What can happen when local leaders have the funding, tools, resources, and relationships to turn their vision for change into reality in their communities and countries?
In 2025, Rise Up Leaders gave us powerful answers.
Across communities around the world, they expanded economic opportunity, made schools safer, strengthened protections from gender-based violence, advanced climate resilience, and helped ensure that more people have a voice in the policies and systems shaping their lives.
Together, Rise Up Leaders successfully advanced 13 new and improved laws, policies, and programs that positively impacted 24.7 million people in 2025 alone.
We’re proud to share the stories of the leaders and their organizations behind that impact in our 2025 Annual Report: New Era. Same Mission. More Impact.
Every number in our Annual Report represents people whose lives can change when systems improve.
In Nigeria, Rise Up Leader Stephen Idoko helped ensure that women and girls with disabilities are included in the country’s national plans to expand digital literacy – ensuring they learn new skills that can open greater access to education, employment, entrepreneurship, and financial independence for 17.3 million women with disabilities.
In Jharkhand, India, Ajay Kumar helped build momentum toward a comprehensive Child Protection Policy that will strengthen safety for approximately 6 million children across 44,835 government-run and private schools.
In Kenya, Agnes Nzisa helped drive the development and adoption of Nairobi County’s School-Related Gender-Based Violence Policy, strengthening how schools prevent, report, and respond to violence. The initiative has already reached more than 1.29 million students and teachers.
And in eastern India, Krishna Kant worked alongside women from the Sauria Paharia, an Indigenous community whose lives and livelihoods are deeply connected to the region’s forests. Their knowledge of local biodiversity and traditional food systems helped shape a government decision about forest restoration. The resulting order requires restoration programs to plant food-producing species identified by Sauria Paharia women – strengthening traditional food sources and climate resilience for more than 46,000 Indigenous people.
Different countries. Different challenges. Different solutions. But these stories share something fundamental: lasting change is strongest when the people who understand their communities best have the opportunity to help shape the solutions.
The impact captured in this report took place during a defining year in our organization’s history.
In October 2025, after 16 years as a fiscally sponsored project of the Public Health Institute, Rise Up became Rise Up Together – an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our name and organizational structure changed. Our mission did not.
We remain focused on improving health, education, economic opportunity, and climate outcomes for women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people around the world – and on partnering with the local leaders who know what their communities need to thrive.
The strength we carried into this new era was built over many years: a global network of leaders, a proven model for lasting systems change, deep partnerships, and a shared belief in the power of communities to shape their own futures.
And that foundation matters enormously in the world we face today.
Women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people are confronting growing threats to their rights, opportunities, and safety. Climate crises, rising authoritarianism, shrinking civic space, and major shifts in the global funding landscape are placing new pressure on communities and civil society organizations around the world.
Yet the stories in this report give us reason for hope.
They show that progress is not only possible – it’s happening. That local leadership matters. And that when communities have the tools and resources to create change, the impact can reach millions.
Our 2025 Annual Report is both a celebration of what Rise Up Leaders achieved during an extraordinary year and a reflection of the strength we bring with us into Rise Up Together’s future.
Inside, you’ll meet more of the leaders behind this work, hear directly from them about what drives their leadership, and see how our global community of donors, partners, Board of Directors, Leadership Council members, and supporters helped make this impact possible.
Most importantly, you’ll see what we see every day: visionary leaders with the determination, knowledge, and power to create a more just and equitable future.
