The first contribution to Malala Fund in 2013 came from Angelina Jolie who gave a $200,000 personal donation, which was used to fund girls' education where Malala is from in Pakistan's Swat Valley.[7][8]
In 2015, when the government of Sierra Leone closed schools due to the Ebola epidemic, Malala Fund bought radios and created classrooms for 1,200 marginalized girls to continue their education.[11][12] Building on Malala's advocacy for girls in Nigeria,[13] Malala Fund pledged full scholarships to Chibok schoolgirls freed from the abduction by Boko Haram to complete their secondary education.[14] On 12 July 2015, her 18th birthday, Malala announced funding through Malala Fund of a secondary school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees.[15][16]
In 2016, Malala visited Dadaab Refugee Camp for her birthday and attended the graduation of refugee girls from a mentorship program on leadership and life skills supported by Malala Fund.[17] In December 2016, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $4 million to help Malala Fund launch the Education Champion Network to support education champions in developing countries.[18][19]
In 2017, Malala Fund significantly expanded investment projects that Newsweek described as, "education advocacy programs run by local people — the kind Yousafzai and her father led when they lived in Pakistan — and will disburse up to $10 million a year over the next decade."[20] New grants included a project in Afghanistan to support the recruitment and training of teachers to fill spots in the country's overcrowded classrooms[21][22] and supporting local activists in Nigeria to campaign for increasing public education from 9 years to 12 years.[23]
In 2018, Apple Inc. partnered with Malala Fund to fund expansion to India and Latin America and provide technology, curriculum assistance and policy research with a goal of educating more than 100,000 girls.[24][25][26][27][28] In addition, a connection will be established in Brazil with the Apple Developer Academy.[29]
Malala, Ziauddin, Malala Fund staff, members of the Education Champion Network and young education activists participate in conferences and meet with political leaders to advocate for girls' education.[35][36][37][38] The advocacy goals are to increase funding for girls' education[39] and to remove the barriers keeping girls from school, such as early marriage, child labor, conflict and gender discrimination.[40] Malala Fund has conducted research on the impact of girls' secondary education in collaboration with Brookings Institution, World Bank and Results for Development.
In June 2018, Malala Fund helped secure a $2.9 billion commitment for girls' education from G7 countries and the World Bank.[41][42]
