Programs and results
What we aim to solve
There is no nation on Earth where women have an equal voice, where they are safe, where they have the same chance as men to prosper. Experts estimate that at the current pace, it will take more than 100 years to achieve gender equality. Countless organizations and individuals are working tirelessly to advance women’s rights - but the movement remains too disconnected. Despite good intentions, top down organizations are too distant from women on the ground, and grassroots movements simply don’t have the scale. World Pulse believes that digital communication can be one of the most powerful tools women have to unite to speed up the timeline to gender equality. It is time to put the power in women’s hands to connect in a safe, online space and drive their own stories and movements. Our global network is bringing about a digital revolution across 190 countries and creating a world where all women thrive. Log on. Rise Up!
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Story Awards
World Pulse editors select top stories from the global community each week. Select members receive editorial support, honorariums, and promotion of their stories to increase the author’s visibility and influence. Stories are featured on World Pulse media channels and are promoted out to media partners.
Digital Ambassadors
The World Pulse Digital Ambassador Program is an advanced leadership opportunity for active and engaged World Pulse members who aspire to unleash women’s voices globally. Digital Ambassadors lead digital empowerment trainings, share information about how to use the Internet to create change, and help connect their communities to the World Pulse global sisterhood.
In 2021 World Pulse launched the Her Digital Leadership Alliance to support 20,000 women and girls across 50 countries to impact 40 million more with digital skills and leadership. Learn more at
https://impact.worldpulse.com/newsroom
Encouragers
In the World Pulse community, Encouragers are members that are dedicated to the vision that every storyteller on World Pulse feels seen and heard. By leaving thoughtful and unique comments on a regular basis, Encouragers are critical to ensuring that World Pulse is a safe, online space where every woman’s voice can make a difference.
Community Mentors
World Pulse launched a new mentorship initiative that matches women globally. This mentee-led, all-virtual program is designed to build deep relationships between mentors and a group of mentees working on transformative projects.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
United Nations Media Social Impact Award 2018
Ideas Remaking the World Award 2020
Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award 2016
Rockefeller Top 100 Innovator 2013
SXSW Interactive Award Finalist 2013
Equals.org - Global Partnership For Gender Equality 2020
Global Alliance for Sustainable Feminist Movements 2021
Alliance for the Affordable Internet 2020
Generation Equality Technology & Innovation Alliance 2020
Every Woman Global Treaty Alliance 2019
Principles for Digital Development 2019
Design Justice Coalition 2019
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
World Pulse is on a mission to connect half a million digitally empowered grassroots women leaders and accelerate their ability to drive local and global change in every region of the world, ultimately impacting a billion more in their communities over the next 10 years. As of this year, our World Pulse members have impacted a cumulative 21 million people worldwide.
On average a woman active on World Pulse for 2 years, increases her impact to improve the lives of 2,000 more people in her community.
“You connect to people you’ve never met, you make an impact from your corner of the room, and you become limitless.”
Chinyere, World Pulse member from Nigeria
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Ultimately, World Pulse is on a mission to speed up the pace towards global gender equity by using technology to unleash the untapped potential of women everywhere. We know that when women are heard and connected, they have the power to transform the world.
Our strategic 10 year plan to mobilize 500K women to impact 1 billion people hinges on the following objectives:
1) Growing More Leaders: Expand our accessible online leadership pathway and safe environment to accelerate women’s leadership growth and offline impact.
2) Raising the Volume: Crowdsource content on timely issues of importance for women globally and promote their diverse collective voices to advocacy partners, media, and institutions.
3) Growing Movements: Network women leaders and organizations across regions and topics to facilitate online and offline collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and impact tracking.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
•An award-winning social network platform - scalable, mobile-friendly, multi-lingual & open source
•An existing global online community of tens of thousands of women from 190 countries, impacting over 21.6 million lives
•Over a decade of experience developing and promoting global women's voices
•A global corps of dedicated on the ground ambassadors
•Trusted global brand that is an established thought leader, featured in prominent stages and international forums on women's digital empowerment. Deep collaborator with 40+ International partners, including civil society, business, government, and institutions.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2020, the women across World Pulse’s global community were undeterred, connecting online to create a new future worldwide. The past year brought devastating challenges that hit women and historically excluded people the hardest. But in this era of intensified isolation, the World Pulse community used technology to hold each other on the front lines of crisis, reaching across borders and barriers to co-create the blueprint for a more just future.
As the world’s leading safe, supportive online community with a decade of experience connecting women worldwide for change, we know that the leadership of women is vital to building inclusive pathways in times of crisis. This year our membership of 80,000 logged on to rise up together across 227 countries and territories – and in doing so, impacted millions around the globe, bringing the cumulative total of our member impact to 21.6 million.
Despite a year where women’s progress rolled back a generation - 79% of members surveyed reported that being a part of the World Pulse global network increased their resilience. In fact 7 out of 10 members surveyed reported that because of their involvement with World Pulse they took action in their community, and impacted 4.2 million more lives. What’s more, new member impact dashboards placed power in their own hands to put their impact initiatives and ambitions on the record - revealing their ambitions and plans to reach 85 million more.
World Pulse will continue to boost their efforts. Members are often doing more than their own governments: building food security and providing health care for their communities, standing up to warlords in conflict zones, building systems to end gender-based violence and white supremacy, educating girls in refugee camps, advocating in international forums for climate action and Indigenous rights, taking technology into their own hands to strengthen peace movements, and so much more.
Looking ahead in 2021 and beyond, we’ll use technology in even more exciting ways to accelerate women’s leadership and connect grassroots leaders on a global scale to shift power. We will introduce a brand new platform rooted in design justice principles and ethical tech that is led by community leaders. With global partners, we are also working to bridge the gender digital divide by launching the "Her Digital Leadership Alliance" which will connect 20,000 emerging leaders across 50 countries with gender-transformative digital skills to benefit millions more.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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Who are the people you serve with your mission?
Today, the World Pulse network is made up of 80,000 members, primarily women, who log on from 200+ countries and all walks of life. Annual community surveys reveal 90% are women and 77% between the ages of 25 and 54; They are most likely to live in areas in South Asia, Africa, and North America. They include women with disabilities, indigenous women, LGBTQIA, survivors of violence, and refugees. They are most likely to access the internet through a mobile phone. They typically have a burning desire to grow their leadership and lift up their communities, especially the most marginalized. Often, they come to World Pulse at a low point in their lives, feeling dejected & alone. This transformation propels them to take action and change their circumstances and communities.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), Paper surveys, Community meetings/Town halls, Constituent (client or resident, etc.) advisory committees, Suggestion box/email,
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals,
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What significant change resulted from feedback?
We established a Technology Design Review Board comprised of a diverse set of World Pulse international community leaders to ensure our technology design is inclusive and accessible. As a result of these consultations, World Pulse design has become more inclusive to survivors with consent-based features, including an innovative feature for storytellers to "affirm" comments on their stories to demonstrate to commenters that their words truly had a positive impact.
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our funders, Our community partners,
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How has asking for feedback from the people you serve changed your relationship?
The World Pulse annual planning cycle has extended to include multiple feedback loops from our global community with town halls, voting, and surveys to inform our strategy. These inputs have shifted strategies and we hold dialogue sessions and share community blogs to report back to members on the forthcoming annual plan.
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, It is difficult to identify actionable feedback,
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
World Pulse Voices
Board of directorsas of 12/19/2021
Jessica Robinson
Colleen Abdoulah
Telecom executive
Aparna Sanjay
Philanthropy, social enterprise expert
Olutosin Adebowale
Women's rights activist, social entrepreneur
Mahnaz Harrison
Last Mile4D, bridging digital divide
Jessica Robinson
Best selling Author, Safety and Security Consultant, PurePoint
Chi Leina
Global media expert and movement builder
Shofali Agarwal
Finance expert
Shadia Shadaqa
Communications and PR specialist
Jody Vandergriff
Technology expert
Urvashi Shivdasani
Strategic digital finance leader
Daphne Loung
Anne Dupont
Principal at The AthenA Group and former partner with Accenture
Jami Rice
Digital media expert
Karen Dayan
Marketing executive
Theresa Gattung
Business and philanthropic leader
Jeanine Becker
Collective impact facilitator
Lisa Neal Graves
Technology strategist
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/23/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.