Ms. Foundation for Women Announces Strategic Plan to Invest in Women and Girls of Color
The nation’s oldest women’s foundation, Ms. Foundation for Women, announced recently its new strategic plan, which centers its grantmaking and advocacy structure to invest intentionally in women and girls of color as a means to create social, cultural, and economic equity for all genders.
The foundation seeks to build power and advance democracy by investing, over five years, $25 million towards resources and support for organizations led by and for women of color. In addition to financial resources, they will extend their grantee-partner support to help build capacity, support policy advocacy, and strategic communications, and will form its first ever 501(c)(4) fund to support grassroots political movements, states the release.
“An accurate herstory tells us that women of color have been on the frontlines of nearly every movement in this country — from reproductive rights, immigrant rights, and civil rights, to economic justice, and criminal justice reform,” said Teresa C. Younger, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women. Younger added:
We are a political force to be reckoned with, and in 2018, we delivered unprecedented electoral wins in Alabama, Georgia, and New York — yet we are sorely underrepresented in philanthropic investment, with only 2% of that spending going to women and girls of color. It’s time that we champion and do all we can to ensure that women and girls of color are in power, at the tables of power and are supported as movement leaders.
According to the release, the foundation will direct financial and capacity building resources to its grantee-partners to support their immediate needs and increase the number of grassroots organizations it can support. The hope is to invite and challenge the philanthropic sector to join the foundation in their investment in women and girls of color.
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