Amidst Global Rollback of Women’s Rights, Elevate Prize Foundation Pledges $1M to Equality Now Over the Next Decade

MIAMI,  May 13, 2025 —  Equality Now,  along with their Global Executive Director, S. Mona Sinha, has been awarded the 2025 Elevate Prize Founder’s Award in recognition of the organization’s transformative role in the reform of 120 sex-discriminatory laws—from child marriage and rape to digital safety, inheritance, and citizenship—that deny women and girls their rights and full potential around the world.

The Elevate Prize Founder’s Award celebrates innovation and purpose, recognizing game-changing social entrepreneurs or endeavors. The award comes with an unrestricted grant designed to drive greater impact and meaningful change. In recognition of the vital work Equality Now is championing in creating a just and equal landscape that allows women and girls to reach their full potential, the organization will receive $1 million over the course of 10 years, marking a decade-long commitment to supporting Equality Now’s work..

Gains in gender equality are increasingly under threat from rising authoritarianism, shrinking civic space, and deep cuts to funding for women’s rights. In response, the global human rights movement is calling for renewed, sustained investment in the rights and futures of women and girls. According to the United Nations, it will currently take nearly 300 years to achieve full gender equality, despite a global pledge to do so by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals.

“This isn’t just about funding. It’s a call to action — especially to men,” said Joe Deitch, the Founder and Chairman of the Elevate Prize Foundation. “We are so much more, so much better, when we have access to each other’s perceptions and talents and strengths. Men need to step up, speak out, and stand beside the women who have carried this fight for too long.”

For over 30 years, Equality Now has driven global legal reform for women and girls through expert advocacy, strategic litigation, partnerships, and grassroots collaboration. As a recognized international human rights expert, convener, and reformer, the organization shapes better laws, unites powerful movements, and holds power to account—delivering systemic change and advancing equality worldwide.

“Receiving the Elevate Prize Founder’s Award is a powerful affirmation of our mission,” said Mona Sinha. “Legal equality is not just a technical goal—it’s a promise to women and girls everywhere. It means a girl can walk safely to school, a woman can own her own home, raise her voice, earn a living, and shape the society she lives in. This award shines a light on the transformative power of law to unlock their full potential.”

Recent research confirmed that gender equality indirectly benefits whole populations. Allowing women to achieve their full economic potential could add trillions of dollars to the global economy.

The unrestricted grant Equality Now is receiving from the Elevate Prize Foundation will enable the organization to expand its global strategy, which targets the root causes of legal inequality through five interconnected pillars. These include engaging governments and international bodies to adopt or reform 75 laws and standards that strengthen multilateralism and human rights protections as well as improving legal access for women and girls worldwide; strengthening women-led movements in over 60 countries to sustain reform and resist democratic backsliding; and ending gender-based violence by advocating for survivor-centered legal systems in 10 nations.

Additionally, it will champion women’s rights-informed digital rights to safeguard privacy and combat tech-facilitated violence, while its economic justice agenda seeks to reform laws that restrict land ownership, inheritance, and divorce.

“Legal equality is a first step—but not the last,” said Sinha. “The law must be a catalyst for cultural transformation. And that requires allies. It is especially powerful to see a leader like Joe [Deitch] stand in solidarity with women and girls. Joe’s leadership reflects a growing global movement of men standing as true allies in the pursuit of gender equality—a vital step toward transforming the harmful social norms that hold back entire communities.”