Minnesota, MN — October 29, 2025 — Today, the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), in collaboration with Candid, proudly launches DataWoven: a visibility, perception, and power portal. Grounded in Candid’s Demographics via Candid dataset, the portal allows funders, organizers, and researchers to trace the flow of resources alongside leadership demographics—exposing inequities that are often hidden beneath aggregate numbers. More than just a dashboard, DataWoven is a community-forged tool built to surface the lived realities behind philanthropic data and to shift how funding power is understood and wielded.
Designed and shaped in deep partnership with WFN member organizations across the country including Fairfield County’s Community Foundation’s Fund for Women and Girls, G4GC, Global Fund for Women, Nurturing Wāhine Fund, Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, Women’s Fund Miami-Dade, Women’s Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation, and WNY Women’s Foundation, DataWoven reflects a process driven by the people most impacted by funding disparities. Rather than being a static dataset, it is a living tool for collective inquiry, reflection, and action.
Even as equity commitments proliferated in 2024, the data tell a stark story: nearly 30% of organizations led by women of color operate with revenue under $50,000, with that number rising to nearly 40% for Black women–led organizations—compared to just 16% of those led by white women. These disparities are not anomalies—they are systemic outcomes of funding choices that prioritize larger, legacy organizations with more assets at the expense of organizations that center women and girls of color and gender expansive people.
“This isn’t just a measurement tool—it’s a mirror,” said Elizabeth Barajas-Román, President & CEO of the Women’s Funding Network. “DataWoven helps us move from numbers to narratives, from good intentions to accountable action. It challenges the myth that women-of-color-led organizations are adequately resourced for the outcomes they’re expected to deliver—and gives us a shared foundation to demand better.”
In partnership with Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates, Women’s Funding Network designed DataWoven not just as a repository of data, but as a catalyst for reflection and systemic change. As users interact with the data across issue areas and funding streams, the portal invites users into essential questions:
- How can funders make the smartest decisions about strategy when structural gaps are buried in the data?
- How have giving patterns contributed to instability, burnout, or lost momentum in the movements funders claim to support?
- What responsibility do funders have to close the gap? How can they use this information to lead shifts in their field, not just within their own portfolios?
By offering a shared evidence base, DataWoven helps philanthropy reimagine its role—not as a gatekeeper, but as a partner in resourcing power at the margins.
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About WFN: With more than 120 women’s funds and foundations spanning six continents, the Women’s Funding Network is the largest global philanthropic alliance dedicated to providing strategies, research, and resources that support the critical agency and influence of women’s foundations and gender justice funders in the movement for equality, justice, and power for all. Visit the Women’s Funding Network website for more information, or Facebook, and Instagram.
About Candid: Candid is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides the most comprehensive data and insights about the social sector. Every year, millions of nonprofits spend trillions of dollars around the world. Candid finds out where that money comes from, where it goes, and why it matters. Candid was formed in 2019 when GuideStar and Foundation Center merged. Candid combined GuideStar’s tools on nonprofits and Foundation Center’s tools on foundations with new resources to offer more comprehensive, real-time information about the social sector. Find out more at candid.org and on LinkedIn and Instagram.