What are women's and girls' funds?
Why are they different from other grant-making organizations?
Why do women's and girls' funds need support?
Why should I support women's and girls' funds?
Is there a women's fund near me?
What is the Women's Funding Network?

---

What are women's and girls' funds?
Women's and girls' funds provide financial support to non profit groups working to improve the lives of women and girls. Most women's and girls' funds are public. This means they are non profit groups that need to raise money in order to support their programs. A few (less than 10%) women's and girls' funds are private, meaning they have funds set aside that they draw from to make grants to non profit groups. These private funds, unlike public funds, don't need to raise money to support their programs.

Why are they different from other grant-making organizations?
Although there are many existing progressive funds and foundations that have a strong history of funding social issues, there weren't any that focused solely on women's and girls' issues before the emergence women's funds. When common societal problems (such as those found in healthcare, education, and the work force) are considered by how they specifically affect women and girls, solutions to these problems differ from traditional approaches. Women's funds support innovative, and now proven effective, solutions to age-old problems.

Women's funds also create unique partnerships with their grantees, creating collaborative relationships, and eroding the distinction between donors and grantees. When women's and girls' funds support a project, they not only lend their financial support, they find meaningful ways to partner with their grantees. This partnership often takes the form of supporting organizational and professional staff development.

Women's and girls' funds transform the traditional relationship between funds, donors, grassroots organizations, and the women and girls served by bringing all parties together. This sense of community forges long-term connections that benefit each party. For example, major donors accompany the New York Women's Foundation on visits to potential grantees. Bringing donors face-to-face with program recipients - women and girls with whom they might not otherwise interact - is a transforming experience for all. These encounters create an involved and educated donor who is committed to the programs and to the social change that women's and girls' funds support. They also remind us that poverty, discrimination, lack of access to services, lack of reproductive control, gender violence, sexism, racism, heterosexism, and age and disability-related discrimination are realities faced by all women.

Why do women's and girls' funds need support?
Out of our 105 members, only 8 funds are private funds. This means that the remaining 97 funds need to raise money to continue funding programs that benefit women, girls and the communities they live in.

Why should I support women's and girls' funds?
Women's and girls' funds have traditionally been ahead of the curve in testing and defining programs and policies that improve the lives of women and girls. For example, 25 years ago, outside of women's funds, there was little funding for domestic violence prevention programs or rape crisis centers. Since then, the issue of violence has become a policy pillar at every level of government. But our work is not done. More than half of all American women will be victims of sexual assault and/or domestic abuse in their lifetimes. Yet there are four times more shelters for animals than there are for beaten women.

Women's and girls' funds support new social change strategies. For example, we're working to change public perceptions of women in prison and we're addressing the connectedness of global, national and local sex trafficking of women and girls.

If you give money to an organization that only that addresses domestic violence, you're giving money to address a specific problem in a specific area. You are addressing a vital need. If you give to a women's and girls' fund, you are investing in an organization that works toward solving an array of problems (such as violence against women) in a region as they relate to women and girls today and tomorrow. You are supporting an organization that addresses vital needs while creating long-term solutions.

Is there a women's fund near me?
There's only one way to find out! Go to the search page.

What is the Women's Funding Network?
The Women's Funding Network is a world-wide membership of over 100 women's and girls' funds. Our members support the solutions of women and girls through local, national and international grants. WFN advances this movement by supporting these funds through innovative programs and capacity-building expertise. Together, we are creating a safer and more secure world by investing in women and girls. Click here to learn more about Women's Funding Network.

____________________________________________________________________