July 30, 2024
Ms. Foundation for Women Launches “Ms. Midwest” Initiative
Nation’s oldest women’s foundation will provide financial investment and capacity building resources to support the sustainability of women and gender-expansive of color-led organizations across the Midwest
NEW YORK (July 30, 2024) – Today, Ms. Foundation for Women announced the launch of Ms. Midwest, a continuation of the Foundation’s strategic response to go where philanthropic underinvestment and disinvestment in women, girls, and gender-expansive people of color is the greatest. This expansion comes during a critical time in a political battleground for national issues and movements such as racial justice, reproductive rights, environmental justice, and more. Ms. Foundation defines the Midwest as the 12 states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Ms. Foundation for Women is a national partner of Fondation CHANEL which has supported this programmatic expansion.
Ms. Foundation’s groundbreaking report, Pocket Change: How Women and Girls of Color Do More with Less (2020), found that the Midwest receives the second-lowest level of philanthropic support at $2.99 per women and girl of color (WGOC) per year and the continuation of the research series, Living With Pocket Change: What It Means To Do More With Less (2023), expanded on the dire impact chronic philanthropic underinvestment has on the leaders, their organizations, and social justice movements. In addition to report findings, a landscape analysis was conducted to learn more about the challenges and opportunities for structural change and the power building work being done by grassroots leaders in the region. Strategic priorities for this portfolio include increasing the sustainability of Midwestern organizations, growing connections and relationships across organizations/movements, and supporting organizations’ civic engagement efforts.
“I am proud to strengthen our investment for communities in the Midwest that are underserved and underfunded in their vital work fighting for democracy and human rights, and as a proud North Dakotan, this work is deeply personal,” said Teresa C. Younger, Ms. Foundation for Women President and CEO. “At the Ms. Foundation, we are committed to honoring our mission to invest in and uplift organizations that preserve, protect and defend rights for all.”
In the pilot year of the Ms. Midwest program, the Ms. Foundation provided seven multi-year grants totaling $660,000 to grassroots organizations including Ohio Women’s Alliance [OH], Transformations Youth Group [MO], Ayada Leads [MN], African American Roundtable [WI], Native American Community Board [SD], Mothering Justice [MI] and OPWAL [OH]. These organizations address issues spanning advocacy in racial justice, reproductive justice, voting and civic engagement, and education justice.
Ms. Midwest aims to not only help address underinvestment and disinvestment, but also serve as a model for other funders on how to prioritize and center trans-led, Indigenous-led, and rurally situated work to create systemic change. Ms. Foundation recognizes that the initial Ms. Midwest cohort is not representative of the entire region and advocates for increased funding to the area. To learn more or be connected with Midwestern organizations please contact [email protected].
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About Ms. Foundation for Women
For more than 50 years, Ms. Foundation for Women has shaped feminist philanthropy in the United States, providing a blueprint for the establishment of hundreds of local and regional women’s funds, influencing mainstream culture through nationwide projects such as Take Our Daughters to Work Day, and making grants totaling over $90 million to more than 1,600 grassroots organizations across the country. Through philanthropic advocacy, grantmaking, and thought leadership, the Ms. Foundation is the national model for sustainable, trust-based philanthropic support of women-led movements. With equity and inclusion as the cornerstones of true democracy, Ms. Foundation works to create a world in which the worth and dignity of every person are valued, and power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability or age. For equity purposes, please visit our website to see the full grantee partner list.
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected].