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Working alongside funding partners and the membership, WFN creates and curates an ever growing body of reports and learning that provide context, thought leadership, and evidence to support funding practices which propel movements forward. Browse our library of reporting and learning publications below.
Toward Equity is the latest collaborative data report and a bold call to action and reflection—marking 25 years of progress for Connecticut’s women and girls. It urges deeper investment in equity-driven solutions and challenges philanthropy and policymakers to center racial and gender equity, creating a stronger, more inclusive Connecticut where everyone can thrive.
The U.S. Women’s Power and Influence Index assesses women’s power and influence in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The index comprehensively analyzes the economic security and well-being, health and safety, civic engagement and political inclusion, and public policy and legal protections for women in each state.
The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio’s most recent research report, Making Women Wealthy and Free, outlines what over 3,000 women shared about their experiences with building wealth in Central Ohio. The report is a roadmap for what our community can do to address the barriers that prevent women from building wealth and having the freedom to make their own decisions about their lives.
When women have wealth, the entire community benefits. The Women's Fund's goal is to create a coalition of public, private, and nonprofit partners committed to investing in equitable, sustainable solutions to the issues women face. This report will guide the Women's Fund's grantmaking and advocacy in the coming years and will serve as a foundation for local decision making.
In an effort to spark dialogue and discussion to strengthen inclusive, intersectional, and sustainable movements for gender and disability justice, Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism (UAF-FA) and Women Enabled International (WEI) collaborated on an interactive report titled Activists From Strength: What You Need to Know to be a Disability and Gender-Inclusive Funder. The report identifies the key challenges disability rights activists experience in their work as well as recommendations for funders who are interested in supporting work at the intersection of gender and disability.
In early 2024, Dana Borrelli-Murray, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England (GSSNE) and Kelly Nevins, CEO of Women's Fund of Rhode Island (WFRI), decided to initiate this project to investigate one question: How are the girls in Rhode Island faring? The answer to that question is complicated and the data reveals that our girls need us. Here are a few disturbing points:
The Rhode Island Girls Report was a project built by many talented, generous, smart folks. The data was compiled and the report created through a collaborative effort of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Brown University School of Public Health, Girls on the Run RI, Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England, Rhode Island for Community & Justice, Rhode Island KIDS COUNT, The Womxn Project Education Fund, and WFRI.
A groundbreaking new report from The Women’s Fund Miami-Dade, The Invisible Victims: A Gendered Focus on Gun Violence in Miami-Dade County, uncovers the alarming and underreported impact of gun violence on women and underserved communities in South Florida. Unlike national reports that provide broad trends, this report reveals how gun violence plays out in Miami-Dade County specifically, highlighting critical gaps in data, disparities in victimization, and shortcomings in public policy. The report was made possible in part through a Supporting Safer Communities Program grant from The Carrie Meek Foundation, funded by Miami-Dade County’s Community Violence Intervention Initiative.
Women's Fund of Central Indiana released their first-ever State of Women in Central Indiana Report, which paints a picture of what it’s like to be a woman in Central Indiana with regional and statewide data on women's health, well-being, and safety.
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Indiana has a “D” grade in terms of women’s well-being. This report—which examines health, workforce participation, housing, transportation, and violence—supports this assessment. The statistics in the report paint a troubling picture. Many women in the community are struggling, and intersecting factors like race, geography, and identity compound that struggle. That goes for girls, too. The Women's Fund's report comes on the heels of the 2024 Indiana Girl Report, developed by Girl Coalition of Indiana.
Communities can’t solve problems or seize opportunities if they don’t know what they are, which is why the data in this report is so crucial. With this report, decision-makers can take informed action. And it tells women: you are heard, and there is hope.
Texas Women’s Foundation’s 2024 Economic Issues for Women in Texas Report examines the pivotal role women play in driving growth and innovation in the state’s estimated $2.4 trillion economy. It also illuminates the critical need to invest in the barriers that prevent Texas women and families from achieving economic security, stability, and success.
You're invited to download, read, and share the research. It will take all of us – working together – to drive the meaningful change needed for all Texas women and families to thrive.
The Shift the South report details the economic and policy realities that women and girls of color must live through in the South as well as the conditions that nonprofits who serve women and girls of color in the South must contend. Backed by quantitative and qualitative data, the report sheds light on the inequitable and unjust realities that women and girls of color face in seven Southern states, namely Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas.
The New Hampshire Women’s Foundation is pleased to release their flagship publication, The Status of Girls in New Hampshire 2024. This report is the most comprehensive compilation of data on girls in the Granite State. This bi-annual report is complemented by the Women's Foundation's other bi-annual sister report, The Status of Women in New Hampshire.
Australians Investing In Women, in collaboration with Deloitte Access Economics and Minderoo Foundation, has released Remaking the Norm, the second iteration of its 2022 Breaking the Norm report. Remaking the norm reveals actions key to dismantling harmful gender norms and inequities in Australia, includes new research into the equality-based attitudes and behaviors of corporate Australia, and outlines how society can dismantle bias and stereotypes through practical policy recommendations and learnings from successful change initiatives and actions.
The report outlines six ways governments, business, philanthropy, and community groups can work towards realizing the $128 billion that could be added to Australia’s GDP each year if women and girls are empowered to reach their full economic potential:
Women in Montana have a long history of economic contributions and success. However, women are still underpaid relative to men, are more likely to work in industries where their expertise is undervalued like caretaking, and face disproportionate threats to their personal safety and wellness. Montana women with intersecting marginalized identities, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and LGBTQ+ women, face heightened obstacles. Tracking and evaluating the economic status of women in Montana is important to help target policies that work to improve equity. This report identifies solutions to help close the gaps in economic outcomes for Montana women.
Equitable Foundations has been produced as part of a collaboration between Australians Investing In Women and the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Social Equity Institute, with funding from Paul Ramsay Foundation. The shared vision is to help the philanthropic sector and other funders and partners improve the effectiveness of investment by understanding and responding to disadvantage and gender inequality in their area of focus.
Equitable Foundations provides exemplar models and a Framework to guide philanthropic funders in incorporating a gender lens, or gender equity principles, into their partnerships with other funders, including governmental and private entities.
The Case Studies report features key insights regarding the application of a gender lens in two case study partnerships. The report also has a companion resource, a Framework document outlining steps to apply a gender lens to partnerships and collaborations. Both resources have been produced to support philanthropic partnerships and collaborations to apply a gender lens.
For twenty-five years, the WNY Women’s Foundation (WNYWF) has been transforming systems, culture, and policy to create opportunities for each woman to thrive. To commemorate this silver milestone, the WNYWF released the third installment of their Pathways to Progress: Accelerating the Possibilities series. This data-driven analysis focuses on: childcare, poverty, leadership, education, occupational segregation, and pay equity. The latest edition builds off of the WNYWF’s 2010 and 2017 Pathways to Progress: The Status of Women in WNY reports and compares the state of affairs for women 25 years ago, to the current climate, with a forecasted trajectory over the next 20-25 years.
Women's Fund of Rhode Island's Women’s Well-Being Index (WWBI) exists as Rhode Island's best evidence-based resource to demonstrate how women are faring in every city and town in regards to salary, economic security, representation in job sectors, educational attainment, and health and safety. Primarily based on U.S. Census data and published annually, the WWBI highlights the progress being made toward closing the gender, wage, wealth, health, education, and power gaps that exist in Rhode Island. When possible, WWBI investigates the intersection of gender inequity overlaid with race/ethnicity and age. A few highlights from 2024 findings include the following
Women's Fund of Rhode Island's (WFRI) report, the 2024 Census of Directors and Chief Executives of Rhode Island’s Largest Nonprofit Organizations (Census), is an update to the 2019 report of the same name. Assisted by a class from Bryant University, WFRI collated data on 135 of the state’s largest nonprofits, based on revenue. The Census demonstrates how Rhode Island is doing in regards to gender and racial diversity among these nonprofits’ leadership circles. Key findings include:
On Equal Pay Day, The Women's Foundation of Colorado released a research brief that shows that Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act is closing three times faster than states without pay transparency laws. Other states that have passed pay transparency laws, namely California and Washington, are seeing similar results. The Women's Foundation of Colorado lobbied for the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act and led a statewide coalition of more than 20 organizations to help pass the bill in 2019. It was enacted in 2021.
In 2009, Women's Foundation of Minnesota launched the Status of Women & Girls in Minnesota (Status) research project in partnership with the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School’s Center on Women, Gender, and Public Policy. Annually, data specific to Minnesota women and girls has been gathered, analyzed, and published in economics, safety, health, and leadership. The Status research and community input informs the Foundation’s annual grantmaking and policy agenda, and identifies new areas where research is needed.
The project represents a unique approach to research by using a gender-race-place-equity lens. More than 100 experts from academia, government, nonprofit and private sectors, elected bodies and philanthropy participated in working groups and reviewed data on women and girls in Minnesota to identify the key issues outlined in the research, and proffer solutions. Through the research, a baseline is provided for measuring where to apply needed interventions and benchmark the continued progress on the road to economic, political and social equality for all women and girls in Minnesota.
In 2021, The Ascend Fund launched a three-state pilot to increase the number of women serving in Michigan, Mississippi, and Washington legislatures. This effort was specifically intended to help the fund understand how to propel more women into leadership positions.
This report is a summary of their key learnings from the multi-year effort. This report is designed as a resource not only for The Ascend Fund’s current state partners, but also for state and national organizations pursuing gender parity in politics across the country.
The New York Women’s Foundation was an early supporter of Tarana Burke’s me too Interntional as part of The Fund for the Me Too Movement and Allies (The Fund). Focused on creating spaces for healing and advocacy, The Fund was a trust-based philanthropic approach that engaged organizations across the U.S. to uplift survivor voices, particularly voices of women of color and other historically marginalized communities, and develop survivor-led programs. After four years of collaboration, The New York Women’s Foundation and Strength in Numbers Consulting Group conducted a summative evaluation that explored the development and implementation of The Fund’s efforts, resulting in specific recommendations for how funders and activists can work together to advance a common agenda and spark change. The evaluation distilled ways that philanthropy can partner with emerging organizations to take bold steps towards change through direct support of movement leaders and trusting their visions.
Funders can be critical partners to activists building movements towards social justice. However, for these unique relationships to flourish, funders and activists must work closely together and create a common understanding for how to collaborate given the historical power dynamics and inequities that have existed between philanthropy and nonprofit organizations. To advance movements, funders and activists have the opportunity to redefine these terms and create new relationships that center the work of activists and help build connections among organizations leading similar work across the field.
Organizations led by women and nonbinary leaders of color stand at the forefront of the most urgent struggles of our times, resolute in their commitment to constructing a just society where all can thrive. Supporting, investing in, and demonstrating genuine care for these leaders is not a mere choice; it is an imperative.
Building from Ms. Foundation for Women’s groundbreaking report, Pocket Change: How Women and Girls of Color Do More With Less, this latest research, Living With Pocket Change: What It Means To Do More With Less, examines the impact and real-life experiences of chronic philanthropic underinvestment and disinvestment in the leadership of women and nonbinary people of color, as well as underfunding of the organizations they lead, and highlights their needs, experiences, and the profound toll it takes.
Black women and gender-expansive leaders continue to be at the forefront of innovation, movement-building, bold leadership, and strategy across the Washington D.C. metropolitan area and the county. Yet at the same time, Black women leaders are operating in unprecedented times with mounting barriers and challenges to their leadership – driven by systemic inequities deeply embedded in sectors and systems.
Prompted by the ongoing national dialogue around Black women’s leadership and the unsettling stories about the sector’s failure to adequately support Black women as they lead across the city and surrounding counties, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation stepped in to fill this gap and bolster the leadership of Black women and Black gender-expansive leaders in the region.
The Women's Fund Miami-Dade's Gender Equity Index (GEI) measures progress toward equity for women and girls in Miami-Dade County, and its goal is to drive collaboration in the advancement of gender equality. The GEI provides a numeric score that measures the progress toward gender equity in Miami-Dade County over time and answers key questions such as "How far is Miami-Dade County from reaching gender equity?" and "What gaps need to be addressed?" GEI scores are accompanied by policy papers for each of The Fund's four pillars: Freedom From Violence, Leadership, Health & Well-Being, and Economic Mobility. The GEI provides essential data to inform and assist policymakers and the broader community in improving gender equality.
Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts' (WFWM) 2023 research report Gender Equity in Western Massachusetts: The Status of Women, Girls, Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender-Diverse Adults and Youth:
The research report includes data on gender demographics, employment & earnings, poverty and opportunity, health and well-being, reproductive justice, violence and safety, leadership, and political participation. WFWM also sought a deeper understanding of the experiences of several populations, including Indigenous women, survivors of intimate partner violence, immigrant and refugee women and girls, formerly incarcerated women, and Springfield women and girls of color.
In 2023, the Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation released Pay Transparency Measures in the United States. Since 2017, gender and racial pay equity have been key priority areas at the Women’s Fund. Recently, a growing national movement has recognized pay transparency as one strategic solution for employers and the government to address these disparities.
The Women’s Fund developed this report to more thoroughly understand the impacts and arguments for and against pay transparency policies. Employers, policymakers, community leaders, and wage earners will find this information beneficial in providing a more complete picture of the impact of pay transparency.
Through a partnership with Uplift the Matriarchy, Return to the Heart Foundation (R2HF) is proud to share a new research report, authored by Dr. Joannie Marie Suina (Pueblo of Cochiti). This report covers a 3-year journey of healing efforts led by Native Women across Turtle Island while highlighting the R2HF Traditional Helpers & Healers Microgrant Fund that invests in Native Women-led projects.
The research also spotlights rematriation strategies that Native Women are revitalizing as a response to further uplift their communities by leading and funding healing efforts (philanthropy and self-funded). The report is a call to action for funders to advance the work forward by making sustainable investments toward Native Women.
The New Hampshire Women’s Foundation is pleased to release the latest edition of their flagship publication, The Status of Women in New Hampshire 2023. This report is the most comprehensive compilation of data on women in the Granite State. This bi-annual report is complimented by New Hampshire Women's Foundation's other bi-annual sister report, the Status of Girls in New Hampshire.
Providing 85 indicators in demographics, health, safety, economic security and leadership, the data in this report highlight a hardworking, resilient and diversifying population of women. However, the data also enumerates many social, economic and political barriers facing women and compounding inequities by race, ethnicity, geography, age and parenting status. These barriers and inequities present opportunities for New Hampshire to invest in women for a more vibrant and prosperous future.
The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) is excited to release the first in a series of studies focused on deepening our understanding of who our members are and how they engage in gender equity work. We worked with nearly 100 gender equity funders on an in-depth survey of their organizations, their grantmaking, and their impact. Drawing on the results of this survey, straight from the mouths of our members, our study’s central aim was to explore how women's funds and foundations in the WFN alliance approach their work–and specifically, at this moment of global change, to investigate the intersections of racial and gender justice.
The Fund for Women and Girls completed the fourth edition of their Blueprint Report, the first and only comprehensive needs assessment of women and girls in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Published every five years, the Blueprint Report highlights pressing issues facing women and girls at the local, state, and national levels, with a deep dive on conditions in Chester County. The Fund’s 2022 Blueprint Report: Lighting a Path provides critical data to identify areas of progress for women and girls and indicates where additional improvements are still needed. It presents data points across eight key areas: Employment and Earnings; Work and Family; Educational Disparities; Poverty and Opportunity; Reproductive Rights; Health and Well-Being; Violence and Safety; and Political Participation. The report underscores progress, challenges, and areas for improvement, with clear action steps for the community on ways to ignite change. This data can be used for fundraising material, case statements, program and staffing planning, community action, policy-making, and more.
The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation takes a deep dive into understanding Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest. This three-phase project consists of a literature review of the historical context of labor trends and systemic barriers to Black women’s employment, a quantitative analysis to understand Black women in the workforce, and a qualitative study to determine the factors fostering or deterring Black women’s economic mobility.
Phase 1 examines Black women and the labor/employment system from a historical perspective. The phase 1 report informs phase 2 and phase 3, which offer quantitative and qualitative analyses of Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest today.
The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation takes a deep dive into understanding Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest. This three-phase project consists of a literature review of the historical context of labor trends and systemic barriers to Black women’s employment, a quantitative analysis to understand Black women in the workforce, and a qualitative study to determine the factors fostering or deterring Black women’s economic mobility.
Phase 1 examines Black women and the labor/employment system from a historical perspective. The phase 1 report informs phase 2 and phase 3, which offer quantitative and qualitative analyses of Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest today.
Clearing the Path: Building a Sustainable and Inclusive Workforce, a report by The Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham and based on research by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) examines the question of how the state’s workforce development system serves women and their families and provides recommendations for building a workforce development system that truly works for women.
The Washington Area Women's Foundation has published an overview of the community investments they made in 2020, which reflect their ongoing evolution. This report highlights bright spots in their work and provides a glimpse of how The Women’s Foundation will operate going forward.
The Rhode Island Women's Well-Being Index from the Women's Fund of Rhode Island, explores five dimensions of well-being to show how women compared to men, including health, personal safety, employment & earnings, economic security, and political empowerment.
This new report, released by the Arizona Foundation for Women on January 26, 2021, brings to light how Arizona women fare in the categories of safety, health and economic empowerment. Included in this Report is special attention to the devastating ways in which COVID-19 affects women.
The Aurora Foundation, in collaboration with funders and member organizations of the Connecticut Collective for Women and Girls (CCWG) and the Connecticut Data Collaborative (CTData), has released a new report that documents the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on women and girls, and particularly on women and girls of color in Connecticut.
2020 has been a uniquely challenging year for women as the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted women, and especially women of color. Throughout this strange year, the WNY Women's Foundation has worked nonstop to provide additional supports to working mothers, female business owners, essential workers, and employers.
This report, released annually, demonstrates the Foundation's continued commitment and impact throughout Western New York—and beyond.
The African Women's Development Fund recently released a new report, Women and Noncommunicable Diseases in Africa, which maps the scale, actors, and extent of rights-based work to address the impact of NCDs on African women.
This report summarizes WFCO’s work during Fiscal Year 2019-20, we extended our reporting into the current fiscal year to capture our responsive action to mitigate erosion to women’s economic security during COVID-19 and the long-term, preventive approaches we’re taking to address these systemic inequities.
This 2020 report aims to develop an initial understanding of the economic security of women in Colorado—what economic security means, why it is significant, what are the barriers deterring its achievement, and how to promote it.
The objectives of this research study are to create a better understanding of women’s economic realities in Colorado—backed by relevant literature and current data—and to develop a research framework to answer questions in regarding women’s economic security. Furthermore, the measures used in this report have been disaggregated by race and ethnicity to demonstrate that women are not a monolith.
This is a report produced by Texas Women’s Foundation to explore Texas women’s economic opportunity.
The Women's Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation released The Cliff Effect and Other Disincentives in our Public Benefit System. This report looks at when a small increase in wages triggers a complete cut-off of a public benefit, leaving the worker worse off financially. What started as the search for specific cliffs in our public benefits system has evolved into a comprehensive analysis of the disincentives phenomenon in our public benefit system. These structural flaws make it harder for working women to achieve self-sufficiency. This report is an update to the original 2016 report, and outlines the structural flaws and disincentives in our public benefit system and offers policy recommendations to help correct this system.
The Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation takes a deep dive into understanding Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest. This three-phase project consists of a literature review of the historical context of labor trends and systemic barriers to Black women’s employment, a quantitative analysis to understand Black women in the workforce, and a qualitative study to determine the factors fostering or deterring Black women’s economic mobility.
Phase 1 examines Black women and the labor/employment system from a historical perspective. The phase 1 report informs phase 2 and phase 3, which offer quantitative and qualitative analyses of Black women’s economic mobility in the Midwest today.
Women’s foundations have a long history of working to address women’s economic
security and mobility within their own communities across the country. As more women's foundations apply a holistic systems change approach — from connecting a deep understanding of the underlying economic and social context with programs and intervention development, to policy change and service provision, to scaling efforts by resourcing infrastructure needs — to the complex challenges inherent in advancing women’s economic mobility and security, great strides are being made.
Fondo Semillas released Women Rebuilding Their Communities: Evaluations & Learnings. The research looks at learnings from the Women Rebuilding Their Communities initiative after the 2017 earthquakes in Mexico.
The Women's Fund of Rhode Island released The Uneven Path 2020: State Investments in Women's Economic Security. The report looks at state work-support programs from 2009 to 2019, including the Child Care Assistance Program, RI Works cash assistance, and health insurance.
The Texas Women's Foundation released a report to explore Texas women's economic opportunity. Meet real Texas women and hear their stories.
The Women's Fund of Rhode Island released a toolkit for male allies to deepen their understanding of inequity at home, at work, and in society, as well as solutions and steps to take on behalf of women.
Over the past three years, four women’s foundations have embarked on a journey to unlock the power of two-generation (2Gen) strategies to build women’s economic equity and security. 2Gen strategies are a proven solution to empower women and contribute to the success of the entire family. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation funded the Women’s Funding Network (WFN) to launch the 2Gen Policy Advocacy Cohort (2Gen Cohort) to expand the scope and influence of women’s foundations in 2Gen work, bringing a gender equity lens to this effort.
This final evaluation of this three-year 2Gen policy advocacy initiative reflects upon and summarizes the participating foundations’ progress and resulting outcomes in:
Fondo Semillas released the Kaleidoscope report, which looks at findings and reflections on LGBTQI+ movements in Mexico. The report is a useful tool for organizations, donors, activists and others interested in identifying the needs, challenges, and opportunities for LGBTQI+ movements in Mexico.
The Fairfield County Community Foundation Fund for Women & Girls released two bodies of research to gauge the needs and service gaps impacting women and girls in Fairfield County, Connecticut. These include Count Them In, which looks at organizations in Fairfield County serving women and girls, and Count Her In, which looks at the status of women & girls in Fairfield County. They also released an executive summary and recommendations based on the reports.
Fondo Semillas released a collection of expressions detailing stories of resilience and empowerment after the 2017 earthquakes.
The Women's Fund of Rhode Island released this snapshot on the status of Women of Color in Rhode Island in 2018. The snapshot covers areas such as education, poverty, homeownership, and more.
This report from Visión y Compromiso is a learning document that brings the workforce priorities for the community transformation model into sharper focus in order to change the discourse about the promotor and community health worker workforce at local, state and national levels.
Results of research by Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona and the University of Arizona find that short-term investment in targeted training programs coupled with childcare support for those engaged in these workforce development activities could lead to long-term savings for the state and benefit for both mothers and their children.
Partnership for Women’s Prosperity (PWP) is a national initiative of the Women’s Funding Network and six of our leading member foundations to improve the economic security of women, their families and communities. This report details the power of the PWP systems change approach: shared learning, best practices, co-crafting, adapting, piloting new strategies across geographies and strategic investments of money and resources. Since its inception in 2011, more than $11 million was channeled into women’s economic security efforts, directly impacting more than 50,000 women and girls.
Research conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, finds that for sustained economic security and stability, work should pay a living wage, provide workers with sufficient hours of work (full-time, full-year employment), and provide access to health insurance, a pension, and the flexibility for working women and men to balance work and family. Too many jobs fail the test. The earnings of women workers, especially Black and Hispanic women, are even lower than the median for all Mississippi workers.
Women in the Workplace 2017 is a comprehensive study of the state of women in corporate America. This research is part of a long-term partnership between McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org to give organizations the information they need to promote women’s leadership and foster gender equality.
222 companies employing more than 12 million people shared their pipeline data and completed a survey of Human Resources practices. In addition, more than 70,000 employees – including women from different races and ethnicities – completed a survey designed to explore their experiences regarding gender, opportunity, career, and work-life issues.
Launched in 2011, the Partnership for Women’s Prosperity (PWP) is a national initiative of six women’s foundations convened by the Women’s Funding Network and working with the initiative’s evaluator, Korwin Consulting, to build the economic power of all women — community by community. Collectively, the foundations have granted $11 million to support more than 80 organizations throughout the country advancing women’s economic security efforts, thanks in part to Walmart Foundation funding.
Drawing from research in the field, first-hand information from grantee partners and the women they support, and deep community-based experience, PWP partners knew from the start that it takes more than job training and post-secondary education for low-income women to progress from lives of economic scarcity to achieving economic goals for themselves and their families. Wraparound support strategies — whether to help women cover financial and other basic needs while attending school, meet their responsibilities as primary caregivers in their families, or gain the knowledge and capacity necessary to reach their goals — was a critical component of each approach the PWP partners invested in.
The current resurgence of Western New York (upstate area encompassing Erie, Niagara, and Chautauqua Counties) has resulted in a new landscape of possibilities for prosperity. The Western New York Women’s Foundation is committed to making sure women can take advantage of these prospects and reap the benefits of the region’s economic growth. Their research shows what is, isn’t, and what can be for women and girls in Western New York. Foundation strategies capitalize on turning opportunities into realities.
In a report commission by the Women’s Fund of Hawai’i researchers from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, (IWPR) found that though there have been important gains in areas like education and health insurance coverage, women still face a widening pay gap and stagnant wages. Nearly four in ten Pacific Islander women are in poverty, compared with only one in ten women in Hawaii overall.
The Australian Women Donors Network created the Gender-wise Philanthropy Guide and Toolkit to help donors increase the impact of their philanthropic giving by building awareness on the important influence gender has on programs and philanthropic strategies, and give a guide on how to select programs that help achieve greater equity in society.
Urgent Action Fund maps its impact, lifts up the experiences of activists, explores the Sister Fund model as a strategy to shift power in philanthropy, and lays out its vision for the road ahead.
Dallas Women’s Foundation with Chambers Family Fund
Women’s Fund in Georgia’s animated video of its programs and impact around grant-making, capacity building, feminist philanthropy and other programmatic activities.
Economic security is a core priority for many of our member funds. They also understand that lasting security requires that violence be reduced, leadership increased, and health outcomes improved. Learn more about where member grantmaking dollars went in 2016.
GIWPS developed this index to offer a more comprehensive measurement of women’s wellbeing. Fir the first time ever, GIWPS captured peace and security along with women’s inclusion and justice. In partnership with the Peace Research Institute of Oslo, GIWPS also drew on recognized international data sources to rank 153 countries, covering more than 98 percent of the world’s population. The associated tools and analysis highlight key achievements and deficits from each country.
