RESOURCES & TOOLS

This section contains links to reports, articles, and organizations related to women, girls, and philanthropy and the application of a gender lens in one’s grantmaking. This information can be useful for funders who are beginning to explore grantmaking in the area of women and girls, as well as seasoned grantmakers in this area. For resources and information on specific issues facing women and girls, please visit the Issues section.

Note to grantseekers: W&G does not have the staff capacity to provide technical assistance to individuals or organizations seeking grants. If you are seeking funds, we recommend that you explore the organizations and resources listed in this section which may assist you in identifying funding opportunities.

Resources for Grantmakers:

Prevention & Women's Health: Making the Health Care System More Responsive to Women
On May 10, 1999, Grantmakers In Health convened a small group of grantmakers along with experts in community health, research, and government for an Issue Dialogue on prevention and women’s health. Download the PDF to get key points from the day’s discussion with factual information on women’s health and grantmaker activities drawn from a background paper prepared for the participants.

Women and Health Care: A National Profile
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a national survey of women on their health that found a substantial percentage of women cannot afford to go to the doctor or get prescriptions filled and although a majority of women are in good health and satisfied with their health care, many have health problems and do not get adequate levels of preventive care. Visit their website to get an examination of women’s health status, health care costs, insurance, access to care, prevention, and their role in family health care.

Medicaid: Vital to Women’s Health
Although Medicaid is not usually perceived as a women's health program, it covers critically important medical care for 12 million American women. Download the PDF to learn how grantmakers with a focus on women's health are paying close attention to proposals to restructure the Medicaid program, which could have major implications for low-income women's access to health care services.

The Case for Better Philanthropy: The Future of Funding for Women and Girls
Women & Philanthropy, a project of the Council on Foundations examines how fairness, effectiveness, and human rights can provide a framework for foundations to create more effective philanthropy benefiting women and girls.

Low-Income Women’s Access to Education? A Case Study of Welfare Recipients in Boston
In 2003 and 2004, the Massachusetts legislature dramatically changed state law to allow welfare recipients to engage in education and training to fulfill their mandatory work requirements. Learn about research findings from The Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston on whether women who received welfare benefits between 2003 and 2006 knew about, and took advantage of, these historic changes.

Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling
In the late 1990s, a group of graduate students lodged a complaint with Linda C. Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University: All their male counterparts in the university's PhD program were teaching courses on their own, whereas the women were working only as teaching assistants. Learn what Babcock uncovered when she started systematically studying gender differences when it comes to asking for pay raises, resources or promotions.

What's Next? Women's Ongoing Ascent to Leadership Positions
In an opinion piece to Philanthropy News Digest, Tiziana Dearing, Executive Director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University, contend that while the first few months of 2007 brought tremendous gains by women in leadership roles in nonprofits and government, there is still work to be done.

State of Women: A County by County Report on Women and Girls in Massachusetts
MCSW is charged with studying, reviewing, and reporting on the status of women in Massachusetts. Get a compilation of the available and most current data on Massachusetts women and girls, including invaluable county level information including basic demographics and data on employment and earnings, poverty and self–sufficiency, education, health and wellness, and political representation. You can also download individual county fact sheets here.

Critical Mass on Corporate Boards: Why Three or More Women Enhance Governance
Congress, the SEC, and the media have been pressuring corporations to improve their governance and look beyond the traditional pool of board candidates and women’s organizations have been decrying the lack of women on corporate boards and lobbying corporations to increase the representation of women in the boardroom. Learn what impact the number of women on corporate boards has on corporations.

Building on a Better Foundation: A Toolkit for Creating an Inclusive Grantmaking Organization
Despite the latest census data showing an increasingly diverse U.S. population, grantmakers continue to grapple with addressing diversity issues. Learn how funders can practice diversity in their roles as funders, employers, businesses and community citizens.

The Calm in the Storm: Women Leaders in Gulf Coast Recovery
Women have become a critical force rebuilding the Gulf Coast after being disproportionately affected by Katrina. This report reveals that, while the lens of race and class were applied to the natural disaster early on, the gender dimensions of poverty and recovery on the Gulf Coast have largely been overlooked. The report includes amazing stories of women survivors, outlines post-disaster challenges they face, and the actions they've taken as leaders in the rebuilding process in partnership with women's organizations and women's foundations.

Women, Faith & Philanthropy: A National Conversation Monograph
A group of 45 women from women’s funds and from Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women’s organizations set a history-making mark in transforming relationships between women, faith, and philanthropy. These women participated in a national conversation that brought transformative thinking on forming partnerships for philanthropic and inter-religious collaboration to bring about changes to social order and to dismantle poverty. Check out some of the simple tools at the end of the monograph to move forward the work of this ground-breaking conversation.

New Wealth, Women & Philanthropy
Report provides insight into how new wealth donors view philanthropy and women’s issues and what drives them to get involved; specific language to use when creating your targeted message to these donors; and a process for designing a creative brief that will enhance your marketing.

“Gender Matters: Funding Effective Programs for Women and Girls”
This 2001 white paper by Professor Molly Mead of Tufts University explores the status of foundation funding for women and girls, outlines reasons for funders to incorporate a gender lens in their grantmaking, and includes a case study of how investing in women and girls has paid off in developing countries.

Grant Making with a Gender Lens (Ford Foundation, 2004)
www.grantcraft.org/catalog/guides/gender/index.html
This 2004 report from the Ford Foundation breaks down what “gender lens” and “gender analysis” mean in practice and how to apply these methodologies within one’s foundation. The report also includes information about how the application of a gender analysis can benefit men and boys.

“Using a Gender Lens To Approach Grantmaking:
A Background Paper to Assist Grant Applicants”
www.rifoundation.org/wfri/pdf/
GrantmakingThruGenderLens.pdf
This paper from the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island includes a set of questions to assist one in using a gender lens in either developing or evaluating a program.

“Women and Philanthropy: Old Stereotypes, New Challenges”
www.wfnet.org/news/story.php?story_id=49
This 2001 paper by Mary Ellen Capek breaks down data on organized philanthropy as it affects women and girls, and also examines data on foundation leadership and discusses what the numbers mean, especially for women and men of color.

Improving Philanthropy for Girls’ Programs
www.3gf.org/IP.pdf
This 2001 report from the Three Guineas Fund includes findings based on interviews with funders and nonprofit program staff about how to strengthen philanthropy benefiting girls’ programs.

Girls as Grantmakers Network: Profiles of Six Innovative Programs
www.3gf.org/GGN.pdf
This 2001 Three Guineas Fund publication includes profiles of six programs in which girls and young women learn about philanthropy and make significant grant decisions.

“Close Philanthropy Gap by Funding Women” www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1661/
context/archive
This commentary by Christine Grumm, Executive Director of the Women’s Funding Network, appeared on Womens eNews on 12/31/03.

“The Wealth of Women”
www.bostonwomensfund.org/media.html
This Boston Globe editorial on philanthropy for women and girls was printed on 2/21/04.

A Plan of One’s Own: A Woman’s Guide to Philanthropy
www.givingnetwork.org/aplanofonesown.pdf
This publication by the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers is designed to assist women in exploring and crafting their own path to effective philanthropy.

Worlds Apart: Missed Opportunities To Help Women and Girls [pending]
In 1993, Greater Boston Funders for Women and Girls, in its former incarnation of Women in Philanthropy and in partnership with the Boston Women’s Fund, sponsored Professor Molly Mead’s research which resulted in this report. Worlds Apart explores the relationship between gender and grantmaking in the Boston area and looks at institutions with the potential to have a positive impact on the lives of women and girls in Greater Boston.

Bridging Worlds Apart: Questions and Actions for Grantmaking with a Gender Lens [pending]
This companion to Worlds Apart: Missed Opportunities To Help Women and Girls is a tool to assist funders interested in improving their grantmaking as it affects women and girls.

Local organizations

Associated Grant Makers (AGM)
www.agmconnect.org
AGM is the only regional association of grant makers, both foundations and corporate giving programs, serving in, or making grants in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. AGM houses the Resource Center for Philanthropy, which can assist grantmakers in identifying funding trends, potential grantees, and best practices, and grantseekers in identifying funding opportunities. Membership is open to grant makers; nonprofits are eligible to join AGM’s Partners Program.

Boston Women’s Fund
www.bostonwomensfund.org
For 16 years, the Boston Women’s Fund has supported community-based organizations run by women and girls in the Greater Boston area. Its website contains grantee lists and information about Fund-sponsored programs that strengthen the grassroots initiatives and leadership of women and girls.

Girls’ Coalition of Greater Boston
www.girlscoalition.org
The Girls Coalition is a consortium of Boston-area organizations that work to support girls' healthy development through programs and services, research, and advocacy. Coalition newsletters, which are archived on the website, contain profiles of funders supporting girls and young women through their grantmaking.

Giving Network (GNet)
www.givingnetwork.org
GNet works to identify and promote opportunities for organized philanthropy throughout Massachusetts. Of particular note is the Giving Circles section, which includes a list of regional giving circles, many of which are led by, or have a strong focus on, women and girls.

The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts
http://www.womensfund.net/
The Women’s Fund is distinguished in the way in which they link resources to needs. This is clearly demonstrated at their annual grantmaking event where donors, grantees, and the women and girls they serve are brought together in meaningful fellowship.

National organizations

Guide Star
www.guidestar.org
Guide Star is a national database of nonprofit organizations. It is used by grantmakers and donors to research potential grantees, and by nonprofits to research potential funders. Users can conduct searches by region, issue area, or organization type (public charity, private operating foundation, or private nonoperating foundation).

Ms. Foundation for Women
www.ms.foundation.org
The Ms. Foundation is a national, multi-issue fund that directs resources to projects that nurture girls’ leadership skills, protect the health and safety of women, and provide low-income women with the tools to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. The website contains grantee lists as well as PDFs of publications on best practices gleaned from Foundation initiatives.

Women’s Funding Network (WFN)
www.wfnet.org
WFN is a worldwide partnership of more than 90 women’s and girls’ funds and philanthropic organizations dedicated to social justice. Its website contains a listing of member organizations organized by state and country.

Women & Philanthropy
www.womenphil.org
Women & Philanthropy advocates within the field of philanthropy for the full engagement of women and girls in society.

Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI)
www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/PhilanthropicServices/WPI/
WPI is an educational resource for women and for those who wish to encourage women as donors.

Women’s Sports Foundation
www.womenssportsfoundation.org
Women’s Sports Foundation grant programs provide girls and women with educational materials and scholarships, research on issues related to women in sports, leadership development and also opportunities to participate in sports and fitness.