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DONOR PROFILES

NIKE FOUNDATION: THE GRASSROOTS GIRLS INITIATIVE (GGI)

Nike Foundation launched the Grassroots Girls Initiative (GGI) in June 2006, partnering with the Firelight Foundation and five other organizations. Grassroots organizations bubble up practical, innovative solutions to the problems girls face, but are often unable to secure adequate and consistent funding. GGI works to resolve this by providing long-term support to grassroots organizations to empower adolescent girls by implementing programs, conducting advocacy, and strengthening their organizational and programmatic capacities.

Girls are the most powerful source of change in this work and GGI is an example of direct investments in what many are now calling the ‘Girl Effect’—the social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate.

In 2008, Nike Foundation supported 25 Firelight grantees in several countries—groups like the Livingstone Anglican Children’s Project in Zambia; Elimu, Michezo na Mazoezi in Tanzania; and the Women Empowerment Group in Zimbabwe. Over the years, our partners have become increasingly aware of the specific needs of adolescent girls—noticing when girls are markedly absent in school, community activities, and public life, and integrating programming for girls into their work. Firelight’s GGI-funded grantees have had a significant positive impact on girls’ lives, ensuring that they have access to health, education, social protection, and programs and spaces that support their development and empowerment. The work of the Nike Foundation is supported by Nike, Inc. and by significant investments by the NoVo Foundation, which has enabled the exponential impact of the Girl Effect.

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