2017 Girls Inc.
Girls today face real and profound challenges. In fact, 1 in 4 girls experiences sexual abuse or sexual assault by age 17. One in 5 teen girls report experiencing mental disorder. Too many girls are missing out on education opportunities to prepare them for college and careers, particularly girls from low-income communities. And they are missing out on the critical knowledge and resources to prevent unplanned pregnancy and build healthy relationships.
But at Girls Inc., girls are empowered and equipped to overcome these barriers and succeed. They receive research-based programming and supports proven to achieve positive outcomes in the areas of health (Strong), education (Smart), and life skills (Bold). The Girls Inc. Experience, our comprehensive approach to whole girl development, allows girls to discover and build their inherent strengths, develop resilience, and plan for and work towards their future goals.
Knowing the transformative difference we’re making in the lives of girls, we are compelled to grow. And I’m proud to say in fiscal year 2017, we did just that. We grew the number of girls served with the high-impact Girls Inc. Experience by 7 percent to 51,148 girls. Guiding our work is a strong roadmap, our five-year plan, “Leveraging the Power of the Network and Brand: Strategic Plan 2016-2020.” This plan lays out a Bold Goal: to double the number of girls we serve with impact by 2020.
To support this ambitious target, last year we raised and invested significant capital. In 2017, we exceeded our annual operating revenue budget by 21 percent, bringing in $12.3 million to continue and expand our work. And we experienced an extraordinary first, a $10 million, four-year investment by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation to support our $20 million capital campaign. These funds allowed us to strengthen our affiliate network, providing $3.5 million in growth grants to local Girls Inc. organizations.
We also made great strides in addressing key priorities outlined in the plan, including building a framework to effectively deliver outcomes for girls; a strong affiliate network equipped to consistently deliver the Girls Inc. Experience; and a policy platform that supports our goal to improve the conditions in which all girls are growing up. You can read more about these achievements in the subsequent sections of this year’s report.
Growth requires strong leadership. Thank you to our outstanding Board of Directors, led by Chair, Melanie Gray. Their commitment to this new plan is tremendous with 100 percent contributing financially to the growth campaign. I conclude by expressing my appreciation to you, our donors, friends, and supporters who make this work possible. We could not have gotten this far without your belief in us -- and in the remarkable girls we serve.
I look forward to what we will accomplish together.
Judy Vredenburgh
President & CEO
This year marks my first full year as Chair of the Board of Directors, and the first completed year of our new strategic plan for growth in both direct service and advocacy. I am thrilled to say that Girls Inc. reached a new level of growth, impact, and effectiveness in fiscal year 2017. We secured critical funding to expand our reach, including the launch of Girls Inc. of Chicago in partnership with Martha Ruggles Elementary School on the Southside of Chicago. We also made significant investments in building the capacity of our affiliate network.
This year, Girls Inc. raised $13 million in growth capital, toward our $20 million investment campaign. This exceptional achievement allowed us to launch our first round of growth grants to 17 strong affiliates, three-year grants totaling $3.5 million, to expand strategically to serve more girls growing up in low-income communities. This could not be possible without the generous investment of the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.
We were also awarded a $2 million, two-year grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to serve girls at increased risk of juvenile delinquency and victimization. Grant funds will support affiliates as they strengthen and expand valuable mentoring efforts to help more girls beat the odds and thrive. Through direct service, as well as public policy and advocacy, Girls Inc. is making a measurable difference in the lives of individual girls and increasing opportunities for all girls to succeed.
This time of significant growth requires serious investment internally. We remain committed to strengthening our capacity both locally and nationally with a clear understanding of what resources, infrastructure, and practices are needed to support sustainability and expansion, including financial health. And I can report that our finances are strong. In fact, we ended fiscal year 2017 with nine months of cash operating reserves, more than double the nonprofit standard.
Growing up a girl today means navigating various gender, economic, and social barriers. One in five girls in the U.S. live in poverty, surpassing the national poverty rate of 13.5 percent. Nearly 70 percent of the girls who attend Girls Inc. live in households earning $30,000 a year or less. These girls face tough odds. But with Girls Inc. in their corner, they are excelling in school, living healthy and active lifestyles, and planning for college and careers. They are strong, smart, and bold.
We are grateful to have you on board at this important time. Together we will ensure many more girls have the knowledge, skills, and opportunity to push past serious barriers, break the cycle of poverty, and be all they can and want to be.
With gratitude,
Melanie Gray
Board Chair
* Date board service ended
† New board member term started FY18
The goals we’ve outlined in our Strategic Plan are ambitious. But the need is great. How do we expand our services to reach more girls and improve the conditions in which all girls grow up? The following are organizational priorities and steps we’re taking to accomplish them.
We are learning from our stellar affiliates what it takes to provide the high-quality Girls Inc. Experience, and providing them opportunities to learn alongside each other. We want to arm them with the knowledge and resources to build a strong business foundation and effective organizational leadership - to provide the very best support we can to the girls we serve.Pat Driscoll, Chief Operating Officer
While training services have long been an important support we provide affiliates, Girls Inc. is moving to a more intentional and centralized focus on learning that supports our work as a strong, data-driven, growing organization. Learning opportunities will include in-person events, online learning and virtual opportunities, and materials that are available 24/7. The learning strategy will also include implementing a learning management system to host online learning, track users, and index learning materials.
In this second year of our strategic plan, we invested $3.5 million to support the growth of 17 affiliates that demonstrated readiness for accelerated expansion in the number of girls served each year. This is the first of three stages of capital investment fueling nation-wide growth, with additional investments to be announced in early 2018 and in 2019. By 2020, we will have invested $14 million to directly support affiliate growth and advance our goal of increasing the number of girls served intensively by 50 percent.
Read more about how these growth grants are directly impacting affiliates in Shelbyville, IN and Panama City, FL.
Clear, concrete outcomes help us keep our finger on the pulse of what girls are getting from their experiences. Outcomes data shows us where programming is strong and where it needs improvement, helps affiliates target efforts, staffing and other resources, and ensures we are accountable to our mission and an excellent steward of the funds entrusted to us.Cristin Rollins, Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation
Girls Inc. has invested in a dual-focused research and evaluation plan to practically assess girls’ progress toward outcomes in the areas of health, education, and life skills (Strong, Smart, Bold), and measure our impact.
Many of the issues girls face are symptoms of larger, pervasive societal problems that are rooted in gender, racial, and income inequality. In order to ensure that all girls can realize their potential, we must dismantle the structural barriers that get in their way, and equip girls to raise their voices to effect policy change and shifts in cultural norms and attitudes.Lara S. Kaufmann, Director of Public Policy
Last fall, Girls Inc. conducted a network-wide survey of girls, affiliate leaders, parents, and donors to target our advocacy efforts. This research identified our top policy priorities to be:
This past winter, Girls Inc. inaugurated the first-ever Girls Action Network comprised of nine girls from seven affiliates. These girls will provide valuable insight to help guide our work and will advocate on behalf of girls throughout the network, lending their voices and perspectives to these important issues, including a trip to D.C. later this year to meet with policy makers.
We organized a network-wide day of action to urge Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to continue Title IX enforcement so schools fulfill their obligation to prevent and address sexual harassment and violence, and also met with the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights to reiterate our concerns.
We pushed the Senate to vote on the Juvenile Justice Reform Act, a bipartisan bill that would help reduce the number of marginalized girls detained for non-violent status offenses (many of whom are trauma survivors) and ensure that girls who are detained get trauma-informed care.
We developed the first-ever Girls Inc. Advocacy Handbook and supporting resources to build the capacity of the network to advocate in a big way. We hope that these resources will allow us to leverage our collective strength to improve the lives of girls, particularly those most vulnerable.
Girls Inc. is committed to doubling the number of girls we serve with impact by 2020, which is why we launched a $20M growth capital campaign in July 2016. To date, we’ve raised $13M in support of this ambitious goal, catalyzed by a $10M investment from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. The Foundation is joined by the entire Girls Inc. Board of Directors, close friends, and former Board in their support of this campaign. This extraordinary investment is reflective of a shared belief in the life-changing difference we make for and with girls, our detailed plans, and our proven track record of achievement. We are grateful to those who have joined with us to assure positive change for girls, their families, their communities, the next generation, and all of us.
Girls across the country have a champion in Girls Inc. Vice Chair, Tony Bucci. Widely recognized for his high-level thinking, strategic marketing expertise, and philanthropic efforts, Tony has been a valued member of our National Board of Directors since 2008. As Chairman and CEO of MARC USA, one of the nation’s largest privately-held marketing communications companies, Tony brought the full resources of his agency, as well as significant personal investments and vigor, to our campaign for national growth and expansion. He and his team at MARC USA were also responsible for the major overhaul of the Girls Inc. website and digital strategy. Tony is committed to spreading our mission wide and engaging his network with Girls Inc., to make sure that all girls, regardless of their circumstances, have the resources and supports they need to grow up to be healthy, educated, and successful.
A large part of living a healthy life is understanding and embracing your sexual health. We are proud to have a like-minded longtime supporter enable Girls Inc. to sustain and grow our healthy sexuality program, which helps girls of any age navigate this sensitive area of their health and well-being on their own terms with age-appropriate knowledge and tools. This critical programming is built on open communication, fact-based sex education, inclusivity, and the prevention of adolescent pregnancy; resulting in girls who feel empowered to make their own decisions and are confident advocates for their health and lifestyle.
Girls Inc. is proud to recognize those special friends, whose investments are so instrumental to our success, and who pledge to support strong, smart, and bold girls all year-round: our monthly donors. Recurring monthly donations – of any size – help to lower our expenses and promote financial stability, which collectively ensures that more of our resources can be dedicated to providing the transformative Girls Inc. Experience to even more girls.
My husband and I give to Girls Inc. because of our strong belief that every girl deserves the opportunity to become a strong, independent, and empowered woman. We have a six-year-old daughter: according to researchers, her lifetime self-confidence will peak in just a couple of years. This is simply unacceptable to us. Giving to Girls Inc. makes me feel like I can make change, and ensures that I am helping the next generation of women experience more equity than I did, just as the last generation did for me. Monthly giving is automatic; I don't have to think about it or remember to do it, and it provides consistent support for Girls Inc.Staishy Bostick Siem, Girls Inc. Monthly Donor
Our thanks to networks and publications who donated airtime and ad pages for our Public Service Announcements.
WITH YOU IN HER CORNER, SHE WILL SUCCEED.