New York Women’s Foundation (NYWF)

As of 2026, NYWF has made $141 million in grants to 518 organizations. ²

Founding and History

The New York Women’s Foundation was founded in 1987 by a group of female New Yorkers looking to address issues affecting women, such as poverty, homelessness, and abuse, as well as the status of women in the criminal justice system and the situations of those infected with HIV. Rather than forming a new organization to directly deal with these issues, the founders decided to adopt a strategy of funding already-existing community-activist-led organizations. ³

In 1988, the NYWF awarded $50,000 in grants to four organizations. By 1997, the group made $500,000 in grants to 23 organizations. ⁴

In 2006, the NYWF launched the Circle of Sisters for Social Change, which further shifted the group’s priorities to impacting social change. ⁴

Since its founding, the organization has distributed tens of millions of dollars to left-of-center groups in the five boroughs of New York City, including over $10 million in fiscal year 2019. ⁵

Financials

In 2024, the New York Women’s Foundation reported $11,154,092 in revenues, of which over $10.5 million came from charitable contributions. The group reported spending $16,874,017 and ending the year with $17,853,562 in assets. ⁶

The organization is funded by a variety of big-name donors, including both foundations and corporations. Notable foundation donors include the Andrus Family Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Foundation for a Just Society, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Proteus Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Tow Foundation, the Tides Foundation, United Way of New York, the Pinkerton Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Groundswell Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. ^{7 8}

Notable corporate donors include American Express, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Standard and Poor’s, A&E Networks, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Metropolitan Commercial Bank, Fondation Chanel, MetLife, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Google, and Comcast. ^{7 8}

Policies and Projects

The New York Women’s Foundation promotes left-of-center advocacy on economic, gender, and racial issues by distributing grants to organizations focused on women and transgender people in particular. ⁹

In 2025, the NYWF spent between $4 million and $5.1 million on grants for organizations located in the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn along with another $2.8 million in grants to groups on Staten Island. Outside of New York City, the NYWF funded grants in 20 states, including New York. ²

As of 2022, the NYWF divided its grantmaking into several different categories largely focused on left-of-center economic and social policies emphasizing women and transgendered people. Some categories of note included “Advancing Economic Justice for Women and Families,” “Ending Gender-Based Violence and Building Safety,” “Protecting Health, Sexual Rights, and Reproductive Justice,” and “Protecting our Democracy and Women’s Civic Engagement.” ⁹

Economic Justice

NYWF argues that the problems women in New York City face are the direct result of economic oppression stemming from unjust pay, and financial exploitation “rooted in structural racism.” To address these issues, it funds organizations that advocate for “living wages” and fight against supposed sex-based pay discrimination. ¹⁰

Gender-Based Violence

NYWF supports organizations that work to provide resources for women, girls, and “gender-fluid” people who are at risk of abuse. The organization also states that it seeks to make societal-wide changes to what it considers to be structural causes of gender-based violence. ¹¹

Abortion and Reproductive Health

The organization funds access to abortion, under the name “reproductive justice,” with a special emphasis on access for low-income women and women of color. It also includes care for transgender individuals under its definition of women’s health care. ¹²

Democracy and Women’s Civic Engagement

In response to the first election of President Donald Trump in 2016, the NYWF began funding organizations focused on immigration, promoting women’s engagement in politics, and LGBT issues. As part of this initiative, it also promotes increasing ballot access by eliminating supposed barriers to voting and civic participation. ¹³

Me Too Movement

In 2018, the NYWF became an early funder of the Fund for the MeToo Movement and Allies, which financed legal and advocacy efforts supporting the “Me Too” Movement against sexual harassment. ¹⁴

Transgender Advocacy

In an April 2026 post on its website, the NYWF stated, “Our community intentionally includes a diverse spectrum of gender identities and expressions. When we say women, we mean cis and trans women, as well as non-binary and gender-expansive individuals. Our work reflects the understanding that our futures are interconnected.” ¹⁵

In 2025, about 25 percent of the NYWF’s grant-recipient organizations were led by “trans and gender-expansive people.” ¹⁵

From 2000 to 2025, the NYWF funded 230 grants worth $9.1 million to “organizations supporting trans and gender-expansive communities.” These grant recipients include Brooklyn Ghost Project, Inc., the Caribbean Equality Project, Central Brooklyn Economic Development Corp., Equality for Flatbush, the Fireweed Collective, Harlemyes Inc, the LGBT Center Intercultural Collective Inc., the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, and Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. ¹⁶

Initiatives

As of April 2022, the NYWF was running two initiatives: Girls IGNITE Grantmaking and RESILIENCE-NYC. Girls IGNITE Grantmaking was focused on providing grants to girls and gender-fluid youth to promote awareness of “social justice issues” and give hands on experience with the philanthropic and grant making process. RESILIENCE-NYC was focused on promoting women’s engagement in politics. ¹⁷

In 2012, the NYWF launched the Initiative Against Sex Trafficking of Minors. ⁴

Funding

The NYWF has funded a variety of left-of-center organizations. It provided funding to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a transgender legal service; Queers for Economic Justice; and FIERCE and the Audre Lorde project, both of which are focused on providing leadership training to “low-income transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, two-spirit, queer and questioning youth of color.” ³

The NYWF has also contributed to a variety of different New York City focused organizations including the Urban Justice Center, the Gender Equality Law Center, Girls for Gender Equity, the New York Transgender Advocacy Group, and the Center for Popular Democracy. ¹⁸

Leadership

As of early 2026, Ana Oliveira was the president and CEO of the New York Women’s Foundation, a position she had held since 2006. She has a degree in medical anthropology and was the former CEO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis. ¹⁹ In fiscal year 2024, she was compensated $358,684. ²⁰ In March 2026, Oliveira announced that she would step down from her role of president and CEO. As of April 2026, the NYWF is still searching for a replacement. ⁶

Jessica Lee has worked as the senior director of strategic partnerships and philanthropic advancement since April 2023. Lee previously worked in several roles with New American Leaders. Prior to this, Lee was the executive director and interim executive director at the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families. ²¹

Camille Abrahams Emeagwali has worked as the senior vice president of programs and strategic learning at the NYWF since 2020, and has worked at the organization since 2012. Prior, she worked at the Harm Reduction Coalition and the National Governors Association. ²²

Sojourner Rivers is the senior program officer at the NYWF as of 2026. Prior to NYWF, Rivers worked in the New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-based Violence, at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and at the Boston Public Health Commission. ²³