Grantees Grantmaking Letters from the President Membership Resources Strategic Planning Building a Stronger Future for Women and Girls: January 22, 2026 / September 30, 2026 by Maria Kolby-Wolfe A New Chapter for Washington Women’s Foundation For 30 years, Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF) has believed and acted on a simple but powerful truth: When women come together, we change the world. And we have always been ambitious in living that truth. Historically, we moved to change everything, investing in grantmaking that was intentionally broad and widely focused on addressing racial and gender inequities across Washington state. Today, we are stepping boldly into our next era, […] Read more »
Letters from the President Membership Moments with Maria Navigating Change at Washington Women’s Foundation May 17, 2024 by Maria Kolby-Wolfe In 2018, amidst strategic planning sessions and deep reflections on our purpose, the Board of Directors of Washington Women’s Foundation crafted a Theory of Change, a theory that evolved into our 2020 Transforming Together Statement illustrating how we believed Washington Women’s Foundation moved through the world: Our Members – a growing, inclusive collective of powerful […] Read more »
Membership Resourcing Change: Membership Level Additions at Washington Women’s Foundation March 6, 2023 by Isabelle Shively In the autumn of 2018, the Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF) embarked on a grand adventure of Doing Things Differently. We began by reprioritizing our grantmaking criteria, choosing to put achieving race and gender equity in Washington state at the center of our work. We went on from there, building a strategic plan that focused not […] Read more »
Membership Philanos Network PowerUP Conference 2020 Member Perspective: Powering Ahead After the PowerUP! Conference April 29, 2020 by Aki Shibuya 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 […] Read more »
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Educational Programming Membership Announcing: Book Title for the 2020 Spring Book Discussion November 8, 2019 by Aki Shibuya Each year, the Foundation’s Member Engagement Committee selects a book for all members to read. This year, in continued alignment with our grantmaking criteria of increasing equity and reducing disparities, they invite you to read How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. In this New York Times bestseller, Kendi takes readers through a […] Read more »
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Membership Member Perspectives: Reflections from WA Women’s Foundation’s Book Discussion on So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo March 29, 2019 by Aki Shibuya We asked Erika Washburn to share her reflections from our book discussion event. Erika has been a member of WA Women’s Foundation since 2011 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant Committee (Education, Environment, and Health). “It is a book we need to discuss. We can’t just read it.” – Attendee “The book plowed […] Read more »
Membership Office Updates Announcing: Make Your Annual Contribution through Monthly Recurring Payments February 1, 2019 by Aki Shibuya Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe that it’s already February – where did that first month go? When we reopened the office after the winter holiday, we started a new fiscal year with a new financial model. Specifically, we are now investing the full $2,500 annual contribution from each member into our collective work […] Read more »
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Educational Programming Membership Announcing: Book Title for the 2019 Spring Book Discussion November 30, 2018 by Aki Shibuya Each year, the Foundation’s Member Engagement Committee selects a book for all members to read. This year, in alignment with our new grantmaking criteria of increasing equity and reducing disparities, they invite you to read So You Want to Talk About Race by local Seattle author Ijeoma Oluo. In this New York Times bestseller, Oluo explores the complex reality […] Read more »
Membership Member Perspectives: Visiting the UW Libraries and I-LABS August 10, 2018 by Aki Shibuya We asked Susan Barley to share what she learned while visiting the UW Libraries and the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences during the second half of our Annual Summer Outing at University of Washington. Susan Barley has been a member of WA Women’s Foundation since 2013 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant […] Read more »
Grantees Membership Member Perspectives: Visiting the Old and New Burke Museums August 10, 2018 by Aki Shibuya In this blog post, Ginny Trethewey shares her experience of visiting the old and new Burke Museums during the morning of our Annual Summer Outing at the University of Washington. Ginny has been a member of WA Women’s Foundation since 2013 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant Committee (Arts, Environment, and Education) as […] Read more »
