Global Fund strives to achieve a just, equitable, and sustainable world in which women and girls have resources, voice, choice, and opportunities to realize their human rights. In order to make the greatest impact for women's rights, we focus on three key issues that make a vital difference for women and girls: 1) gender-based violence; 2) political and economic empowerment; and 3) sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Global Fund uses four key strategies to achieve our goals: 1) we invest in women-led, grassroots organizations by providing general support grants and capacity building; 2) we convene women's organizations and women leaders to facilitate collective action and networking to strengthen the women's movement; 3) we amplify the voices of the women's movement through advocacy, communications, and technology; and 4) we mobilize resources for women's organizations and movements through strategic partnerships and innovative funding mechanisms.

Global Fund for Women has several capacities that enable us to make progress toward our goals and implement our strategies, including: Global Fund board and staff members have expertise and commitment to advancing women's human rights; 25 years of experience and knowledge; vast global networks of advisers, peer organizations, women, and women's organizations on the ground in Asia Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa using a rights-based approach; over 14,000 donors; and nearly 200,000 social media followers.

We conduct regular assessment of our progress towards the Global Fund's strategic plan goals through an annual planning and reflection week, team retreats, and year-end reviews. We measure the success of our grantmaking strategies by capturing the changes reported by grantees along four quadrants that are necessary for transformative and lasting social change to occur. The four quadrants are 1) increased awareness of women and girls of their human rights 2) increased access to resources or services for women and girls 3) changes in laws and policies and 4) shifts in socio-cultural norms, beliefs, and practices.

Global Fund for Women has invested over $110 million in women-led organizations in 175 countries worldwide, fulfilling our principle of getting core funding directly into the hands of women-led groups on the ground, working in their communities. Global Fund has also leveraged the knowledge and expertise of Global Fund staff and networks for shared learning and advocacy. Global Fund grantees have gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize, be elected to parliament, overthrow oppressive regimes, and end wars. Two major projects recently completed that highlight Global Fund's progress include:

1) Breakthrough Project: Catalyzing Activism to Achieve MDG3 in Asia: (completed in 2011) The goal of this three-year grant from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of the Netherlands was to strengthen our efforts to end violence against women, promote women's participation in politics and public administration, and secure property, inheritance rights, and broader employment opportunities. The Global Fund helped to promote and develop women's leadership to address these issues through a wide range of activities, including providing financial support through grants, technical training on evaluation, and convening opportunities for linking and networking. Over the course of the project, the Global Fund made 140 grants, visited grantee partners in seven key countries, created a rigorous evaluation framework, and conducted a unique regional convening of grantees, themed around evaluation and learning. Over 544,000 women, girls, men, and boys directly benefited from the project, and over 100 million women and girls will potentially benefit from new laws and policies passed.

2) Grassroots Girls Initiative (GGI): For the past eight years, the Global Fund has been an active participant of the Nike Foundation's initiative, made up of a coalition of six grantmaking organizations that provide strategic funding to grassroots organizations focused on supporting girls. The focused learning framework of the GGI, coupled with the in-depth exchanges of information with peer grantmakers, have allowed us to deepen our knowledge of best practices in supporting girls and to refine our grantmaking strategy accordingly. Through the GGI, Global Fund has provided almost $1,500,000 in grants to more than 100 groups across the world working to empower adolescent girls and amplify their voices in order to bring change into their communities.