We asked Margit Rankin to share a reflection from this past year’s Impact Assessment Committee (IAC). Margit has been a member since 2009 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant, Discovery Days, and Impact Assessment Committees. For the Impact Assessment Committee (IAC), as for our grantees, this season necessitated a fair amount of adaptability…more
We asked Lorraine del Prado to share a reflection from this past year’s Pooled Fund Grant Committee. Lorraine has been a member since 2011 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant and Diversity Partner Grant Committees. She also served on the Pooled Fund Grant Task Force and the Board’s Resource Development Committee. I believe…more
WA Women’s Foundation is committed to the safety, health, and well-being of our staff and members as well as the broader community we partner with and serve. When Governor Inslee issued the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order on March 23, 2020, we quickly transitioned our operations, committee work, and programs to virtual spaces. As our…more
We asked Kris Kaminishi to share a reflection from this past year’s Cabinet meetings. Kris has been a member since 2007 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant, Partner Grant, and Member Engagement Committees. She also has served on the Inclusiveness Initiative and the Pooled Fund Grant Task Force. What is Cabinet? Members sometimes…more
Earlier this week, Washington Women’s Foundation members announced five recipients of $100,000 grants from the Foundation’s Pooled Fund and five $10,000 Merit Award winners, totaling $550,000 in grants, our largest single day of grantmaking in our history. In the 25 years since the Foundation’s inception, our members have influenced transformation in communities across Washington State…more
Washington Women’s Foundation is silencing all of our planned communications, including all those related to next week’s Grant Award Celebration, this week to amplify other voices, the voices of Black women and men, who are, yet again, demanding justice and basic civil liberties. Their voices matter just as their lives have always mattered. We have asked our members to listen to…more
It’s hard to believe that two months have passed since we hosted PowerUP! The Spark That Ignites Change, the national conference for the network of our sister organizations across the country. These biennial conferences are intended to provide basic information for women leading and running collective giving and grantmaking organizations – from membership recruitment and retention strategies…more
We asked WA Women’s Fdn Board member Patricia Kiyono to share her reflections from the PowerUP! Conference. Patricia has been a member of WA Women’s Foundation since 2014 and has served on the Pooled Fund, Partner Grant, Impact Assessment, and Intersect Planning Committees as well as Cabinet. In social isolation at home, I am recalling three days of social connection in mid-February, when nearly 400 women philanthropists from around the country convened for…more
Philanthropy, both institutional and individual, is being asked to play a significant role during this time of crisis. Across the sector, we are seeing organizations and funders coming together, leaning into what we have always known at WA Women’s Foundation – a collective response is the best way to address urgent needs. With the need being so great and immediate,…more
Since the first of March, the Foundation’s Board of Directors has had two virtual meetings, a 7-hour video conference “retreat” (in lieu of our annual Board and staff retreat) and a special meeting earlier this week. The primary focus of these meetings has been determining the allocation of funds contributed by our members last year for grantmaking this year. As you may…more