Dear friends,
We hope this letter finds you healthy and joyful.
What a year. 2023 marked the Ms. Foundation for Women’s 50th anniversary milestone, giving us space to celebrate and reflect on past achievements and what’s ahead for the future. For 50 years, we’ve helped to shape women’s philanthropy in the U.S., providing a blueprint for the establishment of hundreds of local and regional women’s funds, influencing mainstream culture through nationwide projects such as the Women and AIDS Fund, Take Our Daughters to Work Day, the #MyFeminismIs campaign and more, as well as making grants totaling over $90 million to more than 1,600 grassroots organizations across the country.
Yet, while recognizing our own 50th anniversary, it was impossible to ignore the 50th anniversary we did not celebrate: that of Roe v. Wade. In the year since the landmark Supreme Court decision to overturn the ruling, it’s been heartening to see a massive effort to rally around abortion access and the wider reproductive justice movement. Here at the Ms. Foundation, our Birth Justice Initiative continues to move money to organizations implementing birth justice strategies rooted in movement building and organizing.
The work we do is more important than ever. We’re facing daily attacks on civil rights. Judges are trying to ban abortion pills, trans people are being stripped of their rights, women of color nationwide are being denied an equal wage, the list goes on.
Amid these attacks, we hold steadfast in our belief that those most affected by systemic oppression have the solutions. Across the country, our incredible grantee partners are building movements, collaborating, and developing a pipeline of new leaders who will carry us towards the next generation of progress.
All fights for justice are intertwined, and funding those fights and supporting and building capacity across leadership is essential.
At our 2023 gala, we were excited to announce our 50th anniversary capital campaign, Creating the Future We Deserve, the foundation’s largest fundraising campaign with a $100 million goal. Building off of Lucia Woods Lindley’s generous legacy gift of $50 million, the campaign will accelerate the movements for gender and racial equity by providing support to grantee partners throughout the country to strengthen reproductive justice, improve economic security, and support equity and justice for all.
Throughout our 50 years, we’ve had the opportunity and privilege to work alongside and fund incredible partners who are making change happen at the grassroots level. This work would not be possible without the support of generous donors. We’re proud to have you at our side as we work to create the future we all deserve – for the next 50 years, and beyond.
In Solidarity,
Jenna Skinner Scanlan, Board Chair & Teresa C. Younger, President & CEO
