workplaces to local municipalities to governmental bodies and the home, it is committed to furthering women’s legal rights, socio-economic advancement and representation. Founded in 2001, it works across a plethora of communities focusing on Israel’s most marginalized women, including Bedouin women, haredi women and women living in Israel’s economic and geographical periphery.
QueenB was founded in 2016 with the aim of increasing the representation of Israeli women in the high-tech industry, in order to promote gender equality and equal employment opportunities. QueenB operates on two main tracks: offering after-school programming classes for teenage girls and creating a community of female students in the fields of computer science and engineering.