Women's Foundation of Minnesota

Grantmaking: In FY25 (Apr. 1, 2024 - Mar. 31, 2025), the Foundation awarded $2.5 million in grants to support safety, leadership, holistic well-being, and economic justice for women, girls, and gender-expansive people in Minnesota. Because inequity looks different in every community, we use our Intersectional Equity Framework to look at how gender, race, place (geography), and additional identities (ethnicity, sovereignty, socioeconomic class, age, disability, LGBTQ+, immigration status) intersect to understand barriers and opportunities so we can invest in transformational change with communities who face the greatest barriers and disparities. All Women's Foundation grants support general operating expenses, which provide greater flexibility for organizations. Funding general operations over multiple years is crucial for organizations to build stability around community-sustaining programs.The Foundation's $5.2 million in community investments across Minnesota in FY25 included:* 270 grants to 194 nonprofit organizations* Over 5.8 million people impacted through competitive grantmaking The Women's Foundation of Minnesota makes grants through the following funds: Community Response Fund, Fund for Safety, girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together), We Thrive, and the Young Women's Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN). A commitment to communities in Greater Minnesota and a value of inclusivity are reflected in the demographics of all the funds. 1. Community Response FundThrough the Community Response Fund, the Women's Foundation invests in organizations and programs that ensure women and their families are safer and healthier. This year, Community Response funding continues to support reproductive justice, healing justice, and emergent community needs, in response to limitations on reproductive rights and access to health care in Greater Minnesota and the increased demand faced by Minnesota health care providers. In the last year, WFM awarded $50,000 to seven organizations across the state to support reproductive justice, healing justice, and emergent community needs.2. Fund for SafetySafety is the underpinning for equity and justice; it improves health outcomes for women, girls, and gender-expansive people; impacts their leadership; and increases their economic opportunity. WFM invests in the organizations, leaders, and the movement so that women, girls, and gender-expansive people in Minnesota are free from every form of violence and can experience their homes, schools, and communities as safe places. The Fund for Safety resources organizations and programs are working to keep our communities safer by addressing gender-based violence, trafficking, harassment, and other forms of systemic violence. During our last fiscal year, WFM made grants to 22 organizations totaling $425,000. In this cohort of Fund for Safety partners, 27 percent are in rural and Greater Minnesota, and 68 percent are led by Black, Indigenous, and women of color. Evaluation of the 2023-2025 Fund for Safety program shows that grantee-partners during this period served more than 35,000 individuals across Minnesota. Grantee-partners embraced a holistic support approach for women, girls, and gender-expansive people. They provided individualized services and wellness and healing workshops; conducted research; and engaged in leadership development, community organizing, cultural narrative shift efforts, and systems change advocacy. WFM support provided the opportunity for grantee-partners to leverage additional funding, collaborate with other Fund for Safety organizations, strengthen and expand community work, research support, and capacity building.3. girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together)Shaped by research and listening in 14 communities around the state, girlsBEST was created to invest in girls as the best way to build opportunities and boost their future economic success. Launched in 2002, girlsBEST awards multi-year grants to programs that build the opportunity and future economic success of Minnesota's girls, ages 12-18. Priority is given to programs that include outreach to underserved, underrepresented populations of girls around the state, including low-income girls, Black, Indigenous, and girls of color, and girls from Greater Minnesota. Grantees are funded in one of four program tracks: Academic; Entrepreneurial; Employment Development & High-Paying/High-Skill Careers; and Public Education & Advocacy. Grantee-partners increase girls' awareness of systemic gender and racial inequities that affect economic potential, grow their sense of agency to influence change through leadership, and build their capacity for individual and collective activism and advocacy. As WFM's longest-running program girlsBEST is now funding the seventh multi-year cohort of grantee-partners across the state. Through these cohorts, WFM has provided planning and implementation grants totaling more than $5.9 million to 159 girl-led and girl-driven programs statewide and impacted more than 60,406 young women across Minnesota. In FY25, WFM awarded 18 multi-year grants and four planning grants totaling $390,000. The seventh cohort of girlsBEST grantee-partners are receiving the first year of funding a multi-year grant through girlsBEST. Multi-year grants are renewed for up to three years, based on an annual grant review and progress towards goals. Seed grants, awarded to support planning, are limited to one year. In the current cohort, 23% of partners are based in Greater Minnesota.In the seventh cohort of girlsBEST, grantees will focus on STEAME (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, and Entrepreneurship) to invest in girls as the best way to build opportunities and boost their future economic success. In response to the isolation many youth have been experiencing since the pandemic, partners have highlighted the need to focus on mental health and incorporate activities designed to build connections and decrease stress. The first year of girlsBEST funding for this cohort engaged 4,011 girls and gender-expansive youth across Minnesota (MN), with more than 2,594 core participants in programming involving one or more of four tracks: Academic, Employment Development and High-Paying/High-Skill Careers, Public Education and Advocacy, and Entrepreneurial. Grantee-partners used mentoring, leadership development, building on cultural strengths, and collaboration to strengthen girls' confidence and skills, with the most common activities being experiential learning, self-esteem building, and cultural workshops. 4. Reproductive Freedom FundResearch on economic disparities shows that families thrive when women and girls are healthy and well. With access to safe and affordable reproductive health care services, women, girls, and gender-expansive people have better health outcomes and pathways to prosperity. In FY25, WFM created a new endowed fund to keep reproductive health care safe and legal and be a role model for the nation. WFM made $250,000 in community investments through the Reproductive Freedom Fund to support reproductive justice: the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. The Reproductive Freedom Fund invests in each of these four components, in addition to work that advances systems change for reproductive justice as it intersects with race.In WFM's impact area of Holistic Well-being and Reproductive Justice, the Reproductive Freedom Fund resources organizations and programs providing essential healthcare. Our statewide research and listening shows that access to healthcare is inequitable, which has a ripple effect on overall well-being for women, girls, and gender-expansive people. New Reproductive Freedom Fund grants each include $10,000 to support staff wellness and development for organizational sustainability.5. We ThriveA program in WFM's impact area of economic justice, We Thrive focuses on wealth-building to seed, nurture, and champion asset-building solutions for economic justice. In FY25, WFM awarded $1.1 million in community investments through its We Thrive fund to support wealth-building through education and entrepreneurship. In addition to renewing two grants in higher education, WFM awarded four $200,000 grants to support women entering high-wage, high-demand fields, and roles by obtaining certificates, associate's, and bachelor's degrees in programs such as welding, information technology, auto mechanics, engineering, robotics, architecture, and other STEM-related fields.

Research, Education, and Public PolicyStatus of Women and Girls in MinnesotaIn 2009, the Foundation launched the Status of Women & Girls in Minnesota (Status) research project in partnership with the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School's Center on Gender, Women, and Public Policy. Data specific to Minnesota women and girls has been gathered, analyzed, and published in economics, safety, health, and leadership. The Status research and community input expands the available data on women and girls, provides ongoing trend analysis, informs the Foundation's annual grantmaking and policy agenda, identifies new areas where research is needed, and raises public awareness about the needs of women and girls in Minnesota. Every two years, the Foundation releases the most comprehensive data in the state on women, girls, and gender-expansive people as well as recommendations for policy solutions that could advance systemic change. The 2024 Status of Women and Girls+ in Minnesota was released in March FY24 in a public presentation with Dr. Christina Ewig, lead researcher and director of the Center on Women, Gender and Public Policy at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs; WFM President & CEO Gloria Perez; and Ruth Richardson, CEO, Planned Parenthood North Central States. Economics data from the report was shared with House and Senate jobs committees, and key data from the report was shared business, public services, and communities statewide, including the women's affinity group at US Bank, RSP, Women in Public Administration, Society for Women in Educational Leadership, the Federation of Women's Clubs of Minnesota, in media on MPR, and more.WFM leverages listening, research, and convening to inform the field, cross-sector engagement, policy advocacy, and investments. In addition to producing research reports, we invest in listening to grantee-partners, advocates, and community leaders to better understand how disparities and solutions are experienced in distinct communities around the state, and to inform our investments in policy, future research, and philanthropy. WFM engages biannual Community Connect events with grantee-partners to network, share WFM research and updates, and connect partners across issue areas and geography. In FY25, WFM hosted an in-person Community Connect in Rochester to create lasting connections by hearing about local issues and networking with an emphasis on our intersecting and varied identities. The event was hosted by the Rochester Area Foundation and sponsored by the Mayo Clinic. On the way to Rochester, we visited two community partners in safety to learn more about local needs in an increasingly diverse community.Public PolicyAs a systems-change statewide community foundation, WFM invests in advocacy as a key lever to transform conditions in Minnesota so all people can thrive. Policies on our legislative agenda are grounded in data from our Status of Women & Girls in Minnesota research report and from listening to community partners. WFM is committed to policies that remove barriers and increase access for women, girls, and gender-expansive people across Minnesota in health, economics, and safety, by addressing racism, gender-based violence, and gaps in leadership and representation. WFM's legislative agenda advances public policy in partnership with young women, gender-expansive people, and grantee-partner organizations. Since 2016, the Governor-appointed Young Women's Cabinet has developed a legislative agenda, testified at the Capitol, and directed more than $3 million in grants to our state's communities. The Young Women's Cabinet created a comprehensive policy agenda to advance bills affecting their lives. To prepare for their advocacy, young women received rigorous policy training using a curriculum that centers people of color to engage in policy for systems change. Cabinet members were active in testifying, writing letters of support, and increasing awareness of their policy agenda issues.Research in our Status of Women & Girls+ in Minnesota was in the spotlight through session, including as fuel for new legislation requiring salary transparency as a tool to advance pay equity. In FY25, WFM advanced a policy agenda at the Capitol, working with a hired lobbyist to carry a legislative agenda, mobilize the public, and increase the visibility and priorities of women, girls, gender-expansive people. WFM leaders, Dr. Reatha Clark King Fellow, and Young Women's Cabinet members testified and submitted letters on behalf of the WFM policy agenda for issues central to economic justice, safety, and reproductive justice, including creating a statewide health education standard; support for crime victims' services; an inclusive ERA for Minnesota; a task force on preventing violence against Latinas; expanding coverage for abortions, pre- and post-natal healthcare; coverage for gender-affirming care; and supporting better outcomes for Black and Native births and pregnancies. In 2024, the beginning of FY25, we made progress on key legislation and allocations for policies on our agenda, in partnership with coalitions that include grantee-partners and longtime leaders in this work. These policies and more support a culture of collective care, led by our state's communities and advocates working on the frontlines for change. ]In late FY25, the focus of the legislative session was deciding the state budget. Our policy agenda prioritized the health and well-being of women, families, and all Minnesotans. Cabinet members submitted letter on behalf of their agenda, including on funding to support crime victims' services and ERA MN. This session, our victories were as much in showing up for policies and partners that benefit women and families as they are for defending against the rollback of policies like Paid Family Leave, comprehensive health education for students, state funding for fake clinics, and insurance coverage for undocumented Minnesotans. We will continue to advocate for funding and policies that support women, girls, and gender-expansive people.State & National PartnershipsWFM engages in collaborative partnerships within Minnesota and the national foundation community. To continue making an impact in social change grantmaking in Minnesota and in the national and global women's funding movement, we participate as a member in collaboratives including the National Philanthropic Collaborative of Young Women's Initiatives, Women's Funding Network, Minnesota Council of Foundations, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Mission Investors Exchange and Confluence Philanthropy.