Videtur prima facie quod non, cum disseisitor pro se habeat contra assisam ut videtur sufficientem exceptionem, videlicet quoddisseisitus non habuit nisi teneram seisinam, vel quia habere non potuit propter iniustum initium feodum neque liberum tenementum.
Building Women’s Collective Power and Igniting Change
The Ms. Foundation for Women was founded to build women’s collective power across race and class from the ground up. For more than 35 years we have transformed the lives of women, families and communities and advanced women’s solutions for equitable policy and culture change nationwide.
Since 1973, the Ms. Foundation has granted more than $50 million and delivered strategic skills-building, leadership development, networking and other critical support to thousands of cutting-edge, grassroots, state, Tribal and national organizations.
We have consistently taken smart risks, pioneered innovative strategies and led on the most critical issues of our time—from gender-based violence prevention and HIV/AIDS to women’s economic security and reproductive justice.
For nearly four decades, we have identified and built the capacity of emerging groups to become powerful institutions, providing a lifeline to organizations often unknown to other funders. We have seeded and strengthened social movements that have mobilized vital constituencies and solutions for social change. And we have brought the voices and vision of women and youth across race and class—long excluded from centers of power—to decision-making tables throughout the U.S.
- Between 2006 and 2008, grantees of the Ms. Foundation’s Sexuality Education Advocacy Initiative (SEAI) had policy wins in six key states including: passage of the Washington State Healthy Youth Act; mandated comprehensive sexuality education in New Mexico and California; and Montana’s and New Mexico’s rejection of federal abstinence-only money. In 2005, we created SEAI to bolster support for a diverse range of state-based organizations and coalitions poised for significant policy victories and to strengthen the sexuality education movement nationwide.
- In 2005, we supported the creation of the National Women and AIDS Collective (NWAC) by Ms. Foundation grantees, the country’s first national policy coalition led by and for women living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Today NWAC is advancing policy solutions at the CDC, the White House, and other key decision-making tables nationwide.
- In 1996, we created the Women and AIDS Fund, the first, and still the only national fund solely dedicated to supporting community-based advocacy led by and for women living with HIV/AIDS. Our support in this critical area has helped create the infrastructure for and sustain a national women and HIV/AIDS movement.
- In 1989, we began investing in local and state organizing for reproductive health and rights led by and for low-income women and women of color. Our two decades of support has enabled groups to connect reproductive health and rights to a range of social justice issues, reframing the debate (from “reproductive rights” to “reproductive justice”), and building a diverse movement that will meet all women’s needs.
- In the 1980s, when “women” and “economic development” were rarely used in the same sentence, we created the Collaborative Fund for Women and Economic Development (CFWED). We leveraged over $12 million in support of grassroots women’s organizations to promote women’s economic security, and helped establish and raise the visibility of a new field. The success of CFWED garnered the Ms. Foundation a Presidential Award for Excellence in 1999.
- In the 1970s, we were one of the first funders of domestic violence shelters and sexual-assault hotlines and were early leaders in supporting violence prevention. Today, we’re a pioneer in advancing a community-based, social justice approach to child sexual abuse prevention.
Since our inception, the Ms. Foundation for Women has also made indelible contributions to women’s and social change philanthropy.
In fact, the Ms. Foundation transformed philanthropy from the very start. In 1973, we became the first of a new entity: a women’s fund. Today, there are over 150 women’s funds in the U.S. and around the world.
Bringing diverse groups of donors together in common purpose, we pioneered the collaborative funding model. This model changed the face of philanthropy and is now used by foundations nationwide.
And we’ve changed philanthropy and social justice organizing by bringing a gender, race and class lens to all that we do, encouraging the donor and activist communities we work with to adopt the same approach.
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