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Your Choice Gives Girls A Choice
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CREATING A WORLD WHERE NO CHILD IS EVER A BRIDE
VOW for Girls champions the girls around the world without the rights, resources, and choices to decide their own futures. VOW partners with local leaders worldwide to eradicate the causes of child marriage and create opportunities for every girl to be unstoppable
Our Story
Mabel van Oranje, an avid human rights activist, had an aha moment at a wedding where a couple asked for donations in lieu of gifts. What if she could marry the wedding industry to the cause she championed and end the international child marriage crisis? Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation, got on board. Enter VOW for Girls, the growing global movement that partners with brands and individuals to end child marriage. VOW for Girls is a vow for the future.
The Child Marriage Crisis
12
MILLION
girls a year become
child brides
THAT’S
1 GIRL
every
3 SECONDS
IT'S A
GLOBAL
PROBLEM
spanning
countries, cultures, and religions
How VOW Helps
GO DIRECTLY TO IMPACTFUL YET UNDERFUNDED COMMUNITY-BASED EFFORTS TO END CHILD MARRIAGE.
Efforts include advancing girls’ rights by providing education, job training, and vital life skills. Over 200 community-based organizations in fifteen countries currently receive grants, and 85% of those grantees are women-led organizations.
VOW is filling a funding gap in the global push to end child marriage: supporting efforts at the local level by focusing on effective, yet overlooked grassroots organizations that directly engage in the day-to-day lives of girls. We find, qualify, and fund these organizations with our sister organization and granting partner, the Girls First Fund.
Key Partnerships
VOW for Girls is made possible by these generous donors.
Innovative Fundraising
Brands
Brand partners build creative collaborations including, custom products and experiences to support girls.
Individuals
Couples make their celebrations of love even more meaningful by incorporating VOW into their weddings, bridal showers, and anniversaries.
Wedding Industry
Wedding professionals commit to using their businesses to raise awareness of child marriage and funds to help end it by joining the VOW Pro network.
Meet the VOW Team
Our Board
Darren Walker
Ford Foundation President and VOW Co-Founder
Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $16 billion international social justice philanthropy. Under his leadership, the Ford Foundation became the first nonprofit in US history to issue a $1 billion designated social bond to stabilize nonprofit organizations in the wake of COVID-19. Before joining Ford, Darren was Vice President at Rockefeller Foundation. Previously, he was COO of Harlem’s Abyssinian Development Corporation. Darren co-founded both the US Impact Investing Alliance and the Presidents Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. He serves on many boards, including the National Gallery of Art, Carnegie Hall, the High Line, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, and Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mabel van Oranje is a serial entrepreneur for social change working globally to advance equality, freedom, and justice. During the last decade, she played a catalytic role in the global movement to end child marriage, including the creation and growth of three entities central to efforts to support girls’ futures: Girls Not Brides, the Girls First Fund, and VOW for Girls. Mabel is currently a board member of Fondation Chanel and the Sigrid Rausing Trust. She is also an advisor to Apolitical Academy Global, Co-Impact’s Gender Fund, Global Witness, and The Elders. Mabel is a global champion of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage, and a co-founder and chair emeritus of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Margaret has the privilege of being the first Executive Director for CGRE. Prior to this, she served nine years as the Director of Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice at the Ford Foundation and, before that, was Vice President for Programs, American Jewish World Service, and earlier, the Vice President for Programs at the Ms. Foundation for Women. Earlier in her career, she helped design the Ford Foundation’s Reproductive Health program, worked at the Quaker United Nations Office and for Women of China Magazine based in Beijing, China. Margaret holds an M.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton, a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University, and is a Columbia Business School/Teachers College certified leadership coach. She is the proud mom of two, an avid reader, is dedicated to catching up on old TV series, takes pleasure in trying to grow things, and deeply believes change is necessary and possible.
Minjae Ormes is the VP of Marketing, Global Brand, Consumer Product Marketing, and Market Research at LinkedIn, and is the newest addition to VOW’s board of directors. With 20 years of experience in marketing, technology, digital media, and entertainment, Minjae provides our Board with a variety of knowledge and expertise that will help impact our growing movement to end the global child marriage crisis. Minjae has been recognized as one of Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs, Campaign US CMO 50, Adweek Women Trailblazers, Business Insider’s 20 CMOs to Watch, as well as Gold House’s 100 Most Impactful Asians of the Year.
Chid Liberty is a social entrepreneur and impact investor. He was born in Liberia, West Africa, but left as an infant when his father became the nation’s ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, with residence in Bonn. His family later sought exile in the United States during Liberia’s political turmoil. In 2009, Chid returned to Africa after 28 years abroad. Inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize winning Liberian Women’s Peace Movement, Chid co-founded Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified™ apparel factory to provide economic opportunities for internally displaced women, who on balance, were vulnerable to rampant unemployment and economic exclusion. In addition to his work at Liberty & Justice, Chid served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Liberia’s Monrovia Business Startup Center (BSC). The BSC was founded by Spark, a Dutch NGO, for whom Chid managed the Ignite Fund – an equity investment fund making strategic investments in companies with high growth potential in conflict-affected states. He currently is also a managing partner at Liberty Friedman, a private equity fund manager that invests through an impact lens. Chid also acquired, turned around, and sold The Dutchess - a 250 acre biodynamic farm and retreat center in New York’s Hudson Valley - to IHG (NYSE:IHG) in 2022. Chid was recognized by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her 2011 State of the Nation Address for his leadership in shaping trade policy and indigenous Liberian entrepreneurship. He is a 2020 Ashoka & Ikea Dela Globalizer Fellow and a 2018 C&A Fabric of Change Fellow, both awarded to social entrepreneurs pursuing system level change in retail supply chains. He was also named by Quartz as one of 30 groundbreaking African Innovators of 2017. Chid holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. And he works as an advisor and board member to a number of high-impact organizations including The Unreasonable Group and Unreasonable Capital, Sorenson Impact Foundation, Vow for Girls, Transform Finance, and the Georgie Badiel Foundation.
Clay is the Chief Executive Officer of VOW for Girls. Clay joined VOW as the organization’s first CEO in 2019. Under his leadership, VOW has significantly expanded its team, community of supporters, and funding partners, and has set a bold strategic plan for the next phase of the organization’s growth. Prior to VOW, Clay spent nearly a decade at the No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in America, where he was part of the founding team. During that time, revenues grew to more than $80 million annually. Before moving into more purpose-driven work, Clay was a marketing and entertainment executive, most recently at National Geographic Channels. A native of Kentucky, Clay lives in Brooklyn with his husband and spends his free time exploring all that New York City has to offer. Despite his inability to draw, Clay dreamed of being an artist when he was a child.
Caitlin works to cultivate relationships with some of VOW’s most passionate community of supporters: event professionals from around the world and couples who are celebrating finding one another. Before joining VOW, Caitlin dedicated over a decade working on the Community Development team at Smile Train, an international children’s charity. In her roles there, she focused on establishing grassroots community fundraising initiatives from the ground up and fostering connections with a committed group of donors and advocates. Additionally, Caitlin directed an esteemed international donor travel program, providing firsthand experiences showcasing the direct impact of Smile Train’s work on the ground. Although she hails from Massachusetts, Caitlin has spent nearly 15 years in the Bronx, almost earning her the title of a true New Yorker. She lives with her husband and son and enjoys spending her free time listening to too many podcasts and honing her embroidery skills. As a child, Caitlin dreamed of being an artist, the type of which changed almost daily.
Karina is Philanthropy Operations Manager at VOW for Girls, where she manages VOW’s fundraising systems. She focuses on finding data-driven solutions for database integrity, revenue analysis and reporting, and maintaining a donor-centric giving process. After starting her career in orchestra administration, Karina worked in higher education at Villanova University and Moore College of Art & Design, where she served as an operations manager and later in annual and major gifts relationship building. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and is earning her MPA in City Management from Villanova University. When not at work, Karina enjoys spending time with her daughter, reading, and working towards her goal of hiking in every National Park. When she was a child she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast and a photojournalist for National Geographic, simultaneously of course.
Meghan is the Director of Operations for VOW. In this role she builds HR, IT, and finance systems to support VOW’s growth. Most recently, Meghan served as the Senior Director of Marketing Operations at the Girl Scouts of the USA where she built the operations team from the ground up. In this position, she implemented portfolio management to improve the efficiency of a team handling more than 100 concurrent projects. Prior to her work at the Girls Scouts, Meghan worked with small theater nonprofits and other startups. This experience gave her deep appreciation for the challenges faced by mission-driven organizations and the importance of creating people-focused solutions to operational issues. A native of Pennsylvania, Meghan now calls Jersey City, NJ home. As a child, Meghan dreamed of becoming a marine biologist, a writer, and taking on a few imaginary jobs she read about in books. She is still an avid reader.
Lindsey leads the VOW for Girls communications strategy and implementation. In this role, she works to amplify the success of VOW’s programs, engaging with our supporters and reaching new audiences—she loves building communities around impact. Most recently, Lindsey spent four years as the Director of Communications for a Nepal-based organization addressing the intersection of income, healthcare, and education. Before this, Lindsey was the communications lead for a global health campaign supporting the UN, led digital communications for an environmental group, and developed a girls’ scholarship campaign in India. Her work has taken her around the world—from Honduras to Uganda, from Thailand to Nepal—with ample adventures along the way. Recently, Lindsey and her daughter embarked on a year-long road trip, fitting work, school, a cat, and a very old dog into a minivan. As a young teen, she dreamed of becoming the White House Press Secretary, a dream she hasn't entirely gotten over.
Liza works to engage corporations and institutions in our work to end the international child marriage crisis and support girls to live lives they love. Her passion is creating mutually beneficial partnerships that provide critical funding to change the trajectory of girl’s lives. Liza has worked in the non-profit sector for over 25 years including nearly two decades at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In 2015, Liza had the life changing opportunity to move to South Africa. It was there that she became focused on global humanitarian causes. Upon her return to the states, Liza joined Rise Against Hunger where she worked for five years as Sr. Manager, Global Corporate Partnerships. In her free time Liza enjoys working out, traveling, and time spent in nature. As a young girl, Liza dreamed of being a flight attendant because it seemed like the most glamorous job in the world.
Ayla is the Director, Strategic Philanthropy at VOW. In her role, she works closely with individuals, families and foundations to catalyze support for the global effort to end child marriage. Prior to joining VOW, she worked in a similar role at CARE, an INGO focused on global poverty relief. Ayla is passionate about connecting people to causes that are making a positive impact in the world. As a child, she dreamed of becoming the President of the United States and still secretly thinks she'd be excellent at that job. Ayla lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband and two small children. She loves road trips, long walks with her family, hosting dinner parties for her friends, and making meals/snacks that her children loved yesterday but hate today.
Every year, millions of couples celebrate their love by getting married and millions of their family and friends celebrate with them. VOW thinks: what if we could share this love to do something bigger? The U.S. alone spends billions on weddings each year. 66% of Gen Z & Millennial women are likely to pay more for a gift if it helps support ending child marriage. VOW is engaging this tremendous industry to help end child marriage and be the charity of choice for the wedding industry globally.
Why does VOW partner with the Girls First Fund?
The Girls First Fund has grantmaking expertise but is not designed to mobilize or accept donations from the public. VOW and the Girls First Fund complement and build on each other’s expertise.
Is VOW a 501c3?
Yes, VOW for Girls is a registered 501c3 in the United States. EIN: 83-1964328.
