Happy New Year! I hope you enjoyed some special moments with your loved ones this holiday season. I was thrilled to have my nine-month old grandson visiting for the holidays, along with my three daughters and their partners!

As we kick off 2026, I am filled with deep gratitude for the commitment and generosity of everyone in our Together Women Rise community. 2025 was a difficult year … in fact, in 23 years of Rise, we have never faced a more critical moment of need. Yet, even in the face of this crisis, our community stepped up! Many grantees found ways to adapt, streamline, and continue their essential work with remarkable creativity and courage. Our members rose to meet the moment with generous year-end gifts to support our ambitious annual appeal goal. While we are still tallying all the year-end donations, I can already report that our 2025 fundraising results are historic – we raised more funds than ever before with our Annual Appeal! I look forward to sharing our final results with you soon.  

The challenges related to the devastating cuts to gender equality and foreign aid funding will continue this year. With your help, Rise is doing everything it can to respond to these challenges, including additional investments in Transformation Partnerships that were approved by our board in December. (See announcement in our January issue of The Dish.) 

In addition, our board and staff have been collaborating on a new, three-year strategic plan – one that will build on our organization’s success and expand our reach and impact to meet the needs of the next generation of grantees and members. We can’t wait to share this plan with you soon and discuss how we can continue Rise’s powerful journey.  

Together, our community has propelled meaningful change for women and girls around the world, and I know we will achieve even more in the years ahead. Thank you for standing with us, for giving, for learning, and for believing in a more just future.   

With my deep appreciation,
Beverley Francis-Gibson, Chief Executive Officer