Fistula Foundation CEO Kate Grant was recently recognized by the American Marketing Association (AMA) and American Marketing Association Foundation (AMAF) for her visionary leadership of the Fistula Foundation for the past nine years. Grant is the eighth nonprofit leader to receive the honor since the establishment of the award in 2008.
Based in San Jose, Fistula Foundation funds curative surgeries for obstetric fistula, a childbirth injury common in the developing world that renders a woman incontinent. Left untreated, a woman with fistula can too often face a life of shame and isolation. When a woman has access to surgery that Fistula Foundation provides, which costs $450 on average, her life can be transformed and her health restored. One million women in Africa and Asia suffer from untreated obstetric fistula.
The AMA/AMAF Nonprofit Marketer of the Year Award honors extraordinary leadership and achievement in the field of nonprofit marketing. Grant was selected from a pool of 25 finalists and was recognized at a luncheon held during the Nonprofit Marketing Conference in Arlington, VA.
Grant has transformed the size and scope of Fistula Foundation since she joined the organization as its first chief executive in 2005. Under Grant’s leadership, Fistula Foundation has grown from funding one facility in one country, to global leadership in fistula treatment, having funded more than 100 sites in 25 countries throughout Africa and Asia.
“It is an honor for Fistula Foundation to be recognized with this award. I believe we have been so successful as an organization because we focus on results, measured in the number of women’s lives transformed by surgery supported by our donors. We are relentless, striving for efficiency and effectiveness, enabling us to ensure that donations from our donors are used to support life-changing operations,” said Grant.
Since 2009, Fistula Foundation has funded 10,000 surgeries – more than any other nonprofit not accepting government funding. Funded primarily by individual donors, the organization has raised nearly $20 million since 2009, disseminating funds to provide fistula surgeries, hospital and equipment upgrades and training to increase the pool of fistula surgeons globally.
During Grant’s tenure, the Foundation more than tripled its philanthropic revenue and more than quadrupled the number of surgeries it supports each year. She has also formed strong corporate partnerships; over the last decade Johnson & Johnson has provided more than a million dollars toward fistula treatment. Most recently, she forged a new partnership with Astellas Pharma Europe, Ltd. to create Action on Fistula, a three-year, $2 million effort to build a lasting treatment network and transform the lives of 1,200 women in Kenya.
Fistula Foundation has received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator for the past eight years, placing it in the top one percent of charities evaluated. CharityWatch has given Fistula Foundation an “A” rating for its transparency and accountability, and the organization has met all 20 of the Better Business Bureau’s Standards for Charity Accountability since 2006.