This is Washington Women’s Foundation’s (WaWF’s) first year centering our grantmaking on women and girls who are furthest from justice, and we’re delighted to share our second grant under this new approach!
Afghan Advantage (AA+) nurtures communication, self-reliance, literacy, & leadership by building community connections & increasing access to information, experiences, & targeted life skills. They create a critical skills bridge for refugee women & girls with limited English or formal education in their native language—moving them from literacy to leadership & from isolation to participation.
Grantmaking for Direct Services
This spring, WaWF members participated in our first Direct Services Grant, applying our new criteria to the field of direct services on behalf of women & girls most impacted by inequity. We wrestled with issues affecting women and girls, pushed ourselves to evolve our collective understanding of gender, and conducted rigorous evaluation of a large pool of applications.
Please give a big thank you to WaWF Members who put in a lot of hard work over these past several months: Anesat, Anne, Becky, Erin, Gwen, Jane, Laura, Lindsey, Nicole, Sue, and Stacy. We’re also grateful to the members who took time to make an educated vote and participate meaningfully in our collective grantmaking process.
These unrestricted grants are a total investment of $160,000 into Direct Services organizations in WA State, with 1 $150,000 grantee (3-year grant of $50K/year) and 5 $2,000 Merit Awards.
We will share more reflections on our learnings soon, but we couldn’t wait to introduce you to our new grantees!
Merit Award Winners
Our grant committee was impressed and inspired by the work of all the organizations that applied, and in addition to our primary grantee, also awarded five Merit Awards to the following organizations, in recognition of their efforts to provide services to women most impacted by inequity:
Cedar River Clinics: Cedar River Clinics provides direct reproductive and sexual health services designed to support women and girls in making informed decisions about their bodies and health, with a focus on those most impacted by inequities. Their mission is to ensure access to reproductive and sexual health care through direct services, advocacy, and community education to defend bodily autonomy and advance social justice.
Mujer Al Volante: Mujer al Volante provides mobility and driver’s license access as an equity and economic mobility intervention primarily for low-income immigrant, refugee, and asylee women and mothers. Their mission is to help low-income immigrant, refugee, and asylee women and mothers take the steering wheel of their lives.
Native Action Network: NAN is focused on advancing Native women’s leadership, civic participation, advocacy, and representation across tribal, local, state, and national spaces. NAN’s mission is to enhance the beauty, strength, and integrity of American Indian and Alaskan Native communities through personal empowerment and civic participation.
Spectrum Center: Spectrum advances equity for 2SLGBTQIA+ people through community care, advocacy, education and collaborating with community groups and individuals who aspire to our values. A drive for safe, intersectional, intergenerational 2SLGBTQIA+ community in Eastern Washington and North Idaho is at the core of everything they do.
UTOPIA WA: UTOPIA provides direct, low‑barrier support to Pacific Islander women, trans women, and gender‑expansive femmes experiencing housing instability, food insecurity, healthcare barriers, and systemic discrimination. UTOPIA is actively replacing systems of oppression with ecosystems of care and safety for our communities through Black and Brown organizing, prioritizing land and bodily autonomy, and reclaiming cultural narratives.
What’s Next
This fall we will run two grant programs, focused on advocacy and grassroots organizations. If you’re a nonprofit organization and are interested in applying, applications are open now and will close in August and September. If you’re a member and interested in participating on a grant committee, registration is currently open. Reach out to staff for more details! We hope everyone will join us for upcoming events, including Convening and PopUp.