Women's Funding Network

Significant to the context of being female in the 21st century is the increasing support for the human and economic rights of women and girls.

Funds that support women in the United States were started in the 1970s by women such as Gloria Steinem and were catalyzed in the 1980s by philanthropists such as Helen LaKelly Hunt, Abigail Disney, and Tracy Gary to further energize the women's movement. These women spent their inherited wealth creating empowering opportunities for women and girls across the globe.

The Women's Funding Network was formally established in 1985, one of more than 60 women's funds in the United States that fund women's projects across [Page 1572]the globe. The network gave member women's funds financial resources, connections, and other services by holding annual conferences that brought them together, transforming their ideas into more concrete possibilities for change. From the network's inception, member funds worked to end domestic violence by coordinating a conference and research paper on the issue. The Women's Funding Network also was a strong presence at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1994.

By 2000, the network had brought together 94 funds, with $200 million in assets. In the past decade, women's funds formalized their shared values, including a commitment to a democratic vision of philanthropy and a commitment to long-term social change in the lives of women and girls, by “fixing systems not symptoms,” as LaKelly Hunt explains.

As of 2009, 146 members of the Women's Funding Network award grants of more than $60 million per year, with assets of $465 million. The intention is to create lasting change in women's human and economic rights, as well women's access to education and healthcare in communities everywhere. The network opts for projects with the greatest potential for a lasting effect on issues from poverty to women's political representation.