You Helped Us Reach Our Goal. Now It’s Our Turn to Transform Your Generosity Into Action.

You – and Ruth Ann Harnisch – did it! We reached our matching grant goal!  When Ruth Ann and I exchanged ideas about a matching grant, she generously offered $25,000 through The Harnisch Foundation and one year to get it done. I admit, I thought it might take a year. After all, I always wondered if the GenderAvenger community understood the resources required for our work to happen. For sure, there is recognition of the incredible team that puts everything together; however, we have never made an issue of the cost of making change, compensating everyone fairly, always paying outside bloggers, and investing in technology to create the best tools to expose and correct gender imbalance in the public arena. We have never succumbed to insistent emails proclaiming our survival was at stake (though admittedly a few times it was – thanks to those who know they saved GA in those moments).

credit: Libby VanderPloeg, via Giphy

So, when we put out the call for contributions and set a six-week deadline to meet the match, I checked the responses every day and discovered that you exceeded our expectations. Between August 1 and October 1, we raised $25,828. Contributions ranged from $5 to $5,000. Our contributors live all across America from San Francisco to Washington, DC to New York City and come from as far away as Germany. Multiple genders gave. Some of my septuagenarian friends gave, our millennial supporters gave, and a few folks committed to monthly giving.

Plus, through her contribution, we discovered Louette Colombano, this week’s Avenger of the Week. I also had the great pleasure of rediscovering a wonderful friend from decades ago who popped up on the donation list and, after an email exchange and phone call where it felt like we’d never lost touch, I have a new walking-in-the-park partner.

I am flattered; I am gratified. On behalf of the entire GA Team, a big, big thank you to all.

“What will make people think to be inclusive all the time? How can we automatically think about gender balance, race, and other ways to make power, podiums, panels and public life less cis-white-straight-male? We hope GenderAvenger's tools will contribute to normalizing inclusion by praising the good and showing where others have room to improve.” —Ruth Ann Harnisch

Now it is our turn to transform your generosity into action. The match opens up an opportunity for us to create a special 2020 feature that will be incorporated into our GA Tally app called “Ballotmania”. As the calendar moves into 2020, you will be able to spread the word about whether you have the opportunity to vote for women. Based on your zip code, the GA Tally pie chart you create with the percentages of women, women of color, non-binary individuals, and men on your ballot to show whether they represent the demographics of their constituents. We are testing Ballotmania for zip codes in New Jersey and Virginia right now, so if you want to be part of the group that helps us improve the app, please email gina@genderavenger.com. We will let you know when Ballotmania is ready to go national in the new year.

As we close in on GenderAvenger’s fifth anniversary in 2020, we are in awe of our community’s support and how much you inspire our work. We work every day to live up to your expectations. Thank you again for exceeding ours.