Funding & Grant Resources For Women’s Empowerment Organizations

As we celebrate Women’s History Month, honoring the countless contributions women have made and continue to make in our country and around the world, it’s important to recognize the many organizations whose focus and missions revolve around helping women.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of funders who spend their time and grantmaking resources on assisting women-led movements to advance meaningful change. The following organizations currently offer grant and funding opportunities for women and/or accept letters of inquiry or proposals.

• Amber Grant Foundation
• Ms. Foundation for Women
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
• 100 Women Charitable Foundation
• Chicago Foundation for Women
• New Venture Fund
• The California Wellness Foundation
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
• The Patrina Foundation
• AAUW
• Boulware Foundation
• Vermont Women’s Fund
• eWomen Foundation
• Global Fund for Women
• Madre
• Mama Cash
• The Moriah Fund
• Oak Foundation
• Texas Women’s Foundation
• The Hadassah Foundation
• Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples
• Mary’s Pence
• Wallace Global Fund
• The New York Women’s Foundation
• Kentucky Foundation for Women
• The Iowa Women’s Foundation
• Valentine Foundation
• Third Wave Foundation
• Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Foundation
• Wyoming Women’s Foundation

Amber Grant Foundation

This foundation was set up to honor the memory of Amber Wigdahl, who died at just 19 years old—before realizing her business dreams. WomensNet, which founded the Amber Grant Foundation, gives away at least $10,000 every month in Amber Grant money, as well as a year-end grant of $25,000. Historically for female entrepreneurs, the Amber Grant can now be awarded to female-led nonprofit organizations with vision and passion.

Areas served: US & Canada

Ms. Foundation For Women

The mission of Ms. Foundation is to build women’s collective power in the U.S. to advance equity and justice for all. This funder invests in and strengthens the capacity of women-led movements to advance meaningful social, cultural, and economic change in women’s lives, specifically across three areas: Economic Justice, Safety, and Women’s Health.

Areas served: US

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

This foundation supports children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society.

Areas served: US (primarily Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, & New Orleans), Mexico, Haiti

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

This foundation provides approximately $130 million each year in total grant activity supporting nonprofits that provide direct services in the areas of Housing, Health, Jobs, Education, and Community Services. Grants support organizations that serve a range of populations, including older adults, women at risk and their children, people with disabilities, and veterans, as well as the Jewish community.

Areas served: Baltimore, Chicago, Hawaiʻi, New York City, Northeastern Pennsylvania, San Francisco, and Israel (plus surrounding rural communities of listed cities)

100 Women Charitable Foundation

The mission of this foundation is to encourage women’s involvement in philanthropy and make a significant difference in the Southern San Francisco community. They fund nonprofit organizations that support Education, Family, and Health & Wellness.

Areas served: Santa Clara or San Mateo counties of the San Francisco bay area

Chicago Foundation For Women

This foundation envisions a world in which all women and girls have the opportunity to thrive in safe, just, and healthy communities. They offer grants that range from $15,000 to $150,000 and support organizations within the Chicago metropolitan area (Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry, and Will counties). Activities can be local, regional, or, in some instances, statewide. They fund organizations and programs in economic security, freedom from violence, and health.

Areas served: Chicago metropolitan area

New Venture Fund

The New Venture Fund for Global Policy and Advocacy (NVF for GPA) advances global health and development by providing targeted and timely awards for innovative, high-impact policy, advocacy, and communications projects that promote more and better resources, effective policies, and greater visibility for issues critical to global health and development. NVF for GPA funds projects across a broad range of issues, including but not limited to: Family planning, Financial services for the poor, Gender equality, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health (MNCH).

Areas served: US and Worldwide

The California Wellness Foundation

The vision of this foundation is for every resident of California to enjoy good health and experience wellness. Its mission is to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California by increasing access to health care, quality education, good jobs, healthy environments, and safe neighborhoods.

Areas served: California

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

This foundation focuses on Civil Society, Education, Environment and the Flint Area.The Foundation seeks to fulfill its mission of supporting efforts that promote a just, equitable, and sustainable society.

Areas served: US with a focus on the Great Lakes region

The Patrina Foundation

This foundation supports smaller, grassroots organizations in the New York region that work to improve the lives of girls and women. By funding these nonprofits in their nascent stages, they help them to test their programs and initiatives, and scale them for maximum impact in their local communities.

Areas served: New York metropolitan area and surrounding counties

AAUW

Their mission is to advance gender equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy. Their Community Action Grants provide funding to individuals, AAUW branches, and AAUW state organizations, as well as community-based nonprofits for innovative programs that promote education and equity through projects focused on encouraging girls to select, before entering college, the physical sciences or engineering as a career.

Areas served: US

Boulware Foundation

This foundation is committed to expanding economic opportunities for women and girls through education, vocational training, and entrepreneurship with the goal of sustainable financial independence. Their funding priorities focus on the following areas of interest: financial literacy, workforce development, micro finance, entrepreneurship, leadership skills, and formal education.

Areas served: Texas-based organizations

Vermont Women’s Fund

The Vermont Women’s Fund focuses their grantmaking on supporting women and girls on pathways to economic well-being, including career development, an area highlighted by the research of their initiative, Change The Story.

Areas served: Vermont

eWomen Foundation

This foundation is dedicated to supporting the financial and emotional health of women and girls in need. Their unique model of local fundraising and local giving through their chapters engages thousands of women across North America to give generously in support of their mission.

Areas served: US

Global Fund For Women

This funder leverages deeply-rooted relationships and technical expertise to equip movements with flexible financing and resources to maximize their impact, shifting power towards women, girls, and all marginalized people worldwide.

Areas served: Outside US

Madre

Madre is an international women’s human rights organization that funds visionary, innovative, and intersectional grassroots strategies that meet immediate needs and create lasting change. They believe that when grassroots women’s organizations provide vital services to their communities, women can build new skills, step up as leaders, and mobilize for rights-based policies.

Areas served: Worldwide

Mama Cash

Mama Cash supports women, girls, and trans people and intersex people who fight for their rights. Each year, Mama Cash supports over 100 women’s, girls’, trans and intersex rights groups that are working to change the world.

Areas served: Worldwide

The Moriah Fund

The Moriah Fund is dedicated to helping the disadvantaged, promoting democracy, and championing women’s rights and reproductive health.

Areas served: Worldwide

Oak Foundation

Oak Foundation commits its resources to address issues of global, social, and environmental concern, particularly those that have a major impact on the lives of the disadvantaged.

Areas served: Worldwide

Texas Women’s Foundation

Texas Women’s Foundation promotes women’s philanthropy and raises money to support community programs that help women and girls realize their full potential. They partner with grantees to provide responsive, community-based programming that advances economic and leadership opportunities for women, girls, and families to build stronger, more equitable communities for all.

Areas served: Texas

The Hadassah Foundation

This foundation invests in social change to empower girls and women. They accomplish their goals through grantmaking with a gender lens, supporting organizations that build upon the unique strengths, perspectives, and experiences of women and girls.

Areas served: US and Israel

Seventh Generation Fund For Indigenous Peoples

The primary purpose of their work is dedicated to Indigenous Peoples’ self-determination and the sovereignty of Native nations, while advancing the effectiveness of Indigenous-led work.

Areas served: Native organizations only

Mary’s Pence

They invest in women across the Americas by funding community initiatives and fostering collaborations to create social change. They fund grassroots organizations that are women-led and community centered, working to enact long-term sustainable change at the community level, and focused on social justice actions.

Areas served: US

Wallace Global Fund

The mission of the Wallace Global Fund is to promote an informed and engaged citizenry, to fight injustice, and to protect the diversity of nature and the natural systems upon which all life depends. They support activities and movements that are global or national in scope. They will consider significant local or regional initiatives with the potential to leverage broader national or global impact. Proposals can be for either core or project-specific support.

Areas served: Worldwide

The New York Women’s Foundation

The New York Women’s Foundation provides funds to organizations and programs within the five boroughs of New York City that have community-led solutions to propel all women, girls, and gender non-conforming individuals living at/below the poverty level towards long-term economic security.

Areas served: New York City

Kentucky Foundation For Women

The mission of the Kentucky Foundation for Women is to promote positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts. Their Art Meets Activism grant supports feminist artists and organizations in Kentucky to engage individuals and communities in artmaking that directly advances positive social change.

Areas served: Kentucky

The Iowa Women’s Foundation

The Iowa Women’s Foundation is committed to improving the lives of Iowa’s women and girls. This foundation uses research to uncover the biggest barriers to women’s success as well as their greatest needs, and they invest their passion and resources accordingly.

Areas served: Iowa

Valentine Foundation

The Valentine Foundation is a charitable foundation committed to funding organizations and programs that produce significant change in the social, economic, and political systems and institutions that impact the lives of women and girls in order to make those lives more equitable.

Areas served: Greater Philadelphia

Third Wave Foundation

Third Wave funds cutting-edge youth-led activism and has supported emerging organizations that lack access to philanthropy. They believe that young women, queer, and trans youth are vital to all movements for justice. The Mobilize Power Fund is a rapid response fund for youth-led gender justice activism, action, and community mobilization.

Areas served: US

Allen P. and Josephine B. Green Foundation

This foundation was established to serve central Missouri in the following areas: human and social service programs providing direct services to people in need, youth development programs, innovative developmental and educational programs for children, health and hospitals (funding for research projects is not included in this priority), religious institutions with an emphasis on projects that support community churches, and the provision of social services.

Areas served: Central Missouri

Wyoming Women’s Foundation

The mission of the Wyoming Women’s Foundation is to invest in the economic self-sufficiency of women and opportunities for girls in Wyoming. The foundation seeks submissions designed with the specific purpose of promoting long-term economic self-sufficiency of women and opportunities for girls living within the state of Wyoming.

Areas served: Wyoming

For more information on the grant search process, I’ve created a resource called “The Grant Hunt Simplified.” This free course will teach you the most efficient way to search for grants and exactly how to identify funders who best align with your own organization.