Avon Foundation doubles funding for Global Scholarship Programme and opens applications to Avon Beauty Entrepreneurs

Foundation Commitment Increases To $500,000 per Year, Now Available To 200 Possible Recipients

LONDON, Aug. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP) – The Avon Foundation for Women today announced that it will award up to 200 academic scholarships in 2018 to Avon Beauty Entrepreneurs – known worldwide as Avon Representatives – and their children and grandchildren, across 25 countries. This represents a doubling of the Avon Foundation's commitment to the programme from $250,000 per annum to $500,000 per annum, and from 100 to 200 scholarship recipients. Additionally, the programme invites Avon Representatives to submit applications for themselves for the first time this year.  

The Avon Foundation launched the Avon Global Scholarship Programme for Children and Grandchildren of Top-Selling Representatives in 2012 to provide top-selling Avon Representatives with support for their children and grandchildren to pursue their educational goals. Since the programme's launch, the Avon Foundation has funded over 425 scholarships totaling more than $900,000. The new programme year will bring the Avon Foundation's total commitment to this program to nearly $1.5 million.

In its assessment of the gender divides in education, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has stressed the need to "remove barriers to lifelong learning." The Avon Foundation recognises that investing in education for women and girls creates a ripple effect that yields benefits not only for individual women, but also their families, communities and countries.

Jan Zijderveld, Avon Chief Executive Officer, said, "Avon is built on a long legacy of deep investments in women. We support six million beauty entrepreneurs to run their own businesses, in their own way and on their own terms and we understand the pivotal role of education, skills development and training in fueling a ripple effect for many years to come. We are extremely proud that the Avon Foundation is expanding its commitment to helping talented women meet their educational and career goals through this extended scholarship programme – providing Avon Representatives and their families with vital access to new skills, networks and the confidence to succeed."

Eligible applicants must already be enrolled or must be planning to enroll in a full-time or part-time course of study at an accredited college, university or vocational/technical college during the 2018-2019 academic year. Applicants can reapply to the programme each year and may receive the award a maximum of four times.

Scholarship recipients are selected on the basis of academic performance and a statement of career and educational aspirations and goals.

Avon and the Avon Foundation for Women
Avon is a global corporate leader in philanthropy focused on causes that matter most to women. Through 2017, Avon Products, Inc. and the Avon Foundation for Women have contributed over $1 billion in over 50 countries to support its efforts to eradicate breast cancer and to help end violence against women and girls worldwide. Today, Avon global cause programs focus on breast health awareness and prevention through the Avon Breast Cancer Promise, and to help end violence through the Avon Promise to Help End Violence Against Women and Girls. Avon's global markets sell special products to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer and violence against women and girls, conduct hundreds of events for these causes, and educate women around the world through its global army of nearly six million Avon Representatives.