NoVo Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The NoVo Foundation seeks to transform society from one based on dominance to one based on equality. It prioritizes protecting girls and women against violence in conflict and post conflict regions, as well as advocating for gender equality.
IP TAKE: This progressive funder makes substantial grants, but is driven by the personal interests of its founders. NoVo supports community organizing initiatives, civil rights, and civil liberties for marginalized groups in the United States and internationally. This foundation considers itself a patient and open-minded funder when it comes to the development of sustainable solutions to entrenched global problems. In other words, NoVo is an NGO’s dream—at least for those that can crack the code leading to a proposal invite. However, it’s not known for being accessible or responsive. This is a tough funder to crack. Its sparse web presence doesn’t offer much guidance, either, in how NoVo evolves its grantmaking, which restricts transparency about the foundation’s work.
NoVo uses a bottom-up approach in its giving, and likely expects its grantees to do the same. The foundation also prizes holistic thinking, and a program that ties these together is more likely to attract attention than one that just focuses on a single facet.
PROFILE: The NoVo Foundation was established in 2006 by Peter Buffett, youngest son of Warren Buffett, and his wife Jennifer. NoVo’s initial endowment came from a gift from Warren Buffett of 350,000 shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock, worth approximately $1 billion at the time. NoVo is committed to “catalyzing a transformation in global society, moving from a culture of domination to one of equality and partnership.” Its main program areas are Adolescent Girls’ Rights, Ending Violence against Girls and Women, Social and Emotional Learning, Thriving Local Communities, and Indigenous Communities in North America.
Grants for Violence Prevention, Women and Girls, and Global Development and Security
The foundation bases its grantmaking on larger initiatives rather than specific programs. Those initiatives are Advancing Adolescent Girls’ Rights, Ending Violence Against Girls and Women, Advancing Social and Emotional Learning, Promoting Local Living Economies, and Supporting Thriving Local Communities. While NoVo maintains programs specifically centered on women and girls, the foundation views all of its grantmaking through a gender lens.
NoVo’s Advancing Adolescent Girls’ Rights initiative “seeks to ensure girls everywhere are able to reach their full potential.” The foundation expanded its work in 2015 to include both the Global South—a geographic focus from 2007 to 2014—and the United States. In the Global South, the foundation focuses on investing in organizations deepening the girls movement and those supporting adolescent girls. In the United States, NoVo seeks organizations that are solving challenges faced by girls of color within their local communities.
The foundation’s Ending Violence Against Girls and Women initiative seeks “change agents who take on deep-seated attitudes that lead to violence against women and girls.” NoVo focuses its support on groups achieving long-term policy change, concentrating on the priority areas of sex trafficking, ending domestic and sexual violence in the United States, economic justice, and ending violence against girls and women in conflict and post-conflict regions. It also supports efforts to engage boys and men to work together with women to advocate for more equitable and humanitarian public policies that can effectively prevent gender based violence. In this area, NoVo focuses on West Africa and the Great Lakes region. Past grantees include the Global Fund for Women and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Grants for LGBTQ, Immigrants, Refugees, and Civic Engagement and Democracy
The NoVo Foundation conducts grantmaking for the LGBTQ community, immigrants and refugees, and democracy and civic engagement through its recently launched Radical Hope Fund. This initiative targets groups that are “driving systemic social change in communities around the world” and combating the “breakdown of the fundamental pillars of democracy,” such as “independently functioning branches of government, rule of law, and a free press.” The foundation prioritizes projects that promote community organizing among marginalized or disenfranchised groups such as women, ethnic minorities, LGBT individuals, indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees, and people with disabilities. Past grantees for democracy and civic engagement include African Women’s Development Fund, Allied Media Projects, Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project, Collaborative Media Advocacy Platform, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, and Grassroots International. Past LGBTQI grantees include the Global Fund for Women and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Important Grant Details:
Grants generally range from $300,000 to $3 million. Grantseekers may review the foundation’s past grantees for more information on its grantmaking habits. The NoVo Foundation funds work throughout the United States and Canada, as well as internationally in Africa, Latin America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Europe. NoVo does not currently accept unsolicited proposals.
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