Grantmaking Overview

  
Community Action Fund

The Community Action Fund links our priority issue areas: Economic Justice, Environmental Health and Justice, Reproductive Justice and Sexual Rights and Young Women's Development with the goal of achieving greater and longer-term systemic change. By concentrating within these four issue areas, the Fund is better able to support cross-issue and cross-sector work that engages multiple strategies. The Fund also supports emerging grassroots efforts in order to build and strengthen broad-based movements led by women and girls - especially low-income women and girls and women and girls from communities of color.

As a reference, the guidelines outline the background and criteria in greater detail. Also, please refer to our Frequently Asked Questions for grantseekers.

For specific questions about the Community Action Fund, please email: elenaw@womensfoundca.org

Youth, Media and Social Change Institute

Announcing the Foundation's New Young Women's Initiative!

During our 2005 Road to Equity Tour, many individuals across California shared with us their concerns about how the media and popular culture negatively impact girls' and young women's self image, personal development and sense of possibility in the world. In response, the Women's Foundation of California has embarked on an exciting research project to understand how we can best address the critical issues facing young women and girls across the state. Our objective is to build upon our highly successful Sisterhood Fund and to develop a new initiative that will cultivate young women's leadership, address the impact of media and popular culture on young women and girls, and support innovative programming across the state. Read on.....

Donor Circles

A donor circle is a group of individual donors, corporate investors and/or philanthropic partners who pool their resources to make a greater impact on the issues they care about. Donor circles are designed to provide members with a meaningful experience in effective community activism and strategic philanthropy. Members receive education about a particular issue and training to evaluate grant proposals, conduct site visits and make grants to effective organizations and programs. Donor circles are designed to include members at varying levels of income, wealth and philanthropic experience.

The Women’s Foundation of California operates several successful donor circles. We are seen as a national leader in this donor engagement model. Grantmaking through our donor circles is based upon invitation-only processes.

Economic Development and Justice (EDJe) Fund - San Francisco
2006 - 2007 EDJe Grant Partners
The Economic Development and Justice (EDJe) Donor Circle promotes the economic independence and security of low-income women in California. Since its inception in 1999, members of EDJe have invested more than $2 million in organizations engaged in job creation and training, access to higher education, enterprise development, asset development and more recently policy advocacy.

Donor Circle on Race, Gender and Human Rights
2006 - 2007 RGHR Grant Partners
The Race, Gender and Human Rights Donor Circle supports organizations working to address the significant roles racism and sexism play in determining women’s quality of life and how these forces converge to impact low-income women of color and their families. This circle strategically supports organizations working to promote human rights within the criminal justice system in California. Since its inception, the Circle has made more than $1M in grants to organizations focused on issues of reform and re-entry, funded research on the criminal justice system to influence greater investment in this area and launched a criminal justice cohort within the Foundation’s Women’s Policy Institute in order to engage advocates and formerly incarcerated women in public policymaking.

Women of Silicon Valley Donor Circle
2006 - 2007 WoSV Grant Partners
The Women of Silicon Valley Donor Circle promotes the economic self-sufficiency of low-income women in Silicon Valley. Since 2006, the Circle has made grants totaling more than $250,000 to organizations focused on strengthening the leadership of women to ensure economic security.

Economic Development and Justice – Los Angeles
2006 - 2007 LADC Grant Partners
In June 2008, the Women’s Foundation of California launches a new donor circle, Economic Development and Justice – Los Angeles (EDJe LA), to support programs in Southern California that promote long-term economic security for women and families who face multiple economic barriers. EDJe LA was created by a small group of individuals who have been funding financial literacy programs through the Women’s Foundation for the past five years. They saw firsthand the need to broaden their funding scope to more effectively invest in systemic social change.

YWCA of the Mid-Penninsula Donor Advised Fund
2006 - 2007 YWCA DAF Grant Partners
Building on its history, the vision of its foremothers, and its long-standing principles, the YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula Donor Advised Fund seeks to create opportunities for women’s growth, leadership and power in order to attain a common vision: peace, justice, freedom and dignity. The Fund believes that both service and advocacy projects, those bringing about systemic change, those primarily committed to bettering women’s and girls’ lives, and those which break racial and ethnic barriers in scope, leadership, and participation will best achieve this goal.

Athena Fund
2006 - 2007 Athena Fund Grant Partners
The Athena Fund is a fiscally sponsored project of the Foundation that seeks to advance personal growth and development opportunities for girls and women by supporting the development of programs that enrich their lives and develop their leadership capabilities. For more information about the Athena Fund, contact Katherine Chappelear at kchappelear@att.net.