At AVPN, we believe in re-imagining philanthropy and adapting to needs on the ground — and our recent work with the Asia Gender Equality Fund is an excellent showcase of that philosophy.
Asia Gender Equality Fund
The Asia Gender Equality Fund is an initiative catalysed by AVPN with support from Fondation CHANEL, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Target Foundation and members of AVPN’s Asia Gender Network. Set up to invest in women’s economic empowerment across the Asia Pacific region, the fund aims to make lasting change in the lives of women and girls in Asia, particularly those from under-served and marginalised communities. The fund is targeting to raise and deploy USD 25 million within the next five years to support initiatives and solutions by non-profit organisations that align with the fund’s mission.
Identifying and selecting organisations with the greatest potential for impact is a key part of what makes the fund’s approach of trust-based philanthropy effective.
Trust-based philanthropy
Trust-based giving is unrestricted or flexible funding support provided to non-profits, and forms the core of AVPN’s philanthropic efforts. This funding is offered to selected grantees for a period of two to three years, to give these organisations adequate time to achieve their full potential.
Naina Batra, CEO of AVPN, explains the rationale for employing this approach: “At its core, trust-based philanthropy recognises that local impact organisations are usually closest to the issues and communities being served. They are often in the best position to decide where resources are needed most and possess the expertise and drive to effect change.”
It’s hard to deny the unconventionality of this method. Donors tend to prefer restricted funding, perceiving it to have more structure and stability. However, over time, the Asia Gender Equality Fund has worked closely with them to build their trust and help them gain a clearer understanding of how trust-based giving works. Donors were kept involved every step of the way including the finalisation of grantees, a key step to cultivate their trust in AVPN’s open and collaborative fund management process.
Selection of grantees
Incorporating a robust gender lens focus in managing our philanthropic funds, it is important that the goals and culture of our grantees are a suitable fit. Our selection process has seen a wide range of grantees who employ diverse strategies such as skills training, entrepreneurship support, and financial literacy programs, all with a primary focus on women and girls as the ultimate beneficiaries of these initiatives.
A big contributing factor is that we go beyond merely assessing the proposed interventions when reviewing applications. We also actively seek information on the diversity of the management teams within applicant organisations. Our application forms are designed to get a fuller picture of the gender composition in these teams, and our criteria is in favour of team diversity.
We also seek to understand how much the voices of end beneficiaries factor into the design and execution of the grantees’ initiatives. This way, we can give donors the assurance that they are supporting organisations that prioritise gender equality and practise it internally within their own workforce.
Evaluation
Strong governance measures, as well as a robust Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) process, are put in place to get detailed progress check-ins every six months. These check-ins include status updates on how the funds are utilised and their impact on the community, followed by AVPN’s assessment on whether the grantees’ intended objectives have been achieved. To ensure fair and objective evaluation, an independent organisation is brought in to do the assessment and measure the funding’s effectiveness.
