When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is true of communities, and eventually, the world." Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General

One of the best ways to learn about women's and girls' funds is to hear their stories.

Stopping Child Prostitution in Atlanta

As the concept of freedom from violence has engaged the attention of government bodies at the local and global levels, women's funds have often been at the forefront of educating these entities about the scope of the problem, as well as supporting the leaders in producing solutions. For example, the Atlanta Women's Foundation funded a citywide initiative in 2001 to stop child prostitution. They created a task force, convened a summit, and successfully lobbied the legislature to pass a bill making the prostitution of children a felony. The attention they received for this effort resulted in a major donor approaching the fund and offering to support a shelter for exploited children. The Atlanta Women's Foundation subsequently launched successful class action proceedings for racketeering against the 15 most active pimps in Atlanta.

For more information about the Atlanta Women's Foundation, go to www.atlantawomen.org.

Giving More Than Funds in Memphis

Women's funds also help to bridge the gap by extending a hand to promising organizations and programs even when they are unable to take them on as grantees. Sometimes that means rewriting the book on the traditional grant application process. For instance, each year The Women's Fund of Greater Memphis (WFGM) stretches its dollars as far as it can, but not all the deserving organizations that apply for grants get funded. Rather than close the door with a polite letter of rejection, WFGM teams up with these applicants to leverage their connections as funders and brainstorm other funding sources. This unofficial policy has led WFGM to draw upon its knowledge of the funding niches in Tennessee and bring these potential donors into the circle. WFGM invites applicants not awarded funds to its annual grants reception so they can mingle and make connections with other funders. And when WFGM simply did not have room in their budget for the West Tennessee Area Health Education Center to train Hispanic women as certified nurses, it reworked the proposal and shopped it to a local insurance company that provided $25,000 to fund the initiative.

For more information about the Women's Fund of Greater Memphis, go to www.wfgm.org.

Helping to Create Economic Security

The Ms. Foundation for Women is investing in economic security for women and their families, and strategically supports its grantees in coupling training and loan programs with advocacy and policy objectives. One area of focus for Ms. has been building women's small business skills, an important move toward stability since the recession of the mid 1980s. Women supported through these programs now understand better how to position themselves within the market niches that can survive a sagging economy. Ms. Foundation staff believe that in light of the recession of the early 21st century, it is more important than ever for low-income women to be able to sustain themselves economically and advocate for systemic change. Putting this belief into action, the Ms. Foundation funds the Childspace Cooperative Development. This organization trains childcare industry providers and at the same time works to influence policy that impacts childcare workers and the broader community of parents and children they serve.

Internationally, Tewa, the Nepal Women's Foundation, provides small grants to help advance women's economic opportunities through micro-enterprise programs and helping secure economic rights for Nepalese women and girls. Tewa makes economic empowerment grants, for example, to support women in nontraditional trades including training to become electric repair technicians and off-season vegetable farming. Tewa's grants for micro credit and income generating activities have resulted in earnings and savings that women use to send their daughters to school and to improve the nutritional quality of their meals. All Tewa's grantmaking focuses on the overall objective of supporting empowerment for women who can then make choices in their own lives, over their economic status, their bodies, and their education. Importantly, 65% of the foundation's grantmaking resources come from local fundraising efforts among women and men, who usually contribute 10 rupees (25 cents USD) at a time. This process of inviting every woman to the philanthropic table has enabled Tewa to organize them, to give voice to their collective will, and to strengthen their collective pool of resources in powerful ways.

For more information about the Ms. Foundation go to www.ms.foundation.org and for Tewa, go to www.tewa.org.np.

Giving Girls a Voice

The Chester County Fund for Women and Girls (Southeastern, PA) has of southeastern PA's first and only girls grant-making program - For Girls, By Girls - whose goal is to empower high school girls in Chester County to learn about the needs of women and girls in their community and direct grants to support programs to meet these needs. Launched by the Fund in December, this innovative, hands-on program will teach sophomore, junior and senior girls who live in or attend high school in Chester County about the grant making process. A Girls Advisory Board will bring together a diverse group of girls from throughout Chester County to work step-by-step on awarding grants totaling $10,000 to programs benefiting women and girls in Chester County next June. This group of girls will, in turn, meet with next year's new Girls Advisory Board members, sharing their newly learned skills and experiences and expanding the circle of girls committed to making a difference in their community.