Why Women?
When climate-related disasters occur, women are the ones left to pick up the pieces. They are the displaced. They deal with the ensuing repercussions including increased poverty, violence and disease. The situation is exacerbated in regions of the Global South, where women often shoulder the responsibility for their families’ food, water, and energy needs. Despite these challenges, women’s contributions, work and leadership often go unnoticed, unappreciated, and underfunded.
The narrative needs to change and it begins with addressing women’s vulnerabilities.
Daughters for Earth recognizes that supporting women’s power is the key to achieving climate justice. By acknowledging, celebrating, and funding women-led initiatives around the world, we are sparking a movement for positive change that will unlock our shared future’s full potential.
What We Do
Fund Daughters
Women globally are spearheading environmental initiatives for a sustainable future for all of us. Despite their contributions, organizations led by women receive less than 2 cents of every philanthropic dollar dedicated to the environment. Daughters for Earth is rewriting this script by swiftly providing funding to women on the frontlines. In our inaugural year, we disbursed over $1.2 million to support 50 women’s projects spanning 24 countries. Now, our goal is to raise $100 million to back more than 500 endeavors.
Daughters for Earth is addressing a critical flaw in our approach to combatting the climate crisis: the marginalization of women. When women are given equal opportunities and the right resources to participate in climate action, entire communities and ecosystems experience positive outcomes.
The Hummingbird Effect serves as a rallying call, urging individuals to proactively endorse and champion women’s leadership in addressing climate change. By embracing varied perspectives and fostering cooperation, we can shape a world where women’s voices and contributions are fully acknowledged, and integrated in our efforts to reverse climate change.
Toolkit to Mobilize Action
Daughters for Earth is mobilizing women from all corners of the globe to help build this movement from the ground up. We are actively working on forming Daughterhood Circles where we will be collaborating with existing women’s circles globally to channel our collective power. Our engaging Toolkits will provide accessible scientific information, localized solutions, eco-friendly suggestions, and sample projects tailored to specific cultures. We are shifting from dialogue to solutions, nurturing positivity and engaging with individuals on their own terms. Join us in establishing a community that will drive enduring change.
Our Team
Leadership Team
Our leadership team comprises a devoted and diverse group of women who are fully committed to the mission of preserving the planet.
Wise Daughters Council
Our Wise Daughters Council is an autonomous grant-giving entity made up of prominent figures in the climate and conservation fields. The council’s role is to engage and rally women at the grassroots level to drive meaningful change.
Advisory Council
Our Advisory Circle members come from diverse backgrounds and bring distinct skills to the table, yet they share a common purpose: safeguarding the environment and promoting sustainability.
Our Leadership Team
Zainab Salbi
Daughters Co-Founder, Humanitarian; Author; Founder of Women for Women International
Zainab Salbi is a humanitarian, a writer, and a social entrepreneur who has dedicated her life to women’s rights and freedom. She is the Co-Founder of Daughters for Earth, a fund and a movement of women and girls rising up worldwide with climate solutions to protect and restore Mother Earth.
She has frequently been named one of the women changing the world by leading publications ranging from Newsweek to The Guardian. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the women changing the world in People Magazine, and President Bill Clinton identified her as one of the 21st-century heroes of Harper’s Bazaar. Most recently, Zainab received the Times100 Impact Awards in 2023.
At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization dedicated to women survivors of wars. Under her leadership (1993–2011), Women for Women International grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to helping more than 420,000 women and distributing more than 146 million dollars in aid.
Zainab is the author of several books, including the best seller Between Two Worlds: Escape from Tyranny; Growing Up in the Shadow of Saddam (with Laurie Buckland); The Other Side of War; Women’s Stories of Survival and Hope; If You Knew Me You Would Care,(with photographs by Rennio Maifredi); and her latest Freedom is an Inside Job; Owning our Darkness and Our Light to Change Ourselves and the World.
She is also the Executive Editor and Host of several shows, including Through Her Eyes with Yahoo News, #MeToo, Now What? with PBS, The Zainab Salbi Project with Huffington Post, and The Nida’a Show with TLC Arabia.
She is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum and serves on the Boards of Vital Voices, International Refugee Assistance Program (IRAP), and Synergos International.
Taran Gehlot, Kenya
Founder of Soul Safaris
Sofia de Meyer, Europe
Co-Founder and Chair of the Board, Opaline SA
Rachel Rivera
Chief Operating Officer, Wild Lives Foundation
Justin Winters
Co-Founder and Executive Director, One Earth
Jody Allen
Daughters Co-Founder, Philanthropist, CEO of Wild Lives Foundation
Wise Daughters Council
Bianca Pitt
Co-founder, SHE Changes Climate
Farwiza Farhan
Founder and Chair at HAkA
Dr. Gladys Kalema
Founder, Conservation Through Public Health
Helena Gualinga
Climate justice and human rights defender
Jade Begay
Policy Director, NDN Collective
Leela Hazzah
Executive Director and Cofounder of Lion Guardians, Cofounder and Leadership Council Member of Women for the Environment Africa (WE Africa), and Cofounder of PRIDE Lion Conservation Alliance
Advisory Council
Xiye Bastida
Co-Founder of Re-Earth Initiative
Virginia McKenzie
Elder of the Anishinaabe Tribe
Trea-Yip
Philanthropist; CEO of TY Commercial Group
Tjada D'Oyen McKenna
President and CEO of Mercy Corps
Susan Flood
Wildlife Photographer, Global Ambassador White Feather Foundation
Sally Ann Ranney
President, Co-Founder of Global Choices and the Arctic Angels
Peggy Dulany
Founder and Chair of Synergos Institute
Peggy Dulany is Chair of Synergos, a global organization helping solve complex issues around the world by advancing bridging leadership, which builds trust and collective action. Drawing from her experience living and working in Rio de Janeiro as a young woman, she realized that the people most affected by adverse living conditions also have the greatest energy and motivation to solve their problems. The resources they lack are connections to the economic and political realms where necessary changes can affect whole communities. Peggy founded Synergos in 1986 to promote trust and collaboration among grassroots groups and government or business leaders and organizations, people who otherwise would not have access to each other so that they can develop long-term relationships and forge new paths in overcoming poverty. In 2001, she co-founded Synergos’ Global Philanthropists Circle with her father, David Rockefeller, to support philanthropic families in using this approach.
Paula Kahumbu
CEO of WildlifeDirect
Nina Simons
Bioneers Co-founder & Chief Relationship Officer
Nikki Eslami
Founder and CEO of New Theory Ventures and Wild Elements
Nicole Rycroft
Founder and Executive Director, Canopy
Nemonte Nenquimo
Co-Founder of Ceibo Alliance, 2020 Goldman Prize Winner
Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland and Founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation
Lynn Mento
CEO, Conservation Nation
Leymah Gbowee
Founder and President of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Leila Salazar Lopez
Executive Director, Amazon Watch
Leah Thomas
Founder of Intersectional Environmentalism
Laurie Adams
Chief Executive Officer, Women for Women International
Kristine Zeigler
Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Women
Kristine Tompkins
President and Co-founder of Tompkins Conservation
Kristina Liliana Nova
Public Figure, Activist, Actress & TV Host
Katie Frohardt
Executive Director, Wild Earth Allies
Kate Horner
Deputy Executive Director, Amazon Frontlines
Karen Korponai
CEO and Founder, Konscious Konsulting llc and Sr. Advisor to Purpose Driven Visionary Private Equity Group
Kahea Pacheco
Co-Director, Women's Earth Alliance
Jessica Sweidan
Founder, Synchronicity Earth
Jean Oelwang
Founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite
Inge Relph
Executive Director and Co–Founder of Global Choices
Helena Gualinga
Climate justice and human rights defender
Heather Grady
Vice President and Practice Lead on Environment and Climate Change, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Halla Tómasdóttir
CEO & Chief Change Catalyst, The B Team
Ginger Cassady
Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Geraldine Patrick Encina
Member of Grand Council of the Eagle and the Condor and member of Earth Timekeepers
Fern Shepard
President of Rachel’s Network
Erin Axelrod
Partner at LIFT Economy
Ella Robertson McKay
Managing Director, One Young World
Sylvia Earle
President and Co-Chair of Mission Blu
Dr. Kirsten Dunlop
Chief Executive Officer, EIT Climate-KIC
Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)
Dianne Dain
Chief Innovation Officer for the World Humanitarian Forum
Dana Rice
VP of Philanthropy, Lever for Change
Connie Nielsen
President and CEO of Human Needs Project; Actor; Producer; Writer
Casey Rogers
Director of The Ellen Fund
Carly Vynne Baker
Conservation Biologist and Strategic Partner, RESOLVE
Betsy Taylor
President of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions
Atossa Soltani
Director of Global Strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative
Ashley Judd
Acclaimed humanitarian, writer and actor
Amira Diamond
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Women's Earth Alliance
Alyse Nelson
President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership
Alexandra Lunt
Armonia
Alexandra Zimmermann
Chair, IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group
Farwiza Farhan
Founder and Chair at HAkA