Hi, Welcome ~

I invite you to join Step Forward Global Initiative (SFGI)’s Funding Circle! SFGI is a civic tech nonprofit organization pursuing gender parity in leadership by elevating women who step forward for higher office and increasing public awareness of them. The Funding Circle gives SFGI its early momentum and credibility.

SFGI’s Origin Story

When I was a girl growing up in London, England, my brother had three posters, each of a prominent Cold War global leader, at the time; one of whom was Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom. I was awestruck by her image, a bit taken aback and intimidated, even. Though, my young mind had difficulty reconciling Margaret Thatcher’s visibility with the conspicuous lack of visibility of women stepping forward for higher office, generally, locally to globally. The impact of her image, a woman leader with decision-making power, stays with me to this day. Her visibility - the visibility of a woman leading, displayed on my brother's wall - continues to influence my life's course. SFGI is an attempt to transform this influence into impact.

SFGI’s North Star

Why are women 51% of the global population yet only 13% of global leaders? SFGI contends that women stepping forward for political office must be more visible to the global public. We are a nonpartisan, non-endorsing, civic tech, global platform advancing gender parity in politics by increasing global public awareness and women candidates' visibility - thus, their credibility, legitimacy, and viability.

SFGI’s Mission

SFGI is creating an infrastructure, powered by AI and data analytics, and catalyzing an ecosystem: connecting women who step forward to one another, to organizations that support them, and to the global public. Our platform reflects the growing global momentum of women stepping forward for public office, and we maintain that scaling this network is the difference between symbolic inclusion and the upswell of elected women leaders.

Join SFGI

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Step Forward Global Initiative (SFGI)! I hope you will join our Funding Circle. When you do, your name is added to SFGI's website Gratitude page in recognition of your contribution and commitment. If your preference is to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym, kindly let me know at aoifemeehan@makethestep.org. Lastly, if you are a member of SFGI's Founding Circle and would like to increase your contribution, you will become a Funding Circle member.

With kind regards and a million thanks,

Aoife Meehan, Founding Chief Executive Officer, https://www.makethestep.org/

Step Forward Global Initiative operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Social Good Fund (EIN 46‑1323531), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations are processed by Social Good Fund and are tax‑deductible, as permitted by law.

Below, please see questions and answers about SFGI.

❓Before I contribute, can you share what the Funding Circle funds will specifically support?

Yes! Funding Circle gifts will finance the pilot of SFGI's global data hub (NOVEL): tracking women candidates in elections worldwide, drawing data from 193 countries for comparative analysis, and generating storytelling visualizations.

🙋Tell me more about SFGI's platform.

Our visibility platform tracks all global elections where women are stepping forward - at every level, in every country - in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. It is a platform that recognizes women candidates are part of a growing global momentum and shifts the global public’s perception by providing data that reduces today’s women’s visibility gap in leadership, particularly at the starting line of the electoral pipeline

❓How does this affect me, my family, society?

Women are 51% of the global population and only 13% of global leaders. Let this sink in.

Leadership around the world does not reflect the population it governs. Decisions are made for our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our aunts, our cousins - young women, adult women, and older women without women: healthcare, defense, education, economics, safety, climate, technology, foreign policy, and the list goes on. This disparity impacts the effectiveness of policies and systems, globally to locally. SFGI provides you, future generations, media, governments, and research institutions and think tanks with a global, non-partisan, non-endorsing platform that makes women candidates more visible, giving a clearer understanding of one's own political environment and globally.

💥SFGI Shifts Baseline Perception

When we see women running - everywhere - it shifts our baseline:

We teach young women and girls to see leadership as theirs to claim.
We notice women in leadership more often.
We come to expect women to be present and recognize when they are missing.
We see leadership as a shared human domain.

Funding Circle, SFGI