Zoom Cares grants $680,000 to help women and girls access and sustain educational and economic opportunities to pursue the futures they want for themselves.
3 min read
Updated on November 01, 2024
Published on October 11, 2024
Aparna brings to Zoom an expertise in building operations and infrastructure for rapidly growing technology companies. She serves as our Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this, she was our Chief Legal Officer. Most recently before Zoom, she was SVP, General Counsel for Magento Commerce, which was acquired by Adobe in 2018. Prior to Magento, Aparna was the VP, General Counsel for Nimble Storage (NYSE: NMBL); she was instrumental in Nimble’s initial public offering in 2013. Later, she led Nimble’s sale to Hewlett Packard Enterprise in 2017. Previously, Aparna led the legal and corporate development functions for Inphi Corp (NYSE: IPHI). Bawa began her career as a corporate and securities attorney for Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She was also an investment banker at Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank, where she executed multiple IPO and M&A transactions for technology clients.
Around the world, women and girls continue to face barriers in accessing education and employment. Despite notable progress in the last three decades, systemic challenges such as poverty, cultural norms, and inadequate resources persist, preventing many from realizing their full potential. These obstacles not only limit individual opportunities but stifle societal and economic growth and innovation.
The World Giving Institute reports that less than 2% of philanthropic funding supports causes focused on women and girls. Women’s labor market participation globally remains roughly 30% lower than men's; women still shoulder an overwhelmingly disproportionate amount of unpaid domestic and care work, and refugee girls are half as likely to enroll in secondary school than male peers.
At Zoom, we care about creating a better future for women and girls. So today we’re proud to announce the Her Future Opportunity Grant. This $680,000 Zoom Cares grant will help women and girls access and sustain educational and economic opportunities to pursue the futures they want for themselves.
The grant provides support for nonprofits working to empower women and girls in global geographies — Africa, Australia, England, India, Ireland, Singapore, and the United States — with $85K going to each organization. We’re also offering optional in-kind Zoom licenses and tech support, giving more of their users access to our products and opening up premium features.
We’ve selected organizations that have a deep understanding of the challenges women and girls face. In particular, we’re supporting nonprofits that help women who are affected by persistent challenges that compound unemployment, such as poverty, identity-based discrimination, natural disasters and conflict, or being a sole parent.
“We know women and girls in each economy and community face different challenges, so the right solutions will look different from place to place,” said Tilly Josephson, philanthropy and community impact lead at Zoom. “In some locations, part of the solution may be expanding programming to drive high school completion, in others, more pathways to flexible jobs and entrepreneurship or improving labor rights education. We chose these nonprofits because they’re deeply committed to uplifting women and girls, offer locally relevant solutions, and engage their communities to ensure women’s voices, experiences, and aspirations directly inform the work.”
Zoom’s technology plays an important role in enabling hybrid work and learning, and that allows more women to participate in jobs and economic opportunities. And while female empowerment through flexible work is important to us, we want to do even more to ensure girls and women can access opportunities.
“This funding will have a positive impact on multiple levels,” Smita Hashim, Zoom’s chief product officer said. “If we can open doors for more women and girls, it’s good for those individuals, of course. They can pursue their dreams. They can build a better future for themselves. But if we take a big-picture view, it’s also good for their communities and, ultimately, for economies and societies around the world.”
After distributing $35 million in grant funding since 2020, we’re excited to take another step forward with the Her Future Opportunity Grant. When every girl around the world has the opportunity to realize her potential, the possibilities for our future are limitless.
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