Advocacy Archives - Women's Funding NetworkWomen's Funding Network

The Women’s Funding Network is committed to not only ensuring all women’s funds remain operational, but that through this collaboration and intentional resourcing of the field, we will center women and gender nationally and at the local level in the rebuilding of our economic and healthcare infrastructure. The goal is not just sustainability, but also the emergence of this philanthropic sector as vital, influential, and at a stronger place by 2022 than we were pre-COVID.

Advocacy Black Lives Matter Leadership & Political Participation

WFN Members Statement of Solidarity and Condemnation of Police Brutality

Today, amidst ongoing protests against police violence, spurred by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, members of the Women’s Funding Network, issued a statement of solidarity with Black communities and condemned police brutality and systemic racism. The statement is a call to action for philanthropy to support community-based solutions. See the full statement here.

Advocacy Allyship SheLeads

WFN announces ‘Signal for Help’ program, a new lifeline for those trapped at home with abusers

A hand signal provides those experiencing violence in home isolation a way to discreetly communicate when they need help.

SAN FRANCISCO — To address the widely reported worldwide rise of domestic violence during the COVID19 crisis, the Women’s Funding Network is launching the “Signal for Help,” an online initiative to assist those experiencing gender-based violence during pandemic stay at home orders. Signal for Help is a simple single-hand gesture that can be visually and silently displayed during video calls, to alert family, friends or colleagues that an individual needs help and that they would like someone to check in safely with them. The program will assist survivors of intimate partner violence who may be connecting with friends, family and colleagues via video chats and meetings.

Advocacy Leadership & Political Participation Membership

Responding to COVID-19

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus the core of WFN’s mission. We began with the vision that by democratizing philanthropy through local funds created by, and for, women, we could dismantle gender inequity region-by-region across the globe. Thirty years later we see that vision in action through your steadfast efforts during this unprecedented crisis.

Advocacy Allyship Economic Security

The After Party Podcast by WFN, Episode 2 (part 2)

Welcome to The After Party, a new podcast by the Women’s Funding Network! We got the party started at WomenFunded 2019. The After Party podcast will keep the party going, by hosting intimate conversations with the thinkers, leaders and all around bad-ass women who energized and inspired us all at WomenFunded 2019. Listen, get to know these women better, and keep the party and the movement going!

Advocacy Allyship Conferences & Convenings

Kevin Powell: Making the World a Better Place for Women

WFN Keynote Speaker Kevin Powell.

Celebrated author and activist Kevin Powell is keynote speaker for Women Funding Network’s upcoming Women Funded 2019: Leadership for a Changing World. Here, Kevin talks about the importance of “allyship” and what mentors like Gloria Steinem have taught him.

Advocacy Conferences & Convenings Innovative Philanthropy

Lifting Families out of Poverty: WFN & the 2Gen Approach

Marcia Coné

Women’s Funding Network Chief Strategist Marcia Coné is passionate about the Two-Generation (2Gen) Approach to breaking the cycle of poverty for women and their families. Here, she talks about WFN’s efforts to support its members in implementing the 2Gen philosophy and theoretical framework, as well as the work of the 2Gen Advocacy Cohort and their recent wins.

What is a 2Gen Approach?
When we think about poverty, programs are typically targeted to the needs of different members within the family. For example, you might have a child in a Head Start Program, while the parent is getting job training. This is helpful, but the 2Gen approach—which was developed by the Aspen Institute—looks at ways of addressing the family as a whole system and meeting their individual needs simultaneously, through multi-generational programming and policies. Two-generation approaches draw from findings that the well-being of parents is crucial to their children’s well-being and conversely, parents’ ability to succeed in school and in the workplace is substantially affected by how well their children are doing.

Advocacy Conferences & Convenings

How WFN Inspired SF’s Monthly Gender Breakfast

The Women’s Funding Network’s biennual conference is more than a collection of workshops, panels, and keynote addresses. Women Funded is a unique event because of the people we get in the room. When funders and advocates of gender equity come together, powerful collaborations begin and real change begins to happen.

The Gender Breakfast, a monthly gathering of gender professionals and advocates in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an example of such collaboration. Shruthi Jayaram and Lucina Di Meco met at Women Funded 2017 and decided that, together, they would create and host the Gender Breakfast series. These meetings are a chance for gender professionals to network and have a themed discussion led by an expert. To learn more about how Women Funded inspired this initiative, we went straight to the source and talked to Shruthi and Lucina.

Photo: Lucina Di Meco and Shruthi Jayaram

Tell us more about yourselves and what brought you to Women Funded 2017.

Lucina: I’m a senior gender equality expert and women’s rights advocate, currently serving as Director of Girls’ Education at Room to Read and Global Fellow at The Wilson Center. Having just moved to San Francisco from the East Coast, I was thrilled to attend a conference and get to know like-minded professionals in Bay Area! That conference ended up being for me quite momentous, as I met Shruthi there. Right away, we started talking about our shared yearning for a community of gender equality experts in the Bay Area. A few weeks later, we co-founded The Gender Breakfast.

Shruthi: I’m a Senior Project Manager at Dalberg Advisors, a strategy consulting firm dedicated to global justice and social impact. At Dalberg, I advise clients and develop strategies to increase women’s economic empowerment and shift deep-seated gendered norms and attitudes (e.g., around women’s role in the home and in caregiving). I moved to San Francisco in 2017 and like Lucina, came to WFN 2017 to meet like-minded gender equality advocates.

Advocacy Economic Security Innovative Philanthropy

Two-Generation Advocacy Cohort

Read about the successes of the second year of the Two-Generation Advocacy Cohort.

What Is 2Gen?

REPORT:

Policy Advocacy + Gender Equity + Learning Community = Recipe for Scaling Two-Generation Strategies

The Two-Generation Cohort is made up of The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham, The Women’s Foundation of Colorado, Texas Women’s Foundation and the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona.

Advocacy Leadership & Political Participation

Rise Up: Protecting Malawi’s Girls from Early Marriage

More than half of Malawian girls marry before age 18. But not Memory Banda.

Memory Banda advocating with a Parliamentarian

Unlike so many girls in her own community, Memory stayed in school and refused to marry until she finished her education. She beat the odds, defied convention, and fought to change the future for all girls. Read More

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Advocacy Archives - Women's Funding Network

$5 Million Response, Recovery, and Resilience Collaborative Fund