On a 2005 trip to Morocco, Yann Borgstedt, Founder and President of The Womanity Foundation and a YPO member, experienced a calling to help young girls return to school and escape a life of abuse as child domestic workers. Since then, The Womanity Foundation has grown to become a global nongovernmental organization (NGO). It supports more than 22 million women through innovative programs ranging from teaching coding to girls in Afghanistan; addressing violence against women in Mexico and South Africa; investing in women-focused social ventures in Brazil and India; and launching disruptive media programs in the Arab world, allowing the voices of women to be heard.
“Much of the work is focused on shifting attitudes and reaching entire communities, including boys and men,” says Swiss-born Borgstedt, who, from the start, wanted to use his experience running successful businesses to create action-oriented and impact-driven initiatives with measurable objectives. Over the past 15 years, his foundation has created audacious programs tailored to different markets, led by a network of local partners, and run like a multi-stakeholder venture capital business.
“With schools and shops in many parts of the world like India and Afghanistan closing during lockdowns, 2020 has been a difficult year to run some of our programs. But the need has never been so great,” says Borgstedt. He cites the latest United Nations figures, which shows how before the pandemic, the poverty rate for women was expected to decrease by 2.7% between 2019 and 2021, but projections now point to an increase of 9.1%. “When there is downturn, the first one to get laid off is the woman.”
— Yann Borgstedt, Founder & President of The Womanity Foundation share
Borgstedt adds that one positive thing that has come out of COVID-19 is the recognition of issues like domestic violence. “Change starts by talking about it, and we are seeing people become more vocal about issues like domestic violence. More people are now willing to do something about it and get involved because they understand the toll on society,” he says.
As The Womanity Foundation continues to adapt programs to meet the growing needs of women toward achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG), Borgstedt shares some of the key drivers that continue to elevate the foundation to its global award-winning NGO status — with more than USD13 million invested in women empowerment initiatives around the world.
- Creating partnerships. “I’m a strong believer in building a consortium of people to work together toward a common objective. Partnering with other NGOs, corporations and the government sector has worked for us on many projects. You do not move the needle on your own. You need to work as part of the eco-system,” says Borgstedt.
- Scaling impact. One of the programs that Borgstedt is most proud of is Women Changemakers, launched in Brazil and India to help social entrepreneurs scale their impact. “Very much like a venture capital model, we try to find women-focused social entrepreneurs with interesting ideas and help them grow,” he says. As an example, Borgstedt mentioned Safeena Husain, Founder and Executive Director of Educate Girls, who has been able to increase her social enterprise reach from enrolling 23,000 girls who were not receiving a structured education into schools in 2013, to 750,000 enrolled girls in 2020 in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, India.
- Thinking long-term and strategically. While the intentions may be honorable, Borgstedt believes many donations are not thought through. “Helping an NGO for one or two years is not enough. Investors need to have a long-term plan and think more strategically on where and how to get involved. Changing behaviors and the way society works takes time. It does not happen overnight,” says Borgstedt, stressing the importance of a more “strategic philanthropy” approach. “I always say you start with the heart but finish with the head. At end of the day, it is like a business. You have to think where is the most impact and recognize that it will be a long-term commitment.”
- Working on all fronts. While education is a key pillar of his program, Borgstedt believes education alone is not enough and that a multi-faceted approach is required. “Education helps, but in countries like Afghanistan, if girls are educated but have no access to jobs, it may make matters even worse for them. So, you have to work on many fronts; education as well as employment opportunities and of course safety. If women do not feel safe, they can’t go to work.”
As for his outlook for the post-COVID-19 future, Borgstedt remains optimistic. “As an entrepreneur, I’m positive by nature. Countries are realizing women need to be part of the workforce and the economic recovery. If half of society doesn’t have the same opportunities or rights, productivity is affected. So not only from a humanitarian view, but from a purely practical point of view, if you want your country to grow and recover, you have to involve women.”
Want to learn more? Check out The Womanity Foundation Overview and Borgstedt’s “Why Men Should Invest in Women.”
