The Vital Voices Global Partnership is a feminist and left-of-center activist organization founded in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. To insert more women into political and other leadership roles, the organization identifies female left-of-center activists around the world and provides them with resources, including networking opportunities, activism training, and financial backing.

In addition to advancing female-specific issues such as gender quotas and sexual violence prevention, Vital Voices also ties left-of-center economic and environmentalist agendas into its self-proclaimed female empowerment mission. In May 2022, the organization opened what it called a “global embassy for women” in Washington, D.C., where it would base its activist cultivation efforts. ^[1]

Mission and Issue Areas

Vital Voices aims to increase the participation of women in left-of-center political and economic policy advocacy around the world. To achieve this, the organization works to place more women into government and private-sector leadership positions, connect the feminist movement with environmentalist causes, and build economic structures that benefit women. Vital Voices also supports efforts to end violence against women. ^[2]

People

Founders

Hillary Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, played an active role in politics and public affairs, especially in a failed health care reform effort, during her husband’s two terms in office from 1993 to 2001. In 2008, while serving as a United States Senator from New York, Clinton unsuccessfully ran for president, losing the Democratic Party nomination to then-Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who selected her as his Secretary of State after winning the general election. Clinton ran for President once again in 2016, this time winning the Democratic nomination but losing the general election to Donald Trump. ^{[3] [4]}

Madeleine Albright was Secretary of State in the Clinton administration. ^[5]

Leadership

Alyse Nelson is the president and chief executive officer of Vital Voices and has worked with the organization since its founding. She previously worked for the similarly named Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative, a project of the United States Department of State. She has also run training programs for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and the British government’s Department for International Development. Nelson completed her graduate education at Tufts University. ^[6]

Faida Fuller is the chief operating officer of Vital Voices. She previously worked for the office of the Washington, D.C., superintendent of education, which oversees public schools in the district. Fuller attended Spelman College. ^[7]

Huma Abedin, a career Democratic Party operative, is a member of the Vital Voices board of directors. Abedin was also the deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State and the vice chair of the Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. ^[8]

Partners

Vital Voices touts an extensive list of financial supporters and collaborators on projects. The organization has dozens of major corporate, nonprofit, and government backers, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United States State Department, the financial transaction processing company PayPal, the pharmaceutical firm Johnson and Johnson, and the technology company Google.

Financials

Since 2015, the annual revenue of Vital Voices has fluctuated between $12 million and $18 million, with the exception of 2016, when total revenue dipped to just over $6.5 million. In 2019, the organization held net assets worth more than $14.3 million, and received federal government grants and contracts totaling more than $3.5 million. ^[9]

The Gates Foundation gave Vital Voices a $1 million grant in 2020. ^[10] The Avon Foundation for Women, an affiliate of the Avon cosmetics brand, gave the organization a $200,000 grant the previous year. ^[11]