Save the Children Becomes First Nonprofit to be Certified Gender Fair

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (March 11, 2020)— Gender Fair^®, the world’s first consumer rating system for gender equality, announced today that Save the Children is Gender Fair-certified, making the global humanitarian organization the first nonprofit and first non-governmental organization (NGO) to achieve this designation.

Gender Fair’s certification is based on a proprietary methodology derived from the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles. Gender Fair reviews and measures a company’s gender metrics across four categories – leadership, employee policies, advertising and philanthropy/purpose - and then calculates a gender equity score. Though most consumers (84 percent) expect companies to support women’s rights, less than 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies meet the Gender Fair standards.

Save the Children received an A grade from Gender Fair, including perfect scores in leadership, advertising and philanthropy/purpose.

“Save the Children is proud to earn this designation from Gender Fair.  Our commitment to gender equality begins in the workplace, where we live out our core values every day, and carries through to our work with children in more than 100 countries,” said Save the Children President and CEO Janti Soeripto. “Save the Children is grateful to Gender Fair for not only recognizing our strengths, including several areas where we greatly exceed industry standards, but also for providing further insights to help us continue to improve our organization.”  

The organization, which works in the United States and around the world, giving children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm, has an equal number of male and females in both its board membership and senior leadership team. Eighty percent of Save the Children’s 1,320 employees in the U.S. are female, and 76 percent of its managers are women. 

Over the past two years, Save the Children has implemented a number of new employee policies to ensure a fair and equitable workplace for all. This work has included tackling gender pay gap; offering new and family-friendly employee benefits; and establishing an open environment where staff feel safe, empowered and valued.

"We are so pleased that Save the Children is the first nonprofit to join a growing list of certified Gender Fair organizations,” said Johanna Zeilstra, CEO of Gender Fair. “Employees and donors can be confident that Save the Children supports its workforce in both word and practice. We are excited to work with Save the Children to further develop the standards for certification and accelerate equality within the NGO sector."

Save the Children joins an elite roster of Gender Fair-certified organizations that includes Eli Lilly, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble.