Speaker 1: And we really believe that without health equity, we're never
Speaker 1: going to achieve gender equity. There's eight hundred and ten
Speaker 1: women that die every day due to complications or pregnancy
Speaker 1: and childbirth. So these are things that we have answers to,
Speaker 1: we have solutions to. You know, we have modern contraception,
Speaker 1: we have all of the you know kind of knowledge
Speaker 1: that we need to have strong maternal health care. That
Speaker 1: was Rena Gryfinger talking about the state of women's health
Speaker 1: worldwide and about a unique approach to improving it. Rena
Speaker 1: is managing director of the Maverick Collective, which brings together
Speaker 1: women philanthropists to solve problems from a feminist perspective. I'm
Speaker 1: alion Ververe and this is Seneca's one Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: We are bringing you one hundred of the world's most
Speaker 1: inspiring and history making women you need to hear. One
Speaker 1: of the founders of the Maverick Collective is Melinda French Gates.
Speaker 1: Here's what she has to say about Maverick. This is
Speaker 1: what happens when smart, dedicated, compassionate women come together to
Speaker 1: make the change they want to see in the world.
Speaker 1: Rena is joined in today's conversation by Collective member Alex Idol.
Speaker 1: She's a philanthropist and head of the John Idol Family Foundation.
Speaker 1: Listen and learn why Rena Gryfinger, Alex Idol, and the
Speaker 1: women of the Maverick Collective are amongst Seneca's One Women
Speaker 1: to Hear. I'm speaking today to two leaders of the
Speaker 1: Maverick Collective, Rena Grindfinger and Alex Idol. It is an
Speaker 1: innovative funding initiative of high net worth women supporting women's
Speaker 1: health and relay did projects. And I'm eager to talk
Speaker 1: to both of them today and grateful they are with
Speaker 1: us so we can all learn about what this important
Speaker 1: platform does. Rena welcome, Alex welcome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: It's great to be here. Well, tell us what does
Speaker 1: the Maverick Collective do and why is it different or
Speaker 1: how is it different from other nonprofits. So, the Magic
Speaker 1: Collective is a community of women philanthropists that are investing
Speaker 1: in global health and reproductive rights with the aim to
Speaker 1: accelerate gender equity across the world. We were co founded
Speaker 1: by Global Health Organization p s I with Melinda French
Speaker 1: Gates and the Crown Princess of Norway about nine years
Speaker 1: ago and the idea was to bring women philanthropists together
Speaker 1: to quote unquote give beyond the checkbook, to engage deeply
Speaker 1: in the work that they were funding, so that they
Speaker 1: could be authentic champions for women and girls and reproductive health,
Speaker 1: so that they could get smart on the issues and
Speaker 1: be able to use all of their capital, not just
Speaker 1: their money, but their curiosity, their time, their testimony, um
Speaker 1: their influence to advance the issues that they care about,
Speaker 1: while at the same time really using their their financial
Speaker 1: capital to help k s I, which is a leading
Speaker 1: kind of cutting edge global health organization, really move the
Speaker 1: needle on some of the most intractable problems in women
Speaker 1: and girls health across the world. And do you think
Speaker 1: that this model would have been workable twenty or fifty
Speaker 1: years ago? Even I'd like to think that women have
Speaker 1: been ready for this kind of model for a really
Speaker 1: long time. Um, But I do think that when we
Speaker 1: were founded, when the maver Re Collective was founded, um
Speaker 1: about nine years ago. I will point out that p
Speaker 1: s I is fifty two years old, so we've been
Speaker 1: in the business of global health a long time. But
Speaker 1: about nine years ago really was around the time when
Speaker 1: women like Melinda Gates were really kind of stepping out
Speaker 1: on their own and UM creating UH an identity around
Speaker 1: philanthropy that was truly their own. And I like to say,
Speaker 1: you know, being taken seriously for their mastery, not that
Speaker 1: not just their money or who they're married to. And
Speaker 1: I think Melinda herself was really getting smart UM on
Speaker 1: the issues that she cared about, which she still does today,
Speaker 1: gender equity, reproductive health, and she wanted to see more
Speaker 1: women be able to champion those issues and be strategic
Speaker 1: and wise about how they fund those issues and saw
Speaker 1: this UM creation of a community is a place where
Speaker 1: they could really do so together. What we certainly know
Speaker 1: is that women want to practice philanthropy differently than men. UM.
Speaker 1: For too long, philanthropy has been very white, very male,
Speaker 1: UM quite patriarchal in the way it's set up. And
Speaker 1: we really believe in a more feminist, kind of redefined
Speaker 1: approach to philanthropy that looks and feels different. And I
Speaker 1: think ten years ago was a really important time for
Speaker 1: women like her to step out and lead, and we've
Speaker 1: just seen a real movement galvanized since then. Well, she
Speaker 1: has certainly been a leader in this field, and I
Speaker 1: know how committed she is, and I think it's extraordinary
Speaker 1: that the Maverick Collective has come into being. Alex, what
Speaker 1: brought you into the Maverick Collective and how has that
Speaker 1: enabled you to do the kinds of things you might
Speaker 1: not be able to do otherwise? And how does one
Speaker 1: join the Maverick Collective. So I was at a unique
Speaker 1: point in my life when I had first joined Maverick Collective.
Speaker 1: I was I was in business school, I was going
Speaker 1: through a major career transition. And I was also in
Speaker 1: a position where my family had asked me or had
Speaker 1: sort of let me know that I was going to
Speaker 1: be taking a leadership role in our family foundation. Today
Speaker 1: i'm president of our family Foundation. And what was really
Speaker 1: important for me was to make sure that I had experience,
Speaker 1: both locally and globally to be able to make the
Speaker 1: type of grants and and sort of UM effectuate philanthropy
Speaker 1: in a way that reflected my family values. And I
Speaker 1: think what was great is that UM I was able
Speaker 1: to partner with an organization, Maverick Collective, who had sort
Speaker 1: of this big p S I N GEO behind them,
Speaker 1: and we were able to take risk right. And that's
Speaker 1: what I came in to do. Is really fund innovation
Speaker 1: in global health, and UM I was able to UH
Speaker 1: invest in projects that philanthropists were otherwise UM maybe UM
Speaker 1: nervous to do. I think what I also had the
Speaker 1: what was great about Maverick was that I gained not
Speaker 1: just experienced sort of in writing the grant, writing the check,
Speaker 1: but we we went into two in country and really
Speaker 1: UM sat with the women and girls that we were impacting.
Speaker 1: That's so terrific. So it was a learning experience and
Speaker 1: not just a check writing experience. Rena, I know that
Speaker 1: the collective has programs all across the world. Can you
Speaker 1: give us a sense of the state of women's health
Speaker 1: right now and perhaps some of the specific kinds of
Speaker 1: programs that you're supporting to help improve women's laws. Absolutely, so,
Speaker 1: UM to give you a sense of our size and scale.
Speaker 1: P s I, which is the global health organization behind Matter.
Speaker 1: Collective operates in about forty six countries. We have five
Speaker 1: thousand employees across the world old about nine percent of
Speaker 1: whom are local to the countries and regents where we work.
Speaker 1: And as I mentioned earlier, we're fifty years old. So
Speaker 1: we're an organization that is deeply locally rooted. And locally
Speaker 1: lad but globally connected. And I would say the state
Speaker 1: of women and girls health right now is is, you know,
Speaker 1: continues to be pretty dire. And I hate to be
Speaker 1: kind of one to you know, drown ourselves in the negativity,
Speaker 1: but I think it's important to acknowledge that. You know,
Speaker 1: the Global Goals Report came out just a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago saying that without investment, gender equality will take nearly
Speaker 1: three hundred years to achieve. And we really believe that
Speaker 1: without health equity, we're never going to achieve gender equity.
Speaker 1: Right now, there's still over two hundred million women around
Speaker 1: the world that go without modern contraception that they want.
Speaker 1: Right There's eight hundred and ten women that die every
Speaker 1: day due to complex patitions of pregnancy and childbirth. So
Speaker 1: these are things that we have answers to, we have
Speaker 1: solutions to you. We have modern contraception, we have all
Speaker 1: of the you know kind of knowledge that we need
Speaker 1: to have strong maternal healthcare, and we know that we're
Speaker 1: failing women and girls all over the world, including in
Speaker 1: this country. Of course, more than six of women did
Speaker 1: not get tested for any of the most dangerous diseases
Speaker 1: in the past twelve months and more women die from
Speaker 1: cervical cancer than childbirth in the global South, and that's
Speaker 1: really because there's still a severe lack of access to
Speaker 1: healthcare and a lot of stigma, a lot of barriers
Speaker 1: put up, particularly against women and girls access in that
Speaker 1: healthcare and being able to make choices for their own bodies,
Speaker 1: in their own lives. You know, we're we're very kind
Speaker 1: of steeped in it in the reproductive health and right
Speaker 1: space right now, particularly here in the US, which which
Speaker 1: reverberates globally um and that translates to a lot of
Speaker 1: other health issues as well beyond reproductive health, where women
Speaker 1: are women and girls particularly lack the ability to kind
Speaker 1: of take their health into their own hands. You know.
Speaker 1: The plus side of this, of course, is that we
Speaker 1: have incredible ingenuity and creativity that come out, particularly in
Speaker 1: times of crisis and constraints. We have a lot of
Speaker 1: known solutions out there. We do actually know how to
Speaker 1: provide better access to healthcare. And I think now, particularly
Speaker 1: from the seat that I sit in and in working
Speaker 1: with individual philanthropists and particularly women philanthropists that are that
Speaker 1: are bold and curious and willing to go where others won't,
Speaker 1: we have a huge appetite and a lot of momentum
Speaker 1: around using philanthropy to really catalyze the type of systemic
Speaker 1: change that we need in order to break down those
Speaker 1: barriers to health and to gender equity. Um, how Maverick
Speaker 1: Collective has always operated is is this idea, as I
Speaker 1: just said, of going where other funders won't and use
Speaker 1: in philanthropy as a vehicle to test new innovations, new technologies,
Speaker 1: new approaches and ways of working in order to move
Speaker 1: the needle and to accelerate rapid innovation in healthcare. You know,
Speaker 1: for instance, we have Maverick members that are helping p. S.
Speaker 1: I introduce new contraceptive technologies in different markets. You know,
Speaker 1: one of our members funded a piece of work that
Speaker 1: allowed us to test whether women can self inject contraception
Speaker 1: in Mozambique. This is a technology we don't have here
Speaker 1: in the US, but it's becoming more popular across the
Speaker 1: global South, trying to kind of leap fraud or bypass
Speaker 1: the major roadblocks in the healthcare system. You know, taking
Speaker 1: it's very hard for women to be able to get
Speaker 1: to clinics to get their prescribed contraception. This self inject
Speaker 1: contraceptive is something that a woman could pick up in
Speaker 1: her local pharmacy, take home and inject in the privacy
Speaker 1: of her home. We were able to use Maverick money
Speaker 1: to test the kind of desire and uptake of this
Speaker 1: contraceptive technology in Mozambique, to also prove to the government
Speaker 1: that women could in fact self inject safely at home.
Speaker 1: Of course, um, women you know aren't always trusted to
Speaker 1: do such things, and of course the data showed of
Speaker 1: course they can um And within five years of this
Speaker 1: Maverick investment, we have been able to demonstrate that there
Speaker 1: was a real desire and a real demand for this
Speaker 1: new type of contraception and also show the government that
Speaker 1: that they could actually um allow women to access it
Speaker 1: in pharmacies. And after five years policy was changed and
Speaker 1: now women are able to access self inject contraception across
Speaker 1: the country. So we see some really important uses of
Speaker 1: Maverick money not only to help ps I try new things,
Speaker 1: but really to change policy engage systems in the countries
Speaker 1: where we were. Yeah, that's an excellent example of not
Speaker 1: just direct funding one project, but really being able to
Speaker 1: go well beyond that by affecting policy changes that then
Speaker 1: make it enormously sustainable for larger numbers of people. Seneca
Speaker 1: has one hundred women to hear. Will be back after
Speaker 1: the short break, you know, Alex, I'm wondering um. Rena
Speaker 1: mentioned the fact that the Collective works with other female
Speaker 1: philanthropists and you are clearly one of them, and I
Speaker 1: wondered what projects you you have been perhaps closely involved
Speaker 1: in in terms of the funding, that have been particularly
Speaker 1: significant for you. Yeah. So I've invested with the Collective
Speaker 1: for many years now. I was pretty early on in
Speaker 1: it in its inception as well, and so I've invested
Speaker 1: in three ways and in three programs. So the first
Speaker 1: program that I invested with is called Maverick Venture and
Speaker 1: if you're familiar with finance, sort of a venture capitalist
Speaker 1: approach to investing in philanthropy. UM, it's UM larger investment
Speaker 1: in size, it's a few years, but as Rina mentioned,
Speaker 1: it's really catalytic and change. And so I focused on
Speaker 1: women's health. In Uganda. Many women still die um within
Speaker 1: during childbirth or within weeks of childbirth, and we, similar
Speaker 1: to the example that Rena had mentioned, not only funded
Speaker 1: UM clean birth kits that saved women's lives, but this
Speaker 1: was ultimately adopted into policy change, and UM there was
Speaker 1: additional funding that's that was provided. Uh. That sort of
Speaker 1: led me to help discuss with Rena the founding of
Speaker 1: another program I invested in called Maverick Next, and that
Speaker 1: was a cohort model, So that was bringing on young
Speaker 1: women who not only wanted to invest in this innovation,
Speaker 1: but wanted to invest in deep systemic change. And so
Speaker 1: for my project with Maverick Next, that was also related
Speaker 1: to sexual and reproductive health and that was in Ethiopia
Speaker 1: and my project there was related to contraception. I think
Speaker 1: what was really great about this experience was that it
Speaker 1: led me to want to invest in Mavericks third program
Speaker 1: because you know, with that we also again are focused
Speaker 1: on scaling up the project. I think from the two
Speaker 1: UM women that were initially impacted in the cavell that
Speaker 1: we had focused on. Now the goal is to reach
Speaker 1: half a million girls with contraception in Ethiopia and some
Speaker 1: surrounding countries. What was so apparent about that was sitting
Speaker 1: down on with this young girl and putting her at
Speaker 1: the center of you know, impact, in the center of
Speaker 1: you know, we're really here to support her. And so
Speaker 1: Maverick has a new um, has a new program called
Speaker 1: Portfolio that is really putting women and girls at the
Speaker 1: forefront of the decision making, and all of the initiatives
Speaker 1: and all of the partnerships are really going to be grassroots,
Speaker 1: and they are going to come from in country and
Speaker 1: come from the women and girls who are directly impacted
Speaker 1: by these health initiatives. That's terrific. I can just hear
Speaker 1: how enthusiastic you are as an investor in these programs
Speaker 1: over the fact that they make a difference in Rena,
Speaker 1: telling us as well about the significant impacts that the
Speaker 1: programs have had. I know that the Maverick Collective has
Speaker 1: been involved, uh significantly in helping with the evacuation of
Speaker 1: Afghan women and human rights defenders women leaders when the
Speaker 1: Taliban took over. Can either of you talk about that? So?
Speaker 1: I think I can touch upon that quickly in that
Speaker 1: I think what's really incredible about the Maverick Collective is
Speaker 1: the trust that we have placed both in p s
Speaker 1: I and in the community as a whole. We are
Speaker 1: really friends and family. As Maverick Collective members, we not
Speaker 1: only have personal relationships and now professionals, some of us
Speaker 1: invest in venture capital together. But one of our members,
Speaker 1: Amy dorn Bush, came to the community and in partnership
Speaker 1: with Vital Voices and discussed what funding was needed. And
Speaker 1: none of us had really batten eye. And I think
Speaker 1: within forty eight hours as a community, we had mobilized
Speaker 1: a few million dollars and this was not something that
Speaker 1: we needed to vet. We needed to, you know, get
Speaker 1: the analytics behind or the number or as we we
Speaker 1: know our community, we know our members and there are
Speaker 1: such trust and trust based philanthropy that has been built
Speaker 1: that I think that's just one example of why our
Speaker 1: community is so special, um, and the impact that we
Speaker 1: can really have, Well, that's terrific. In and you've just
Speaker 1: described yet another dimension of the collective and how you
Speaker 1: work together. Rena. You're the managing director of the collective,
Speaker 1: and I wonder how you got involved. Alex has told
Speaker 1: us about her engagement. What have you learned from coming
Speaker 1: into the collective and being in the position you're in? Oh? Sure,
Speaker 1: I mean this has absolutely been a dream job for me. Um,
Speaker 1: It's it's really one of the most Uh. I feel
Speaker 1: like I have the best job in the world, you know,
Speaker 1: I was I was born into a family of what
Speaker 1: I call high achieving do gooders. So my grandfather rose
Speaker 1: up from working the auto factory floor to becoming the
Speaker 1: vice president of the United Auto Workers Union at a
Speaker 1: time when labor leaders like him kind of moved in
Speaker 1: sync with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. Caesar Chavez. UM.
Speaker 1: This is kind of my d n A. My father
Speaker 1: is a prison health expert UM who fights for inmates
Speaker 1: rights to healthcare, and my mother founded and ran one
Speaker 1: of the largest nonprofit health plans in New York City.
Speaker 1: So public health was always really close to me and
Speaker 1: my heart and my family and just doing purpose driven work.
Speaker 1: I cut my teeth in global health really early on.
Speaker 1: As a college student. I studied abroad in Cape Town,
Speaker 1: South Africa. And in addition to you know, traveling around
Speaker 1: that beautiful country and um, you know, pretending to know
Speaker 1: how to serve, which I never really learned, I also
Speaker 1: was volunteering in a township with HIV positive um families
Speaker 1: and communities. It was at a time when anti retroviral
Speaker 1: treatment was not available to people in South Africa, so
Speaker 1: there were protests and marches in the street almost every day.
Speaker 1: I got very involved with the Student Action Campaign and
Speaker 1: just really kind of found my inner activist and became
Speaker 1: pretty obsessed with UM working on the global HIV epidemic
Speaker 1: and then later particularly with adolescents and young people. So
Speaker 1: I spent about fifteen years at my career focused on
Speaker 1: the needs of adolescence and youth UM around their sexual
Speaker 1: and reproductive health, HIV prevention and treatment. I founded programs
Speaker 1: in the US working with teens and young adults and
Speaker 1: made my way to p s I about ten years
Speaker 1: ago as our global Youth and Girls advisor, And it
Speaker 1: was right around that time that Maverick Collective was was
Speaker 1: getting started, and I worked hand in hand with a
Speaker 1: lot of our founding Maverick members who were funding the
Speaker 1: youth and girls work of p s I, and I
Speaker 1: kind of fell into being almost like a m a
Speaker 1: liaison to them, you know, kind of helping helping them
Speaker 1: navigate the global Youth and Girls space, spending time with
Speaker 1: them in country and in conferences as they were getting
Speaker 1: smart on the issues and going deep on their own
Speaker 1: learning journey. I even got to live in me and
Speaker 1: mar for several months starting up a Maverick project, so
Speaker 1: it was pretty close to the community from the get
Speaker 1: go um and then moved over to found start up
Speaker 1: Maverick Next along with Alex um And and then take
Speaker 1: over the collective a couple of years ago when my
Speaker 1: predecessor left. And it's just been this amazing way for
Speaker 1: me to combine my deep passion for designing with and
Speaker 1: and and really kind of learning directly from communities about
Speaker 1: what they desire, what delights them, what what is important
Speaker 1: to them when it comes to their ability to thrive,
Speaker 1: and being able to co design with them the programs
Speaker 1: that are going to really um really helped them see
Speaker 1: success in the world. And being able to then bringing
Speaker 1: bring donors into that space. Uh, and watch the magic
Speaker 1: that happens when our Maverick members really get to stick
Speaker 1: right there proximate, you know, in the room with the
Speaker 1: women and girls that they're supporting the way that Alex
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, her moment of meeting a young
Speaker 1: married girl in Ethiopia, it's really one of the biggest
Speaker 1: pleasures of my life. Well, I can hear that your
Speaker 1: enthusiasm and commitment and experience certainly come through. We're quickly
Speaker 1: running out of time, but I want to ask both
Speaker 1: of you, as you've given us this wonderful introduction to
Speaker 1: the work of the collective, and perhaps even more importantly,
Speaker 1: caring about the impact and the change that is created
Speaker 1: from that kind of work. Given that, what makes you optimistic?
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously, Rena, you talked earlier about the dire
Speaker 1: situation of women's health around the world, and it is that.
Speaker 1: But yet you are making such a difference collectively through
Speaker 1: the collective and what you're doing individually. So what gives
Speaker 1: you hope in these times? I think if you can
Speaker 1: UM do something or make a difference in one person's life,
Speaker 1: that can have such a cascading and crucial and important impact.
Speaker 1: I you know, as I mentioned, sitting across from a
Speaker 1: young woman who is sixteen and married and has the
Speaker 1: pressure of UM pressure coming from family, and and you know,
Speaker 1: whereas I have a choice, I think is UM motivates
Speaker 1: me every single day. I think that also UM, you know,
Speaker 1: just growing up that is part of our values. I
Speaker 1: was raised as UM an equal. My father, my mother,
Speaker 1: my family. They always had treated me with equity, and
Speaker 1: so I feel as though I have a responsibility UM
Speaker 1: to support in any way that I can to help
Speaker 1: uplift UM those that are in poverty, or do not
Speaker 1: have the same opportunities or access to health care. What
Speaker 1: really gives me hope is being able to sit at
Speaker 1: this kind of nexus where I sit at p s I,
Speaker 1: where I get to spend my days listening directly to
Speaker 1: leaders on the ground, proximate leaders, feminist leaders, community leaders,
Speaker 1: hearing from them directly what they want for the world,
Speaker 1: what they want for their own lives, what they think
Speaker 1: the solutions are, uh kind of solving and dismantling these
Speaker 1: really deep seated systemic problems. And then being able to
Speaker 1: go and sit in rooms with a community of you know,
Speaker 1: bold spirited, curious women who have a lot of resources
Speaker 1: and a lot of passion and a willingness to listen,
Speaker 1: and bringing those worlds together, and and being able to
Speaker 1: ensure that we can resource not only be creative in
Speaker 1: genuine ideas, but ideas that are driven by the people
Speaker 1: who are experiencing the problems the most. And so what
Speaker 1: gives me hope is that we have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: redefine the way global health is done, to redefine the
Speaker 1: way philanthropy is done, and mad reflective is doing that
Speaker 1: even in just our tiny slice of the world. And
Speaker 1: if there's any type of you know, if we can
Speaker 1: share anything that impacts and inspires others to act more boldly,
Speaker 1: to listen to communities, to give more flexibly, to take
Speaker 1: on a more feminist approach to the way that they
Speaker 1: mobilize their resources. I think that we have made a
Speaker 1: real impact. Well, certainly, the Maverick Collective provides so much
Speaker 1: hope two women around the globe, and for that we
Speaker 1: should all be grateful and grateful to you, Rena grund
Speaker 1: Finger and to you Alex I'd for the work that
Speaker 1: you do with the collective and making so much possible.
Speaker 1: Thank you both so much, Thank you, thank you. That's
Speaker 1: a refreshingly different and effective approach to improving women's health
Speaker 1: around the world. Here are three things I took from
Speaker 1: that conversation. First, as Rena says, women won't have gender
Speaker 1: equity until we have health equity, and we know how
Speaker 1: to create health equity through testing, access to healthcare and
Speaker 1: other strategies that Maverick supports. Second, it's wonderful to know
Speaker 1: that women increasingly have the means and the ability to
Speaker 1: put their money where it will make a real difference
Speaker 1: in a way that makes sense to them and to
Speaker 1: the women they support. And finally, the women of Maverick
Speaker 1: Collective are creating a model of ailanthropy that goes beyond
Speaker 1: check writing. As Alex says, this means that donors engage
Speaker 1: deeply in the work the organization does and learn from
Speaker 1: in person visits about the women and girls they are impacting.
Speaker 1: Tune in next time to learn about our next featured
Speaker 1: woman and learn why she's one of Seneca's Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: Seneca's one hundred Women to Hear is a collaboration between
Speaker 1: the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with
Speaker 1: support from founding partner Pung. Have a Great Day,