Jess Tomlin is a visionary leader specializing in mobilizing funds for human rights movements worldwide. She is CEO of the Equality Fund, a global fund investing in people with local solutions for the world’s most complex problems. As co-founder, she built this organization from the ground up, launching in 2019 with a historic, $300-million contribution from the Government of Canada. Since then, she has led a team that has secured multilateral investment from three G-7 countries while pioneering a 100 per cent gender-lens investment portfolio. To date, the Equality Fund has disbursed $100-million in flexible, trust-based funding to grassroots movements led by women in the Global South. Previous to the Equality Fund, she worked across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Asia, with the United Nations, World Bank and civil society organizations.
Jess focuses on convening unlikely allies and building strategies to fuel ambitious initiatives that create lasting systemic change.
