Inside the Foundation Blog
News, Updates, Stories, and Impact Across Washington
By Rosemary Dunkle I’ve participated in several Washington Women’s Foundation programs and committees over the years, but my favorite by far is the Grantee Engagement Team (GET). What I love most about GET is that it allows us to stay in relationship with grantees long after the grantmaking process is complete. Anyone who has served […]
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.
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 […]
It’s hard to believe we’re already nearing the end of February. The first few weeks of the year have moved quickly at WaWF as we introduced our new flexible membership options, our new grantmaking process, and as we get ready for another year of collective grantmaking, learning, and connection. Last week, I had the chance to jump into that work early […]