Inside the Foundation Blog
News, Updates, Stories, and Impact Across Washington
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, […]
“It was a truly bittersweet moment last month when we said farewell to Aviva Stampfer as WaWF’s Grants and Programs Director. Aviva’s near-decade with the Foundation was transformational for the organization and for our approach to grantmaking. Here she shares her perspective on what those changes here at WaWF meant for her and for us. […]
In April Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF) hosted a 4-day trip in Yakima to select our first Place-Based Grantee and three Merit Award grantees as part of our inaugural Place-Based Grantmaking.
This role serves as WaWF’s primary liaison to nonprofit partners and prospective applicants, and ensures all member grantmaking and learning programs are equitable, transparent, community-informed, and aligned with WaWF’s mission to advance women and girls across Washington state.
As we continue moving through this “Year Zero” of our new plan, we are building on decades of collective giving while sharpening our focus on the future: women funding women and girls across Washington State.
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!
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 thrilled to announce our very first grant under this new approach! Empowering Latina Leadership & Action (ELLA) ELLA is a Chicana/Latina-led social justice organization rooted in advocacy and leadership cultivation to increase Chicana/Latina representation as key decision-makers across all sectors. At the heart of […]
Executive Summary: In the first quarter of 2026, Washington Women’s Foundation launched its new business plan and began the important work of putting it into practice. We applied our updated grant criteria to 156 applications and piloted our first place‑based grant in Yakima. We also surfaced key learnings about what it truly means to center women and girls and to pursue systems‑level change. This quarter we continued to […]
You’re invited! Washington Women’s Foundation is entering an important period of growth and focus. If you are interested in playing a greater leadership role in the Foundation and helping guide our work in the years ahead, we invite you to consider serving on our Board of Directors. Each year, we open a call for members who are […]