What Rhode’s $5 Million Grant to the Foundation for Women’s Health Funds

Rhode, the beauty brand founded by Hailey Bieber, has announced a $5 million grant and partnership with the Foundation for Women’s Health. The grant runs over three years and is meant to advance women’s health research and innovation. Cosmetics Business describes it as the brand’s largest philanthropic commitment to date.

The money comes through the Rhode Futures Fund, previously called the Rhode Futures Foundation. Rhode describes the gift as “among the largest” to an independent nonprofit dedicated to women’s health research, according to Ouispeak Fashion.

The grant has two parts: a $1 million investment vehicle called the Evergreen Fund, and research funding for areas Rhode describes as underfunded. Recipients of the research funding have not yet been announced.

How the $5 million is divided

The grant totals $5 million over three years. Of that total, $1 million creates the Foundation for Women’s Health Evergreen Fund. The remainder is meant to support medical research and related initiatives.

Ouispeak Fashion reports that the partnership pairs research funding with investment in companies developing treatments and diagnostics.

According to Rhode, as Ouispeak Fashion reports, research institutions across the United States have submitted proposals in the underfunded areas. Rhode says grant recipients and their focus areas will be announced next year.

Until then, no grantees have been named.

The grant at a glance
Rhode’s $5 million, three-year grant to the Foundation for Women’s Health includes $1 million for an Evergreen Fund. Research grantees are to be announced next year, according to Rhode.

How the Evergreen Fund works

Cosmetics Business describes the Evergreen Fund as a long-term investment vehicle for innovative companies in therapeutics and diagnostics.

Ouispeak Fashion says the fund uses a venture philanthropy model that reinvests each dollar over time, creating a lasting source of support.

The fund will invest in women’s health companies. Cosmetics Business says the focus is particularly maternal and adolescent health, and Ouispeak Fashion says maternal and adolescent girls’ health.

The $1 million is the portion of the $5 million allocated to the Evergreen Fund.

The research areas and the funding gap

The research funding targets understudied and underfunded areas across the female life cycle. Cosmetics Business lists pregnancy and postpartum, autoimmune conditions and PMOS, which it spells out as polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. Ouispeak Fashion names pregnancy and postpartum health and autoimmune conditions.

Rhode frames the grant around a funding gap. Cosmetics Business quotes Rhode’s partnership page as saying women’s health remains one of the most underfunded areas in medicine and scientific research.

The same page, according to Cosmetics Business, says federal support for research faces unprecedented setbacks, creating significant gaps in funding. It adds that the need for private investment has become increasingly important to support women’s health at scale.

Ouispeak Fashion reports the same rationale: private investment is increasingly needed as federal research support faces setbacks.

Rhode also says it hopes to create meaningful change for women around the world, according to Cosmetics Business.

What the Foundation for Women’s Health does

The Foundation for Women’s Health describes itself as a nonprofit research fund created to close long-standing gaps in women’s health research. It identifies understudied, underfunded questions and funds proposals that can improve women’s lives and advance gender equity in health.

The foundation defines the female life cycle as running from adolescence through menopause and beyond.

Its website describes a systems-level view. The foundation brings together leading women’s health experts from across the country to find the largest research gaps and the studies most likely to create change.

Funding is awarded through a competitive proposal process to scientists advancing innovative work in women’s health.

A curated advisory panel helps translate research into real-world care. The foundation says the panel’s expertise spans venture capital investment, entrepreneurship and political strategy. Findings are shared through academic channels and through traditional and social media.

All board members serve pro bono, so that funds go directly to research, the foundation says.

Of that total, $1 million creates the Foundation for Women’s Health Evergreen Fund.

The NIH figure behind the foundation’s case

The foundation cites a figure on its website. From 2013 to 2023, less than 9% of NIH research grants went to women’s health research.

It sets that against the fact that women make up 51% of the U.S. population.

The foundation’s stated position is that the historic gender imbalance in medical research is correctable rather than inevitable. Its site says that, absent sufficient public funding, private funders need to increase opportunities for women’s health research.

These figures are the foundation’s own.

Rhode’s partnership page makes a similar point about private investment alongside federal research support.

Where the grant sits in Rhode’s giving

Cosmetics Business reports that the Rhode Futures Foundation launched in 2022. It has since been renamed the Rhode Futures Fund, and the new grant is made under that name.

Since launching, Rhode has backed a number of organizations, including the Support for Moms Fund, according to Cosmetics Business.

Ouispeak Fashion gives the details of that earlier commitment: $2 million across 2025 and 2026 to a national network of 10 organizations providing guaranteed income and other resources across the U.S.

Rhode also committed $1 million to local organizations providing emergency cash assistance to mothers, caregivers and families displaced or deeply affected by the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

e.l.f. Beauty acquired Rhode in 2025. Cosmetics Business says the grant is part of the parent company’s commitment to donate 2% of net profits to meaningful causes each year.

Ouispeak Fashion says Rhode contributes to that collective effort, which includes initiatives that empower women.