Free to Run

Who we are

Free to Run’s mission is to advance gender equity globally through running. We achieve this through three lines of action:

• EMPOWER: Directly implementing girls’ and young women’s running and outdoor sport programs in parallel with leadership, health, and rights-based education in conflict areas of the world.
• EQUIP: Building the capacity and resources of organizations (primarily in countries lowest on the Gender Inequality Index) to implement Free to Run-inspired programs.
• MOVE: Sparking and cultivating a global movement of people running for gender equity.

Free to Run was founded by ultrarunner Stephanie Case in Afghanistan in 2014 and was registered as a 501c3 non-profit organization in the United States in 2015. Free to Run currently operates programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. Our programs are all led by local staff, and we have a global (remote) team based in the US, UK, Canada, and New Zealand. Our donors and supporters are based around the world.

Our culture and values

Free to Run believes that achieving our mission requires transformative feminist leaders: leaders who enable others to lead, building power with them instead of over them. We cultivate an atmosphere of equity, accountability, and respect, applied across locations, themes, and functions, and believe our commitment to this culture is critical to the collective success of Free to Run. We also believe that every person who works with us has an opportunity to shape our culture and contribute to our impact.

Our Values:

EQUITY: Gender justice is our purpose.
PLAY: Running is our accelerator.
COURAGE: We take risks. Seriously.
ENDURANCE: Passion drives our perseverance.
TEAM: We collaborate constantly.
POWER: We are all leaders.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

Free to Run is committed to providing an inclusive, equitable and welcoming environment for all members of our community, including our team (internal) and all the people we serve and interact with (externally). The organization recognizes the intersecting forms of systemic injustice faced by girls, women, people with non-conforming gender identities, Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and other historically marginalized groups.

Free to Run actively works to ensure a safe, respectful, and equitable environment for all individuals, regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religious belief, class, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, or any other protected characteristic. We affirm the dignity of all individuals and commit to dismantling structural inequalities, particularly those rooted in sexism, patriarchy, and gender-based discrimination and colonialism.