Native Women Lead

Mission

Equality Can't Wait Awardee

Our mission is to revolutionize systems and inspire innovation by investing in Native Women in business. We do this by co-creating with and convening our community to build coalition while honoring our culture, creativity, and connections.

Native Women Lead is fiscally sponsored by New Mexico Community Capital.

Launched in June 2020, Equality Can't Wait was a $40 million challenge to fund solutions to help expand women’s power and influence in the U.S. by 2030. The Challenge was hosted by Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ investment and incubation company — with additional support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. Five-hundred-and-fifty (550) proposals were submitted to the competition and were evaluated using four criteria: Whether the proposals were transformative, innovative, equitable, and feasible. The Equality Can't Wait Idea Lab features top projects from all submissions, as selected by a panel of experts and peers. Five Awardees were announced in July 2021: Four received $10 million each (Ada Developers Academy; Girls Inc.; Native Women Lead; National Domestic Workers Alliance), and one received $4 million (FreeFrom).

Organization Information