International Center for Research on Women
(Picture above on icrw.org homepage)
International Center for Research on women is a non-profit organization
based in Washington, D.C, with offices in Kenya and India. Their stated
mission is to “empower women, advance gender equality and fight poverty
in the developing world.” They believe that women’s well-being is
essential to healing global poverty because the role women play in their
respective cultures and therefore in international relations and economy is
of equal importance as the role men play. But if women are barred from
playing that role well, if women are unable to succeed in their lives
because they may be married off too young, battered by a husband, raped
by a stranger, unable to eat, unable to obtain birth control, et cetera, then
we as an international society cannot have a healthy people or a healthy
economy. ICRW has projects in countries all over the world, including but
not limited to Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Zambia, Egypt, South Africa,
Nigeria, the Balkans, Nepal, and India. These projects not only help
women around the world, but they include men in their endeavor to reach
gender equality all over. The projects have goals such as education about
masculinity and violence, family planning, women’s employment, alcohol
awareness, ending child marriage, and encouraging nutrition. They are a
fairly transparent and accountable organization with their finances,
according to Charity Navigator, although their finances may not be wellplanned and spent. Of all the revenue they accumulate through
contributions, gifts, government grants, and fundraising (which they do not
seem to do a lot of), over half of it is spent for its programs. However, they
spend more they earn when administrative expenses are factored in.
Because of this, they may not be the most sustainable charity there has ever
been, but it does seem like they do great and necessary work all over the
world, even if that work may be limited to the funds that they lack.
Baylee Warren
http://ircw.org/
https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=
3884