Giving Women:  Reaching $2 Million

The Community Fund for Women & Girls is the region's only permanent charitable endowment dedicated to funding programs for women and girls.  The Fund makes strategic grants and grows women's philanthropy and women philanthropists.  As a component fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Fund guarantees that funding will be available, year after year, for the programs that most concern women.  We are the only source specifically in the Greater New Haven and Lower Naugatuck Valley Region.

Recent studies show that nearly 80% of all charitable gifts are made by women - yet only 7% of those gifts focus on women and girls.  That means that programs and services for women and girls, from education and job training to body image awareness, programming for middle school girls and the prevention of violence can be overlooked or underfunded.

Our goal is to change the social systems that don't work well for women and girls.  Women who volunteer on the Grants Committee make recommendations for funding programs that do the most to address root causes of inequity and have the greatest opportunity to have a ripple effect.

Exceptional Results Now

The Community Fund for Women & Girls has invested in over 80 organizations since 1996. 

Grants include:

• training and enrichment for homeless girls ages 6 - 14;
• support services for children who live in homes where domestic violence has occurred;
• health education and wellness for grandmothers, mothers and their daughters;
• athletic and enrichment programs for girls;
• support group and activities for retiring and retired women;
• financial literacy for teens and adult women.

More than 200 organizations that work with women and girls receive the Fund's grant application.  And the list is growing.  In the future, we want to do more.  In addition to seeding new programs and providing for creative solutions to current barriers, we want to:

• award multi year grants for programs with proven track records;
• bring non profit leadership together to address common issues most critical for women and girls;
• support policy and research investments that inform and shift social policy about women and girls.

Investing in a Brighter Future

We're excited by what we can do.  We know it will be possible because of the commitment of forward thinking donors, like you , who know that investing in the Fund's endowment is a permanent gift that gives and gives, year after year.

That's how a gift to endowment works.  When you give today, your gift continues to give tomorrow and forever.

 

Projections are based on actual investment performance
by The Foundation's Corporation over the last fifty years.

Making a Measurable Impact

Since 1996, the Fund has awarded over $300,000.

 

Inspiring Women's Philanthropy

Since your gift is forever, it may well be the largest gift you ever make.  And that's powerful women's philanthropy.

If you've never thought of yourself as a philanthropist before, you're in good company.  The 94 founding members of the Fund didn't necessarily see themselves in that light either.  But they shared a common goal:  to support women and to provide a vehicle to make their philanthropy powerful.  Working together, as women do, early fund members created the structure and built the momentum of the Fund.  They created volunteer opportunities and governance policies.  They capitalized on The Community Foundation's extensive knowledge of our region from over 80 years of making grants to create a process to make strategic philanthropic investments.

The fund's grant program has grown 20 fold since then.  Volunteering remains a priority and over 1,000 donors, overwhelmingly women, have made gifts to the Fund since those early days.  That's powerful women's philanthropy.

As a generous donor to the Giving Women endowment building effort, you are supporting the common goal and inspiring others as well.  And that's powerful women's philanthropy too.

To learn more about how you can make a lasting difference in the lives of women and girls, please email Sharon Capetta or call her at (203) 777-7071.