In 2019, we launched Lever for Change with the goal of unlocking significant philanthropic capital for transformative social change. We hoped our services would address the gap between wealthy donors' aspirations and their actual grantmaking.

We are undeniably in an era of rapid change. During these uncertain, complex times, when many are peacefully disrupting the status quo, we need to move forward differently, to be more innovative, more inclusive. We need to transform our thinking and acting in ways that will lead to justice and equity for all.

Today, Pivotal Ventures announced an additional $10 million for the Equality Can’t Wait Challenge, thanks to support from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. The Challenge will now award at least three grants of a minimum of $10 million, with an additional $10 million to be allocated among finalists and determined at the award decision stage, bringing the total to $40 million for bold solutions to advance gender equality in the United States.

One of my early memories of my mom is watching her being arrested on the evening news. She and several friends were “sitting in” at the Trailways bus station lunch counter in Dallas, Texas. My mother, who designed and sewed her own clothes, always dressed up for marches and sit-ins. Even as a young child, I appreciated the performative aspect of her appearance—wearing a Chanel-inspired suit with matching handbag, shoes, and leather gloves, eating lunch at a counter where she might never have eaten voluntarily in a desegregated world.