For years, Shaun Robinson stood at the center of American celebrity culture. The red carpets. The award shows. The blockbuster premieres. As one of the most recognized faces on Access Hollywood, she had a front-row seat to the most glamorous version of success the world had to offer. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, she started paying attention to something else entirely.
The girls who weren’t in those rooms. The ones who didn’t see themselves on those screens. The ones growing up in neighborhoods where a science class with real equipment was a luxury, where the health system treated them as an afterthought, where every image of womanhood they encountered told them they were less than.
These girls weren’t invisible because they lacked talent or drive or ambition. They were invisible because nobody had built a system to see them. And Shaun Robinson decided she was going to change that.
That decision led to the S.H.A.U.N. Foundation for Girls – a grantmaking nonprofit dedicated to improving the quality of life for underserved and underrepresented girls and young women across the country. The acronym spells out the foundation’s five pillars: STEM, Health, Arts, Unity, and Neighborhoods. Five areas where the gap between what girls deserve and what they actually receive is wide, measurable, and fixable – if the right organizations get the right support.
The foundation is a 501(c)(3) built around a straightforward but powerful model: find the nonprofits already doing meaningful work for girls, and give them the resources to do more of it. Rather than operating its own programs, the S.H.A.U.N. Foundation identifies small-to-medium organizations across the country that are making real impact in one or more of its five focus areas, then forms strategic partnerships with them through grants.
It does not make grants to individuals. Its energy goes toward the organizations already in the trenches – the ones that have figured out how to reach girls in underserved communities but are limited by their budgets. The foundation pledges open, clear communication with every grantee, treating these partnerships as genuine collaborations rather than one-time transactions.
Shaun Robinson serves as Founder and President. Her commitment to girls’ empowerment isn’t a recent chapter in her story – it’s the thread that runs through all of it. She authored “Exactly As I Am: Celebrated Women Share Candid Advice with Today’s Girls on What it Takes to Believe in Yourself,” was invited by the U.S. Ambassador of the Bahamas under the Obama Administration to speak about girls’ self-esteem, and received DOVE’s first-ever Real Beauty Award. She has served on the National Board of Girls, Inc. and is a member of Women Moving Millions, an organization whose members each commit to giving $1 million or more toward women and girls. She has also been recognized with an Emmy Award, a Gracie Award, an Outstanding Coverage of Race and Ethnicity Award from Columbia University, and a Ford Foundation honor.
This is someone who has spent decades building toward something. The foundation is what it all points to.
The foundation’s name is its argument. Each letter stands for a place where underserved girls face a specific, documented disadvantage – and where targeted investment can shift outcomes.
Girls lag behind in STEM fields, not because of aptitude, but because of access and representation. When girls don’t see scientists and engineers who look like them, and when underfunded schools can’t offer the programs to light that spark, the pipeline narrows before it ever gets started.
Health is a matter of life and death, particularly for Black women and girls. Heart disease, diabetes, and cancer disproportionately affect Black females, and the gap in access to health education and preventive care starts long before adulthood. The foundation understands that healthy habits are built young – and that too many girls are growing up without the resources to build them.
In the Arts, girls of color report that media images of themselves are overwhelmingly negative. That is not a small thing. Seeing yourself reflected in stories, films, and music in ways that diminish rather than celebrate has a measurable effect on self-esteem and on what a girl believes is possible for her life. The foundation supports organizations working to change that picture.
Unity is about connection across borders – because girls in other countries often face barriers that go beyond limited opportunity. Some face child marriage. Some face barriers to basic education that make the challenges facing American girls look modest by comparison. The foundation believes girls across the world are stronger when they are in conversation with each other.
And Neighborhoods – the final pillar – addresses the cycle that ties all the others together. When girls grow up in underserved communities with no access to safe spaces, mentors, or economic opportunity, the odds stack up fast. Improving conditions at the neighborhood level isn’t just charitable work. It’s an investment in who those girls can become.
The foundation’s grantee list reads like a map of what is possible when the right organizations get support. STEM from Dance helps girls access science and engineering through the discipline and creativity they already love. Techbridge Girls connects underserved girls with STEM mentors and experiences that open career pathways. Girls Make Beats puts music production equipment in the hands of girls who never had access to it, and builds a community around them.
For health, Divas with Disabilities works at the intersection of disability and gender to empower young women who face compounding disadvantages. Alternatives for Girls addresses homelessness and domestic violence, meeting girls in crisis with practical support and long-term stability.
In the arts, Black Girls Film Camp gives aspiring filmmakers the training, equipment, and mentorship to tell their own stories. Girls Inc. of Los Angeles combines academic programming with life skills and leadership development rooted in the belief that all girls deserve to be strong, smart, and bold.
Daughters Beyond Incarceration supports daughters of incarcerated parents – girls navigating trauma and instability that most people never consider. Unity Ice Academy uses figure skating as a vehicle for discipline, confidence, and community in places where those opportunities simply did not exist before.
Girls Going Global and Latinitas both work toward connection and representation – one by linking girls across international communities, the other by building Latina media makers and future leaders. Girl Up, an initiative of the Global Fund for Children, mobilizes young women to drive change in their communities. Each of these organizations is doing something specific, local, and real. The S.H.A.U.N. Foundation is the mechanism that makes more of it possible.
The S.H.A.U.N. Foundation for Girls runs on the belief that every girl deserves a fair shot – at a career in science, at good health, at seeing herself reflected in art that lifts her up, at a neighborhood that gives her something to build on. If that mission connects with you, there are a few ways to be part of it.
Donate: Every dollar supports the organizations on the front lines of girls’ empowerment. You can give at shaunfoundationforgirls.org/donate.
Learn more: Explore the foundation’s work, read about its grantees, and follow the impact at shaunfoundationforgirls.org.
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You can also review the foundation’s financials and transparency rating on Charity Navigator at charitynavigator.org/ein/851787888.
The girls this foundation serves didn’t get a seat at the table. The S.H.A.U.N. Foundation is building one for them.