Preface: Part 4 — Dozens of stories are told in exciting and graphic detail throughout the book

By Christine Grumm and Stephanie Clohesy, on behalf of the Co-Authors

As we said yesterday, the stories in this book are born from a quiet revolution created in the partnership between women at the source of social injustice and women’s foundations and donors:

Safetipin is a social organization that works with urban stakeholders, including governments, to make public spaces safer and more inclusive for women. Piloted in India with seed funding from the Lotus Circle, supporting the Women’s Empowerment Program of the Asia Foundation, the project has now been implemented in 18 countries.
The Dr. Beatriz María Solís Policy Institute at the Women’s Foundation California trains women community leaders in public policy and has worked to conceptualize and pass over 50 new pro-women laws or local policies in the state of California.
The Marea Verde, or “Green Wave” women’s movement that worked for years to legalize abortion across Latin America, has been supported by women’s funds such as the International Women’s Health Coalition, Fòs Feminista.
Women’s Foundation of Minnesota provides funding support and leadership for the passage of the Safe Harbor Law and No Wrong Door for sexually exploited youth.
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace. In 2002, Leymah Gbowee negotiated a grant from the Global Fund for Women for the Women of Liberia’s Mass Action for Peace. In Leymah’s words, “We women, we are tired of war.” Over time, the women organized collaborative efforts that led to reformers winning the war and electing Liberia’s first woman President (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ).

These are just a few examples of the vast amount of past and present work in the hundreds of women’s funds worldwide. By choice and deliberate strategy, women’s funds have claimed roles at the forefront in bloody wars, face-to-face conflict with dangerous authoritarian leaders, and investigations in life-threatening zones where women are disappearing while also attending to the everyday and pervasive barriers of jobs, food security, housing, childcare, healthcare, etc. that block women from full participation. Women’s funds have trusted women to tell the truth about their lives and then build action strategies from those truths, whether that results in local change or an advancement in international law.

The bright threads throughout this book focus on the future of social justice work by creating successful and fast-paced change that benefits the people most affected by injustice and oppression. The success and speed of so much women’s funding characterize how women’s funds take action with their partners and how the mostly place-based organizing tactics, relationships, and leadership of women, girls, and gender-expansive people all come together as part of the action design. Women’s Funds believes that a community of women leaders more fully understands the depth and breadth of the problems and solutions than any single or small group of leaders. And they believe that, with adequate resources, they can solve most of the world’s problems from the ground up.

Read this book with a vision of a world with fewer problems, more diverse leadership, more equitable sharing of resources, and a willingness to get engaged with the entire ethos of the women’s funding movement. We invite you to add your voice to this growing movement by funding your local women’s fund/foundation, acting to advance gender justice activism globally, and/or telling the story of how women’s funds changed philanthropy and the world. With abundant energy, the world needs you to do all three. If you are already involved, use your voice to tell new stories and share them with us.