Donor Circles
A donor circle is a group of individuals, corporate investors and/or philanthropic partners who pool their resources to make a greater impact on the issues they care about. The Foundation’s donor circles provide members with a meaningful experience in effective community activism and strategic philanthropy. Members receive education about strategic grantmaking for lasting systemic change and training to evaluate grant proposals, conduct site visits and make grants to effective organizations and programs. Our donor circles welcome members at varying levels of income, wealth and philanthropic experience.
Grantmaking through our donor circles is based upon invitation-only processes.
Economic Development and Justice Donor Circle – San Francisco
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.
Economic Development and Justice Donor Circle – Los Angeles
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.
Race, Gender and Human Rights Donor Circle
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 Color Donor Circle
The Women of Color Donor Circle invests resources in San Francisco Bay Area organizations that address the health and economic well being of young women and girls of color. Circle members are themselves women of color who are motivated to increase the number of women of color philanthropists investing in innovative and effective strategies for long-term change. This circle will administer its first round of grants in winter 2008.
Women of Silicon Valley Donor Circle
The Women of Silicon Valley Donor Circle promotes the economic self-sufficiency of low-income women and families in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Since 2006, the circle has made grants of more than $350,000 to organizations focused on providing education or academic enrichment to see that more young women, particularly Latinas, complete high school and go on to college, building the skills of low-income and immigrant women to develop their voice and take leadership in solving community-wide problems and supporting nonprofit staff to strengthen their leadership within their own organization, within the nonprofit sector or within the community at large.
YWCA of the Mid-Penninsula Donor Advised Fund
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
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 programs that enrich their lives and develop their leadership capabilities. For more information about the Athena Fund, contact Katherine Chappelear at kchappelear@att.net.
WANDA
The Women’s Achievement Network and Development Alliance (WANDA) is a powerful group of philanthropic women investing their collective resources in strategies that will increase the economic self-sufficiency of low-income single mothers in San Mateo County. A partnership of the Women’s Foundation of California and the Opportunity Fund (formerly Lenders for Community Development), WANDA will support financial education and matched savings programs to enable single mothers to build assets, such as a home, a small business or an education.
Marlborough Student Charitable Fund
The Marlborough Student Charitable Fund (MSCF) is a student-initiated, donor advised fund established by juniors and seniors at the Marlborough School in Los Angeles. MSCF funds educational programs for low-income young women and young women of color in Los Angeles. MSCF provides leadership and educational opportunities for its members. The group made its first grants in 2008.
For more information about joining any of these donor circles, please contact Cathy Schreiber, Vice President, Development and Communications at cathys@womensfoundca.org or (415) 837-1113, ext. 301.
| 
