Tonight, we gather in the presence of 15 extraordinary organizations—trailblazers who wake up each day and confront what many would call the impossible. Whether they are shaping brighter futures through adult education, protecting young minds through mental health work, or defending our planet against the ravages of climate change, they are doing more than service. 

They are rewriting what is possible.  

They already know they change the lives of those they serve. What they may not fully see is how deeply they change the rest of us. How their work radiates outward, strengthening our communities, healing inequities, and showing us what a just and joyful society can look like. And perhaps most of all – they give us hope. 

Through their courage, their ingenuity, their refusal to give up—they remind us that the world we dream of is not only possible but already in the making. They show us that change is not a myth somewhere in the distant future—it is already in motion. It is happening. Right here. Right now. What a gift you have given us. 

• Afghan Advantage, FEAST World Kitchen, Global Neighborhood, Literary Source, Palmer Scholars. 
• International Community Health Services, Somali Health Board, WA Therapy Fund Foundation, Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, Young Women Empowered. 
• Front & Centered, Hip Hop is Green, Mason County Climate Justice, Tacoma Tree Foundation, The Common Acre. 

You are our compass. You are our catalysts.  From the bottom of our hearts. Thank you. 

Our grants to you are more than financial support. They are declarations of belief. They are small repayments for the immense debt we owe you for the impact you’ve already made on our communities, and investments in the future we know you are building. 

At Washington Women’s Foundation, we believe something simple but evidently radical: That nonprofit leaders are experts. That communities closest to the problems are also closest to the solutions. And that trusting those we fund is not only right—it works. That belief is the bedrock of our trust-based philanthropy. 

I think our years of practicing this style of grantmaking – one that honors the brilliance of our nonprofit partners – I think those years of trust-based philanthropic exploration contributed to our ability to respond quickly and boldly this year. As you heard from Bobbie, we didn’t really hesitate. We didn’t have to. Because we trusted. We followed our nonprofit partners’ lead. We heard their urgent call for action. And we just said yes. 

And y’all, let me tell you: It feels good to give this way! It feels honest and authentic to give with trust. 

Because when you give with trust, you see clearly. You see nonprofits not as charity cases, but as the brilliant architects of tomorrow. Passionate and skilled thinkers, pushing innovative, provocative, and sometimes just common-sense ideas about how the world could be better. They are building a world where race and gender no longer determine whether you are housed or hungry, heard or invisible, healthy or harmed. What a magnificent world that will be. 

What a magnificent world we are dreaming up – and yet. 

To speak of this glorious future—free from racial and gender inequity—here, now, in the United States of America in 2025 feels…maybe a little naive? Wishful? Even Wistful? Aww. Racial and gender equity! That’s adorable. 

Y’all. 

We are going to have to acknowledge the Crocodile in the room with us. 

I debated whether or not I would name it. Maybe I should just stay focused on that glorious world we’re trying to bring into existence, right?! Focus on keeping the conversation light and celebratory. But I’m not really one for rose-colored glasses. I like to see the reality of things, even when I don’t like ’em. I’d rather have the truth, even if it stings.  

What I’m about to say is not a partisan comment. It is a moral observation. Washington Women’s Foundation is a collective of women who strive to find and then fund organizations working effectively to eliminate racial and gender inequities in Washington State. But today, we face a political climate—fueled by decisions in the other Washington—that actively threaten our 30 years of effort to end those inequities. Period. 

We cannot avoid the Crocodile. We have a lot of work today and in the future, and if we do not acknowledge what it is we are up against, we will be unable to equip ourselves with the right tools to succeed. And succeed we must. That magnificent world we are dreaming up demands nothing less. 

But the atmosphere we’re in right now…it feels so unprecedented, right? For thirty years we’ve been at this and this foundation has never had such an atmosphere, in all those decades! It’s like that meme “I Wish I lived in Precedented Yimes!” This is unheard of! Unprecedented! 

I know for a lot of us in this room it does feel a little new – especially those who have been here in Washington State for a long time. We have mostly lived through what I call the Two Steps Forward era. Gay Marriage! Woman Governors. Asian Governors. A Black President!  It felt like a trajectory, right? Like we were marching forward, Bit in our teeth, wind at our back.  

Well. Welcome to the One step Back Period.  
Backlash is always part of this dance towards liberation. And it was probably inevitable that there would be a pretty ferocious pushback as our successes started to pile up.  

So, do things look a little dark right now? I mean. Yeah. 

Is there a real possibility that it could get darker? Yeah. 

But do not forget where we began tonight. 

We all know hope drives nonprofits – and their funders, the do-gooders and the warriors for justice. But the hope that drives us forward is no naive and passive thing. She has grit. Tenacity. She is Fierce. She is a light in the darkness that leads us and pushes us onward. 

 She drives people to scale cliffs so high they have to sleep in a tent hanging off the side of a mountain. She swipes one more time on that dating app. She ties yellow ribbons around oak trees, waiting for loved ones to return from battle.  

Hope dogged the footsteps of those who crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma and AIDS activists in San Francisco, She carried the Janes who fought for women’s bodily autonomy in Chicago and she walks beside every trans child who pushes open the door to the bathroom of their true gender identity in a 2025 high school in the United States of America 

Hope is a badass. 

And something else about Hope. She demands things. She demands Courage, Vision, Determination, Conviction, Action. So yes. Acknowledge the Crocodile. The Backlash is real. The Danger to many people in our community is real.  

But tonight, here. In this room. It is not dark here. 

Here, there is hope. 

And there is light. 

And that, my friends, is the only way we get through this backlash – the only way anyone has ever gotten through a backlash 

In community. 

In connection. 

Celebrating our Collective light.  

And let’s be clear, the backlash will try to split us up. It will do everything in its power to divide us. It will tell you that the only way to save some people is to jettison others. It wants you to believe that to gain your freedom someone else will have to lose theirs.  

To protect women we have to eliminate trans people.  

To protect children we have to eliminate immigrants.  

But you cannot extinguish other people’s light in favor of your own. Your little light will be feeble indeed if you take out all the other lights around you. You cannot stand the darkness alone.  

The Backlash will try to separate you by pieces of your identity – age and race, gender and geography: Boomer vs Gen Z, Black vs. Asian, Rural vs Urban, Gay vs Straight, and on and on and on. But all those identities are in this room with us right now! And that division is not here with us. Do not let yourselves become divided from your allies in this work. 

Above all else, the Backlash will try to snuff out your light. It will try to take your hope.  

We know the damage being done. We know that funding is being pulled from vital organizations—from food banks to theatres, from immigrant rights groups to mental health clinics. And we cannot replace everything. 

Philanthropy cannot make up the difference in what is being taken, but it can mitigate some of the most devastating impacts. Together, we can fight back with our resources, and our energy.  

So here is the plan: 

1. Give. Give of your Time and your Talent, yes. But also, give money.  

Give to one of our honorees here tonight. In your program is a QR code that will take you to the Washington Women’s Foundation 2025 grant announcement, where you’ll find a link to all the organizations we’ve honored this evening. Use it to go give! 

2. Double Your Giving 

If you normally give an organization you love $100, give them $200. Or give $100 to a new organization. Expand your impact.  

3. Still can’t decide where to give, but really want to expand your impact? Give to Washington Women’s Foundation.  

Giving to Washington Women’s Foundation means you’re investing your dollars in a foundation that literally brings together hundreds of little hopeful lights – see this room – and then we find and fund the people and organizations doing the most courageous, necessary, often unsung work. Through the Foundation our members have collectively invested 22 million dollars into Washington state to fuel ongoing efforts toward achieving gender and racial equity. That’s the power of collective giving and the exponential impact that happens when you combine your efforts with others. 

4. And finally. Make a connection! 

You are here tonight in a room with a lot of people who are looking to make the world a better place. Go meet some of them! Arrange to get coffee together! Have a conversation with a stranger. Make a Hope Date! 

Because y’all.  

The only way out is through. 

And the only way through is together. 

That little light of yours and this little light of mine. 

We’re gonna make ‘em this Dazzling Light of Ours.  

And this is how we hold back the darkness. This is how we move forward. This is how we build that Magnificent New World with or without the Crocodile. 
Onward. Together.