Chime for Change, the global campaign founded by Gucci to raise funds and awareness for girls’ and women’s empowerment, celebrated its new partnership with Global Citizen focused on gender equality, during the2015 Global Citizen Festival on September 26 at the Central Park in New York City. This year marks the fourth annual Global Citizen Festival, bringing together artists, celebrities, world leaders and activists to create a lasting movement to end extreme poverty by 2030.
Several Indian showbiz celebrities Sunidhi Chauhan, Kajol, Arjun Kapoor, Freida Pinto added glitz to the glamour.
Chime for Change Co-Founder Beyoncé headlined the festival along with Pearl Jam, Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, joining fellow CHIME Co-Founder Salma Hayek Pinault, who took the stage as a co-host. Gucci and Chime for Change served as Presenting Partners of the festival, welcoming 60,000 concertgoers to the Great Lawn in Central Park. Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri joined Global Citizen CEO Hugh Evans on stage to announce the historic partnership. François-Henri Pinault, CEO of Gucci’s parent company, Kering, was also present at the festival to support the partnership.
The power of music has always been an important facet of the CHIME campaign – on June 1, 2013, Gucci and CHIME FOR CHANGE presented THE SOUND OF CHANGE LIVE in London, the first global concert event in history dedicated to girls’ and women’s issues. The show was broadcast in 80 countries reaching one billion people.
The Global Citizen Festival shed light on the UN’s new Global Goals for Sustainable Development, which represent key targets for the next 15 years. CHIME FOR CHANGE and Global Citizen are working together specifically around Goal 5, which aims to achieve gender equality, and empower all women and girls. Hayek Pinault also joined youth ambassadors representing various non-profit organizations, including UNICEF, on stage to raise awareness about the plight of refugee children suffering as a result of the Syrian conflict. Through corporate support and the power of crowd funding, CHIME FOR CHANGE and Ms. Hayek Pinault have helped raise more than $347,000 for programming for women and children affected by the crisis. Since the campaign’s launch in 2013, CHIME FOR CHANGE has raised $7.3M to fund more than 420 Education, Health and Justice projects, directly benefitting more than 400,000 girls and women.
Chime for Change, founded by Gucci, is a global campaign to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for girls and women around the world, with a focus on using innovative approaches to raise funds and awareness for Education, Health and Justice projects. Through the power of crowd funding, Chime for Change has funded more than 420 projects in 88 countries through 153 non-profit partners reaching hundreds of thousands of girls and women around the world. Chime for Change co-Founders Salma Hayek Pinault and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter continue to lead the campaign with its coalition of partner organizations. Founding Partners include the Kering Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook, Hearst Magazines and Catapult. Strategic Partners include P&G Prestige, Twitter and Kellogg’s Special K.
Global Citizen is a content and campaigning platform where people can learn about and take action on the world’s biggest issues. Global Citizen has partnered with leading organizations for the 2015 Global Citizen Festival, including: action/2015, CARE, Concern Worldwide U.S., The Earth Institute, Every Woman Every Child, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Global Partnership for Education, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Heifer International, The Hunger Project, Kiva, The ONE Campaign, Opportunity International, Oxfam, Pencils of Promise, RESULTS, Save the Children Action Network, The United Nations Foundation, UNICEF, USA for UNHCR, WaterAid, World Bank Group, World Vision and Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.
