Women’s Funding Network (WFN) is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that supports local and regional advocacy groups and public policy programs. The organization focuses on left-of-center gender issues such as abortion and coordinates lobbying and advocacy efforts among local women’s foundations. WFN receives funding from many large national left-of-center funders such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and provides annual grants to a variety of local organizations such as the Chicago Foundation for Women, the Washington Area Women’s Fund, and the Aurora Foundation. ^{1 2 3}

Background

Women’s Funding Network was founded in 1990 after a joint meeting of the National Black United Fund and National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. By the year 2000, the organization had $200 million dollars in assets and distributed grants totaling $300 million per year. The organization has arranged meetings with its leaders and former Democratic presidential nominee Hilary Clinton. ⁴

Activity and Policy Stances

Women’s Funding Network lobbies at the state, federal, and international level for abortion access, relaxed immigration laws, and changes in policing strategies. ⁵ It also supports liberal nominees for judicial positions, releasing a statement supporting President Joe Biden’s nomination of then-Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. ⁶

In a June 24, 2022 statement, the group wrote that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, “was another gut punch to much of the country” and that the group was “devastated by the news.” ⁷

On July 7, 2022, the group published an article titled “The End of Roe is Terrifying for Queer Couples” that said that Dobbs would “legally invalidate” lives of women and queer couples, that “cruelty is the point,” and that “[w]hen the Supreme Court dismantled Roe, we knew queer couples…probably had much to fear—that no one’s rights were safe.” ⁸

Women’s Funding Network funds numerous organizations, including state and city chapters of the Foundation for Women. ⁹ Other recipients include A Fund for Women, the Channel Foundation, Donor Direction Action, the Equality Fund, the Gender Justice Fund, and the Fund for Women and Girls. ¹⁰

Funding

Women’s Funding Network receives funding from a variety of left-of-center grant making foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ^{11 12}

People

The president and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network, Elizabeth Barajas-Román, was previously the CEO of the Solidago Foundation, a left-of-center grant making organization that provides funding to activism and advocacy organizations that support environmentalist regulations, increased government spending, increased unionization, and left-of-center social policies on issues including race and immigration. ¹³

1. “Our Partners.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-partners/
2. Women’s Funding Network. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/411685134/download990pdf_09_2021_prefixes_36-45%2F411685134_202012_990_2021090718822188
3. “Influence + Amplification.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022.  https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/what-we-do/influence-amplification/
4. “Our Story.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-story/
5. “Influence + Amplification.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022.  https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/what-we-do/influence-amplification/
6. “Historic SCOTUS Nomination Statement of Support.” Women’s Funding Network. February 25, 2022. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/2022/02/25/historic-scotus-nomination/.
7. “How Philanthropy Can Unite in Protecting Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/2022/06/24/how-philanthropy-can-unite-in-protecting-abortion-access-and-reproductive-justice/
8. “The End of Roe is Terrifying for Queer Couples.” Women’s Funding Network. July 7, 2022. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/2022/07/07/the-end-of-roe-is-terrifying-for-queer-couples/
9. Women’s Funding Network. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/411685134/download990pdf_09_2021_prefixes_36-45%2F411685134_202012_990_2021090718822188.
10.  “Our Members.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-members/member-directory/
11. “Our Partners.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-partners/.
12. “Our Partners.” Women’s Funding Network. Accessed December 9, 2022. https://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/who-we-are/our-partners/.
13. Solidago Foundation. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). 2018. Schedule I, Part II.