Women's Funds Work for Global Social Change
Foundations for Women Promote Social Justice
Aug 14, 2009
The first women’s fund was created by Gloria Steinem and her fellow editors at Ms. Magazine in 1972 as a way to use the magazine’s profits to support grassroots women’s causes. Since the Ms. Foundation for Women began, hundreds of foundations with the mission of supporting women and girls – known commonly as women’s funds – have been formed in the United States and around the world.
Why Women’s Funds Focus on Women
“Since women and girls worldwide are under served, and are the majority of the impoverished, their needs require immediate attention,” says Cheryl Saban in the May 3, 2008 Huffington Post article “Focus on Funding Women.”
She continues, “Funding women's initiatives is … a targeted intervention that can strike at the nexus of some of the most debilitating and chronic ailments imposed by the way our society functions …”
“Authorities from the World Bank to the United Nations confirm that positive return on investment on programs directed to women improves the conditions of family units, communities and even nations," says Lesly Bosch Annen, the philanthropy director for the Dallas Women’s Foundation, in the July 22, 2009 Dallas Morning News article “Dallas Women’s Foundation is a Worldwide Force in Philanthropy.”
Work of Women’s Funds
While all women’s funds share a mission of supporting women and girls, they vary greatly in organizational size and focus of their work. Well-known women’s funds include:
- Ms. Foundation for Women. On its website, the Ms. Foundation describes its work by saying, “The Ms. Foundation actively works to bring race, class, age and sexuality to the center of feminist organizing (a concept we call social justice feminism) and to bring a gender lens to the center of broader progressive organizing (a concept we call feminist social justice).”
- Global Fund for Women. “The Global Fund for Women is an international network of women and men committed to a world of equality and social justice. We advocate for and defend women's human rights by making grants to support women's groups around the world,” says the Global Fund on its website.
- Women’s Sports Foundation. “Founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King, the Women’s Sports Foundation is a national charitable educational organization dedicated to advancing the lives of girls and women through physical activity,” reads the Women’s Sports Foundation’s website.
Community-based women’s funds are generally smaller in size and work primarily within their communities. A few examples are:
- Women’s Fund of Central Ohio. “The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio is a public foundation leading social change in our community, empowering women and girls to reach their full potential. More than 800,000 women and girls live in central Ohio. We aim to engage all of them,” reports the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio on its website.
- HER Fund. “HER Fund supports and encourages the work and growth of women's organizations based in Hong Kong that share the same vision. We strive to promote conditions in the society that will secure and promote the human rights for all women, without discrimination on any grounds, and in all areas of life and work,” says the HER Fund on the website of the membership organization Women’s Funding Network.
- Kentucky Foundation for Women. “The mission of the Kentucky Foundation for Women is to promote positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts. When women and girls advance, so does Kentucky,” says the website of the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
How Women’s Funds are Funded
As grantmaking organizations, women’s funds must be capitalized. In some cases, women’s funds are created by an endowment by a single philanthropist or family of donors – such as the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which was founded with a gift of $10 million from Louisville native Sallie Bingham.
In other cases, such as the Global Fund for Women and the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, funding comes from a variety of sources, including grants from the government and corporate foundations, and individual philanthropy.
While women's funds are managed and capitalized primarily by women, there are many men also in the ranks of staff, volunteers, leaders and donors.
To learn more about these and other women’s funds, visit the website of the Women’s Funding Network.
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