More than 80 leaders of the women’s funding movement and their allies gathered in New York in May 2018 to connect and learn. We spent the morning exploring two critical aspects of our work – practical methods to ensure racial equity is integrated in programs and outreach and ways to effectively raise visibility about women’s expertise in economic security and other areas.
In the second portion of our Summit, in partnership with Feminist.com and the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities, we co-hosted Women and Men As Allies. The event was an amazing opportunity to foster a dialogue between men and women leaders on issues like reproductive rights, workplace equity, men’s violence against women, and gender equity in sports
Click here to see the full program.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
International Women’s Health Coalition
The New York Women’s Foundation
Women and Men as Allies Summit – New York
In May 2018, WFN launched our Women Entrepreneurs Resource and Community Space (WERC Space) platform. WERC Space (www.wercspace.org) is a new online platform for women entrepreneurs offering free curated resources and tools, as well as information about funding and learning opportunities. In partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation, we built WERC Space for women who may not have access to the education, credit, and resources necessary to start a business, yet have all the passion and creativity needed. Werc Space resources are also shared by our affiliates: Heroikka, The Women’s Foundation of Soutwest Florida, Accion, Score.org, and Career Girls.
In May WFN took the stage at the United State of Women (USOW) Summit – a gathering of 5,000 women committed to gender equity. We were delighted to offer our members tickets to this inspiring event where we heard from Michelle Obama, the courageous young gymnasts who sued Nassar, Tarana Burke, and so many more. We uplifted the presence and importance of our network on a national stage. It was a day we will always remember.
We expanded the conversation on women and money by creating a Money + Power Fellowship to focus on gender lens investing within philanthropy. Tuti Scott, founder of Imagine Philanthropy, joined our team to conduct an assessment of our members’ gender lens investing practices, lead conversations on what else is needed, and create tools and resources to better support their investing practices. We hosted regular conversations with Tuti on how to work more courageously with money and power at all levels.
To access recordings of Tuti’s webinars, click here.
Women executives of foundations representing over $40 million in grantmaking annually joined us at our Women + Power Summit. We discussed leadership, best practices for change management, and embedding racial equity in gender equity philanthropy.
Thank you to our sponsors:
International Women’s Health Coalition
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
The New York Women’s Foundation
Women + Power Summit – Seattle.
Advocating for Change
WFN serves as the convener, educator, facilitator, and evaluator of a learning community and advocacy cohort advocating for change to policies, programs, and practices that present barriers to financial well -being for women and their families. Over the past two years, our members have successfully led advocacy efforts that are making a real difference in their communities. For example, the Women’s Foundation of Colorado pushed through the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, while promoting pay transparency. In Alabama, The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham has secured state funds to invest in childcare and transportation for families. In Dallas, The Texas Women’s Foundation has successfully navigated procedural and administrative changes providing better access and services for women and their children by reorganizing the childcare administration. The Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona passed legislation ensuring single mothers can attend their courses and remain eligible for child-care subsidies, with $56 million allocated for this purpose.
WFN is a catalyst for effective philanthropy that leads to sustainable change in the lives of women and girls. Our expertise in bringing together our members in well- designed learning communities and advocacy cohorts builds strong leaders, and demonstrates the impact of bold philanthropy.
The Two Generation Learning Community and Advocacy cohort is made possible by WFN’s partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Two Generation Strategies for Economic Equity