December 15, 2022

Generation Spark: Igniting, Supporting, and Propelling Girls of Color

In 2020, the Ms. Foundation for Women released the groundbreaking report, Pocket Change: How Women and Girls of Color Do More with Less, which provided a baseline understanding of philanthropic funding and investment in women and girls of color (WGOC) throughout the U.S and its territories. The report found that total philanthropic giving to WGOC averages out to just $5.48 per year for each woman or girl of color in the United States.

Since then, the Foundation has continued its strategic approach to invest in WGOC through its grantmaking initiatives, including the national Girls of Color Initiative, which provides funding, leadership development and capacity building resources to support the advocacy and movement building of adolescent girls of color – centering their advocacy needs.

Girls of color don’t just want to see change in their communities around these issues, they want to create it. The Girls of Color Initiative hopes to shift power back to girls of color to do just that.

With new research, surveys, and focus group participation, this appendix takes a closer look at the national landscape of programs and organizations in the U.S. Based on their experience, it directly shares from WGOC what is needed from the philanthropy community to best support girls of color and transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) youth of color in their advocacy efforts.