The Girls First Fund is requesting applications for grants to prevent and respond to child marriage and early unions. The Girls First Fund is committed to reaching new and emerging organizations, as well as organizations with little or no access to larger donors, who work to end child marriage. The focus is given on those approaches which support local solutions in local contexts and which show how girls, their families and various communities are involved in shaping and implementing that approach. Organisations from 6 pilot locations (given below) can apply for availing this grant if they fit the eligibility criteria and their works fall under any of the focus areas of the Girls First Fund.

Girls First Fund is particularly interested in organizations that meet some or all of the following standards:

1. Girl and woman policy
   
2. The meaningful role of girls (i.e. girl-centric) in the outline of the program, its implementation and monitoring decisions
3. Building a society that allows women to make a decision about their future and enable all people to have equal access to rights and opportunities different from their gender identity (i.e. gender-transformative)
4. Supporting local solutions that provide solutions to unique religious, political, economic, social and cultural standards contributing to child marriage.
5. Access to the most vulnerable and exclusionary distressed, married and ex-married women.

Organizations must focus on one or more of the following:

1. Leadership of women
2. To change the social standards, behaviours and attitudes that allow child marriage to continue
3. Improving and reaching the reach of women till 12 years of safe, free and quality education
4. Improve access to women to sexual and reproductive health education, information and services, including safe abortion and post-natal care (where legal).

In 2019, the organisation has committed to making one-year (12-month), core support and project support grants of up to USD $50,000 in six pilot locations.

Interested folks should apply online here.

The Girls First Fund is a philanthropic fund that brings donors together to fund community-based organizations to stop the practice of child marriage. The Girls First Fund is the first funding partnership of its size focused on ending child marriage, with grantmaking directed to community-based and locally-focused national organizations. It is a donor collaborative supported by leading philanthropic organizations and individual philanthropists who have come together to champion community-led efforts so that all girls can live free from child marriage and create their own future. It focuses on girls, families, and communities because it believes they are in the best position to create lasting, local change and address the causes of child marriage at their roots. 

The Girls First Fund is a fund of Capital for Good USA, a U.S. 501(c)(3) public charity. Capital for Good USA disburses grants on behalf of the Girls First Fund.