The +1 Global Fund was launched to activate a diverse and intersectional community of social innovators who, collectively, are tackling the health, economic, and social impact of COVID-19 in vulnerable communities. Four Network Partners — The Obama Foundation, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Acumen, and The Resolution Project — joined us in our first round.
We started with 170 social entrepreneurs and innovators from 40 countries carefully selected from within our Partner Networks. Each one of these nominators was asked to nominate up to three of their peers whose efforts are successfully addressing COVID-19 in their communities.
We started with 170 leading entrepreneurs and innovators
From 40 countries impacted by COVID-19
43% of nominators were organizations led by women
Our 170 nominators identified over 270 nominees in 44 countries, all of whom are working to protect the world’s most vulnerable communities.
Approximately 86% of nominees have significantly pivoted their work as a result of COVID-19. These organizations have utilized new tools to conduct their work, launched entirely new programs to address new emergency needs, and reached new populations.
Approximately 40% of nominees were organizations led by women. A large percentage of whom are focused on gender-based violence and widening inequity in the midst of the pressures of the pandemic.
The interconnected and cascading issues created by the pandemic are affecting all facets of our lives. Our 270 nominees are touching on a wide-range of issue areas.
The resulting nominees from our program work in all sectors affected by COVID-19.
These are the areas in which those organizations work.
We asked nominators to explain how well and to what extent they know their nominee. Over 70% of the nominators indicated that their relationship with their nominees was considered close.
Here’s how they expressed that:
27% of nominators said that they are in regular contact with their nominee, and that their successes were deeply entwined.
26% of nominators said that they actively support their nominee in some way and know them well.
17% of nominators said that they had good working knowledge of their nominee’s work. They could explain this organization’s work in some detail, and were in contact with each other.
More than half of all nominees focus their efforts on the economically disadvantaged.
33% of nominees work with disenfranchised youth, and 22% explicitly focused their work on historically marginalized communities.
More than one quarter of all nominees focused their efforts on the unemployed.
As of early November 2020, over 48.3 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed and over 1.2 million people have died from the virus worldwide. In many regions of the world, decades of critical progress toward human health, safety, and well-being have been reversed. For this round, we focused on three broad regions in the world hardest hit by the pandemic.
United States
As of early November, 2020 the US accounts for 5% of the world’s population — and 20% of COVID deaths. Almost 30% of our +1 Global Fund nominators and nominees were based in and conducting work in the United States.
Sources: NPR, John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
India
And as of late October 2020, India is the second most-infected population in the world. Approximately 18% of our participants were in India, most of them focused on supporting economically disadvantaged populations during the pandemic.
East Africa
In May, The World Health Organization estimated that 190,000 people in East Africa could die from COVID-19 if containment measures were not enacted swiftly. Approximately 23% of our +1 participants were from East Africa.
Source: World Health Organization
In Round One, over 40 nominators ($2k) and nominees ($12k) received funding for their efforts combatting Covid-19. These remarkable individuals, their organizations, and our Partners are forming an ever-expanding network of innovators building more inclusive, healthy, and sustainable communities across the globe. Together, we will emerge from this terrible crisis stronger than we entered it.
“It’s a win-win! When they win I win”
– Nominator
“It gave us a chance to understand what others in our network are doing to create positive impact”
– Nominator
“This is the most innovative, adaptive, and timely solution to addressing the emerging global challenge of COVID-19”
– Nominee
