WEEKLY NEWS // APRIL 25, 2024

// A LETTER FROM OUR PRESIDENT & CEO

Feminist Funding Fuels Human Rights

Dear Colleagues,

The anti-gender movement is top of mind this week for me at Human Rights Funders Network’s Funding Futures Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia. Being in community with the Women’s Fund in Georgia, and the Global Philanthropy Project, I am reminded that around the globe, women, gender-nonconforming people, and the LGBTQI community are on the underfunded front lines of resistance to authoritarian ideology, redefining the populist category of “the people” in expansive, feminist terms by embracing inclusivity over marginalization, intersectionality over universalism, and global solidarity over nationalism.

I am also reminded that the United States is only one of six countries globally not to ratify the Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which is one of nine core UN human rights treaties. CEDAW promotes gender justice in every area of life—civil, political, economic, and cultural—and recognizes a broad range of intersecting identities. Often described as an international bill of rights for women, CEDAW has been ratified by every country in the world, except for six: Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Palau, Tonga, and the US.

In response, the Cities for CEDAW movement emerged ten years ago to mobilize gender justice in the US from the ground up. Why is this important? Because when cities pass CEDAW, effective ordinances contain an oversight body and funding for conducting data analyses to identify inequities. This data doesn’t just sit on a shelf. It must include a community-wide action plan to remedy inequities.

As part of WFN’s work to support local, feminist, power building, I am thrilled WFN is partnering with Women’s Intercultural Network (WIN) and Cities for CEDAW to build a collaborative open data portal to track the progress of CEDAW-inspired legislation and allow jurisdictions to publish datasets so that other cities, women’s funds and commissions, and other aligned organizations can coordinate and develop strategy to advance local gender equity.

It’s in the spirit of collaboration, that I am reminded that our power as a movement comes from both our deep expertise and partnerships on the local level as well as our ability as a network to collaborate, support, and build strategies across local, state, and global lines.  Thank you again for all you do.

With gratitude,

Elizabeth Barajas-Román
Women’s Funding Network
President & CEO

News from WFN

2024 WFN MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL

Our network thrives on the strength and diversity of our members. Please join us in appreciating Women’s Fund of East Tennessee who renewed WFN membership for 2024. Check out our Member Directory to see the organizations and individuals in our alliance advancing gender justice in the philanthropic sector.

If you have questions about membership renewal, joining WFN as a new member, or would like to learn more about WFN membership, please contact us.

WFN Events

Join Women’s Funding Network, Economic Opportunity Funders, Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, and Tax Equity Funders for Expanding the Child Tax Credit: What You Need to Know and What's Next.

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is a critical economic support, providing tax relief to almost 40 million American families each year. The Senate is currently considering an expanded child tax credit recently passed by the House in its $78 billion bipartisan tax package. Get the latest updates and analysis from national policy experts and bring your own questions about CTC’s implications for women, children, families, and communities.

Featuring:

Amy Matsui, Director of Income Security and Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center
Paolo Mastrangelo, Co-Founder and Co-President, American Policy Ventures
Kit Judge, Associate Director for Federal Policy, Reform and Advocacy, Annie E. Casey Foundation (Moderator)

May 20, 2024 | 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. EDT | Register here

News from WFN Members

MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please join us in welcoming Karen Hughes White as Texas Women's Foundation's new President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 29. Karen has spend the past 20 years leading nonprofit organizations focused on the needs of women and children. Learn more about Karen here.

ABFE's influence in promoting effective and responsive Black philanthropy soared in 2023. Explore their transformative achievements and discover what else ABFE accomplished in 2023 in their newly released Annual Report.

MEMBER EVENTS

Join Washington Area Women's Foundation as they shed light on the critical issues surrounding the health and well-being of Black mothers. The session will examine how personalized, supportive healthcare approaches can positively impact the lives of Black women, fostering informed decision-making and ensuring comprehensive care throughout their maternal journey.

April 30, 2024 | 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. EDT | Register here

Join Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts for an important presentation and facilitated discussion to strengthen the diversity and inclusion efforts within your organization. The learning series will discuss how to develop an equity mindset, the types of biases that operate in the hiring process and examine where and how it shows up in the job posting, applicant review, and interviewing process, and outreach ideas for drawing a diverse pool of candidates and provide equitable hiring guidelines and templates.

May 7, 2024 | 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. EDT | Register here

Be one of the first to experience As We Are, a docuseries developed by Women’s Foundation of the South. The docuseries highlights the stories of women of color nonprofit leaders in the South as they are versus how they are imagined.

Jackson, MS Premiere
May 8, 2024 | 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. CDT | Register here

New Orleans, LA Premiere
May 10, 2024 | 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. CDT | Register here

Opportunities and Resources

Register by tomorrow for Solidarity We Rise 2024, a virtual summit hosted by Justice and Joy National Collaborative. This summit centers girls, young women, and gender-expansive young people of color in the policy solutions, organizing efforts, and advocacy that would impact their futures and communities. Participants will strategize, share solutions, imagine new futures, and make connections between their fields, issues, and approaches that advance healing, opportunity, and justice for all girls and young people.

May 2-4, 2024 | Register here

Join Candid for a webinar where Kelly Brown, CEO of Viewpoint Consulting, will explore the challenges and opportunities around nonprofit demographic data reporting and collection. Kelly will be joined in conversation by Cesar Del Valle, director of partnerships at Candid. Hear an in-depth analysis and gain valuable insights from our research findings on how nonprofits navigate the complexities of sharing board, leader, and staff demographic data.

May 29, 2024 | 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. EDT | Register here

Gender lens investing offers investors a process for identifying and weighing issues pertaining to gender-based issues—pay equity, gender diversity, and career advancement, to name a few. This report from Zevin Asset Management outlines how to integrate these issues into investment decision-making with the goal of mitigating risk, identifying opportunities, and creating positive social impact.

Workforce Matters Funders Network announced their newest resource, Supporting Native Workforce Development - A Guide for Funders. Developed with the support of their Workforce Grantmaking in Native Nations and Communities initiative and advisory committee, the guide helps funders understand how they can establish and grow impactful philanthropic partnerships and support policies to support Native workforce development.

Alliance is launching an Inclusion Fund to make previously excluded voices more central to the philanthropy conversation, with an interest in publishing work from underrepresented voices in leadership positions in philanthropy, or voices that have been excluded because of their identities. Learn more and apply here.

The Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) at Borealis Philanthropy is currently accepting applications for Disability Inclusion Fund grants. DIF grants will support organizations whose work is rooted in intersectional cross-movements, is collaborative, and works to build a more vibrant, just and joyful world for people with disabilities. Learn more here.

The Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) at Borealis Philanthropy is also accepting applications for The DIF x Tech initiative, supported by the Ford Foundation’s Technology & Society Program and the MacArthur Foundation’s Technology in the Public Interest. They invite proposals that are working to bring about transformational change at the intersections of disability, justice, and technology. Learn more here.

What We're Reading

Supreme Court wrestles with abortion clash over emergency room treatment for pregnant women —NBC News

"It's been here": Why women's sports aren't just a moment — Axios

From Rachel Carson to Wangari Maathai—Meet the Women Who Ignited Environmental Movements — Ms. Magazine

What We're Watching

You cannot talk about reproductive rights without also talking about issues like domestic violence and reproductive coercion. When you strip women and birthing people of their bodily autonomy, you are also confining many of them to life-threatening situations and cycles of abuse.

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