37 Israeli nonprofit organizations representing Jewish, Arab Israeli, Druze and Bedouin women to receive funding; grants focus on socioeconomic opportunity, gender equality, minority rights and violence prevention for women.

Today The Genesis Prize Foundation and the Morris Kahn Foundation announced winners of the Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality grant initiative. A total of thirty-seven Israeli women’s rights organizations serving women from all of Israel’s ethnic and religious groups will receive $1 million in Genesis Prize grants.

Grants are funded by the $1 million annual Genesis Prize award, doubled to $2 million in 2018 by Israeli philanthropist Morris Kahn. Grant recommendations were reviewed and endorsed by an advisory committee that included the inaugural Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Following the announcement of the competition in Israel, a record number of more than 220 applications from Israeli NGOs were received in two weeks, reflecting an enthusiastic commitment to gender equality among Israel’s civil society, as well as a strong demand for funding in this sector. Of the selected grantees, approximately 30% are serving Jewish women, 30% serving Arab, Bedouin and Druze women and 10% in the LGBT community. Seventy-five percent of the programs will fund nationwide activity, with the remaining grants focusing on regional programs in the North and South of Israel, as well as in East Jerusalem.

Addressing the winning grantees by video, Justice Ginsburg said: “I am so pleased and proud of contributions that will be made to organizations that are doing great things to improve the lives of women and girls, and particularly of bringing together different communities – Arab Israelis, Jews, Bedouins – all Israeli women. I think women can contribute a great deal to achieving, someday, a lasting peace.”

A matching grants initiative is under way in North America, with grantees to be announced in winter 2019. Together, the two programs are expected to deliver up to $3 million in new funding to this field in 2018-20, depending on the volume of matching grants attracted by North American Jewish organizations.

A complete list of the thirty-seven winning organizations and their projects that will receive funding in 2018-20 can be found here.