A report from the CEO of Washington Women’s Foundation
In 2026, Washington Women’s Foundation entered what we called “Year Zero”: A year of experimentation, learning, and building the systems needed to bring a new direction to life. We changed nearly every part of how we work—from membership and giving pathways to grantmaking, technology, community engagement, and our public identity. Change at this scale is difficult, but it has also created momentum and renewed excitement about our future.
Our vision is to build an intentional community of women of all backgrounds, united in creating a just, equitable, and thriving Washington. We pursue that vision by providing long-term unrestricted capital, organizational support, and networking to social-change efforts supporting women and girls across Washington state. Our values—Community, Courage, Curiosity, and Care—guide this work.
Expanding our community of support
This year, we introduced new membership levels(opens in new tab) and expanded the ways people can support(opens in new tab) the Foundation through membership, partnership, and donations. Our community currently includes about 255 members (half our annual renewals occur between now and year-end). At this point in the year, 23% of our members participate at the Emerge, Nonprofit, or Explorer levels; 40% at the Grower level; 17% at the Core level; and 16% at the Sustain level.
These new pathways are helping people remain connected to the Foundation in ways that fit their lives. Some former members, for example, have chosen to continue supporting our mission as donors even when they are no longer seeking the full member experience. As of this writing, overall revenue is approximately 20% higher than it was at the same point last year. We are grateful to every member, donor, and partner who has supported this transition.
Strengthening grantmaking and grantee support
We redesigned our grantmaking(opens in new tab) to offer several multiyear grant opportunities throughout the year. We also introduced a new grant-review rubric(opens in new tab) and began using JustFund(opens in new tab), a platform that both members and grantees have found more intuitive, even as we all acknowledge that every new system requires time to learn.
Our Grants Leadership Team now includes a representative from the Grantee Engagement Team, strengthening the connection between grant decisions and our support for grantees beyond the check. Skills for Impact(opens in new tab), our grantee-support program, has also been clarified and streamlined so grantees can more easily understand what assistance is available. Recruiting more member volunteers and implementation work will continue in 2027 for this program.
We also experimented with Ripple Effect Mapping(opens in new tab) to better understand the broader effects of our work. Early insights reinforced that supporting nonprofit leaders—many of whom are women—has long been one way women in our membership community have supported other women. Staffing changes required us to pause the analysis, and we expect to return to it more fully next year.
Building the organization for the future
Behind these program changes, we invested in the infrastructure needed to sustain them. We launched a new website(opens in new tab) and brand, introduced Mighty Networks as a member portal, and created two new committees(opens in new tab): the Growth and Development Committee and the Membership Committee. Committee participation in the new portal is growing, creating more opportunities for members to connect with one another and with the Foundation.
We also launched the Catalyst Partner Program(opens in new tab), our new approach to sponsorship. Rather than tying support to a single event, the program invites companies, foundations, and other institutions to invest in our mission and in work supporting women and girls across Washington.
What we learned in Year Zero
A year of experimentation gave us valuable clarity about what is working and what still needs refinement. We need sharper definitions in our grant language, including what it means for an organization to support women and girls and how we assess their intentionality. We also need more precise distinctions among direct service, advocacy, grassroots, and place-based work.
The Grants Leadership Team is hard at work to develop more specialized questions and rubrics for each grant type. These improvements will help applicants understand our priorities and help reviewers assess different kinds of work with greater consistency and rigor.
Looking ahead to 2027
2027 is our Year One—the year we fully launch this new path! The essential tools are now in place, including our website, grantmaking process, member portal, and supporting software. Some still need refinement, but we are ready to move from experimentation toward deeper implementation.
Priorities for the coming year include refining grant language and review tools, further developing our Skills for Impact, expanding the Catalyst Partner Program, and taking our place-based grantmaking to Spokane. After the Spokane cycle, we will assess whether as a collective we would like to adopt a fully rural focus on the Place-Based Grant in future years.
Our 2027 calendar will offer opportunities for grantmaking, learning, community building, and member engagement throughout the year. Major milestones are expected to include committee registration and the opening of the Direct Services Grant in January; gender-lens learning and the opening of the Spokane Place-Based Grant in February; a midyear member meeting, community celebration, and the opening of the Advocacy Grant in June; the opening of the Grassroots Grant in July; Convening in September; our Annual Meeting in October; and PopUP in December.
Gratitude and momentum
None of this work happens without our community: members, donors, Grantee partners, Catalyst partners, volunteers, board, and staff. Your questions, participation, generosity, and willingness to learn together made all the accomplishments we’ve achieved in Year Zero so far possible.
We look toward the end of 2026 and the start of 2027 more deeply committed than ever to a foundation that is about Washington women helping create a better world for Washington women, girls, and gender-expansive people. We know we still have much work to do, but we look forward to those efforts knowing we have stronger tools, clearer perspectives, and tremendous hope for what we can attain together.