GIRLTREK INCORPORATED
Take a walk. Join a movement!
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We have a health crisis in America and nowhere is the toll greater than with African-American women. Due to caregiver responsibilities, high-stress environments, lack of financial resources and a culture that celebrates service over self-care, two-thirds of African-American women engage in little or no leisure-time physical activity. These levels of inactivity contribute to the highest rate of obesity in the country -- 82% of African-American women are overweight and a staggering 57% are obese. The rising cost of obesity-related medical treatment is $178 billion annually and these costs are only the beginning. Chronic disease decreases opportunities in the workforce, reduces quality of life and disproportionately leads to early death.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Health - Walking Program
GirlTrek produces, fun, culturally-relevant walking campaigns that provide an easy first step for women looking to move from inactivity to activity. A woman can start her fitness journey by completing GirlTrek’s fun, interactive "20 in 30” Jumpstart challenge and earn her golden shoelaces. Make a multi-week commitment to walking in one of our themed national walking challenges. Meet up on Saturday’s for a brisk walk through her neighborhood with her local walking team, or join us for a beautiful hike through a national park during our "Summer Trek Series”. GirlTrek’s walking program provides endless opportunities for women seeking to get active, form support networks, and establish walking as a daily habit in their lives.
Service - Training
GirlTrek invests in and trains African-American women to serve as local health leaders, walking advocates, and healthy role models in at-risk communities across the country. GirlTrek's service model includes useful health and leadership training for its volunteers.
Participants learn to serve as walking coaches, learn to audit walkability in their neighborhoods and teach "Talks Before the Walks" about practical disease prevention.
Where we work
Awards
The Social Innovation Award 2012
Teach for America
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Total number of organization members
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Health - Walking Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Total number of GirlTREK members who have taken the GirlTREK Pledge to commit to walking towards their healing and liberation
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The solution is simple -- walking. Daily walking reduces the risk factors of obesity. Walking is the single most powerful thing a woman can do to improve her health. Daily walking dramatically reduces risk of chronic disease (heart disease by 50%, diabetes by 58%) AND improves mental health: 50% reduction in risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, 48% reduction in anxiety and 47% of walkers relieved of all symptoms of depression.
OUR NEED
We listened to our community and we have a clear mission for the next phase of our movement: Increase the life expectancy of Black women by 10 years in 10 years. For us, this is a true measure of justice. To guide our strategy, we conducted a multi-year study on the drivers of early death for Black women and created a model called The Three Deadly I’s:
Inactivity: Sitting too long is linked to chronic disease, dementia and premature death.
Isolation: Loneliness is deadlier than cigarette smoking.
Injustice: Our members feel fear, hopelessness, financial hardship, and major gaps in healthcare and food systems. The chronic stress of injustice is linked to heart disease.
In 2025, we will launch our ten-year Care Crusade. Millions of Black women will walk, talk, and solve problems to address inactivity, isolation, and injustice. Our strategy combats the Three Deadly I’s and relies on our greatest asset: proximate people power. We will:
Walk: Walking is our movement’s keystone habit. Members start their healing journeys here as solo trekkers or in crews, which function as walking support groups. We plan to scale up our self-care campaigns and support new neighborhood-level behaviors such as reclaiming healthy food.
Talk: Our solution for isolation is human connection. We will make social cohesion possible through door-to-door listening campaigns, digital peer support groups, and local events that center Black wellness, joy, and justice. We will create a new culture of health with bold storytelling, building on the success of our viral podcast, Black History Bootcamp. We are inspiring hope and developing new mental models of possibility.
Solve Problems: The most energized of our members will lead as Community Health Activists in 1,000 Black neighborhoods in America. By showing up for neighbors, listening to needs, and offering life-saving services, these activists will transform mental healthcare, food access, wellness programs, and benefits access. Partners like the American Red Cross and FoodCorps will join us in creating a big tent to advance public health. We will build coalitions to secure public funding for community care and advance policies that heal generations. We will create new systems that serve us.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
OUR PLAN
We can increase the life expectancy of Black women by 10 years in 10 years, creating a legacy of health, joy, and justice. This is our plan:
People: We are recruiting top talent in healthcare, technology, organizing, and operations to join our small and strategic national staff. We are investing in regional coaches, state coaches, and organizers trusted in high-priority communities, from churches to colleges. We are supporting our committed members to develop skills as leaders and train as community health workers.
Technology: It is time for technology to do heavy lifting for this movement. The envisioned GirlTREK app will support habit formation, connections between members, and problem-solving. Our data will guide our grassroots organizing and policy platform. We will boldly harness new tools, from generative AI to fintech, to support members as they add years to their lives.
Sustaining the Movement: Mission-aligned revenue-generating opportunities include Black history walking tours and care cooperatives with public funding. We envision a growing number of movement allies contributing to our cause over time. We are also exploring economic power-building and community investment through a digital credit union.
Reclaiming Historic Places: We are purchasing landmarks of Black history as regional headquarters and staging grounds for daily organizing. Our first Care Village was established in Montgomery, Alabama in 2023, when we bought the Bricklayers Hall – the site where the Montgomery Bus Boycotts were organized and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had an office. These locations will be sites of truth and joy, where Black history meets Black futures.
Together, we can make history.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
GirlTrek is pioneering a health movement for African-American women and girls grounded in Civil Rights history and principles through walking campaigns, community leadership, and health advocacy. With a social media reach in the millions. GirlTrek uses its impact via social media, coupled with its 1.2M member-base to spread the mission of walking as the first step to healthy living and self-care.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
This mission can only be achieved by a social movement. In 2024, our goals are to (1) Recruit an additional 500,000 members (half of the goal to reach 2.35 million Black women by 2025 constituting 10% of the total population) with 5% being youth engagement and 5% justice-involved women; (2) Engage 50% of existing and new membership in jumpstarting a daily walking habit;
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
GIRLTREK INCORPORATED
Board of directorsas of 11/28/2023
Tulaine Montgomery
CEO - New Profit
Dr Regina Benjamin
18th Surgeon General of the United States
Dr Gary Bennett
Duke’s Global Digital Health Science Center and Obesity Prevention Program
Chaula Gupta
VP of Program Investments at The Chicago Public Education Fund
Rita Johnson-Greene
Chief Operating Officer Alliance for Regenerative Medicine
Serita Cox
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of iFoster
Qiana Conley
Senior Executive Director · The Recording Academy
T. Morgan Dixon
CEO & Co-Founder GirlTREK
Vanessa Garrison
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer
Deonta Wortham
Chief of Staff and Director of Strategy
Kathryn Schotthoefer
Founder & CEO of Original Media Ventures
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 11/20/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.