Dear WFN community and philanthropic partners,
At our recent WFN Summit, Sarita Gupta of the Ford Foundation opened her Spark Talk by recognizing the role this network has played for more than 40 years. She reminded us that “investing in women is an investment in the institutional architecture of democracy itself.”
Her words underscore the powerful connection between WFN’s work and the health of our democracy. I encourage you to read her full Spark Talk, “The Future Is Being Designed. Who Gets to Shape It?”
This vision reflects what WFN members have long made possible. Women’s funds and gender justice funds organize capital, build power, and help shape the conditions for a more just civic life. Their leadership is essential to this work, and our network helps bring that leadership together.
WFN members are deeply connected to their communities. They understand where resources are needed, whose leadership is overlooked, and what it takes to turn local knowledge into lasting change. Through WFN, members build relationships, exchange knowledge, and bring their expertise into influential spaces. As you plan for the year ahead, we invite you to renew your membership or join the network. Your participation sustains a community where women’s funds, gender justice funds, allies, and individuals can learn, collaborate, and act together.
This work also requires durable infrastructure. As we move toward Census 2030, WFN is working alongside its members to strengthen the data and shared tools that make women’s leadership and community realities more visible. This infrastructure can help members better understand their communities, inform their grantmaking, and bring stronger evidence into decisions about policy and capital.
We also invite our philanthropic partners to invest in this infrastructure and in the network that makes it valuable: the relationships, research, convenings, and shared learning that connect local leadership to broader change. Supporting WFN means investing in the collective capacity of women’s funds and gender justice funds to build power, move capital, and shape the future.
Thank you to our members for the leadership you bring to this network, and to our philanthropic partners for making this shared work possible. The future is being designed now. WFN’s community belongs at the table, and together, we can help shape what comes next.
With gratitude,
Julie Montgomery
Women’s Funding Network
Director of Membership Strategy & Engagement