Who We Are

About Us

The Fund’s origin story was shaped by a group of forward-looking organizations and companies searching for a long-term and systemic response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on women and women workers. 

 Deep, systemic inequities – such as gender-based violence and lack of access to health services – have restricted women and girls from participating fully and equally in society. The pandemic merely exacerbated these inequities. 

 Women’s participation in the economy and public life is dependent on their ability to make their own decisions for their life and future.  Health and safety are essential to their economic resilience. 

 In response, a unique group of foundations, women’s funds, civil society organizations, and companies came together to explore innovative solutions for women’s health and well-being in an unprecedented time. 

 The group decided that the Fund needed to focus on long-term systemic change and economic resilience, that it needed to invest in women leaders and women-led organizations and address women’s safety, bodily autonomy, and sexual and reproductive health.   

The Fund was also intended to transform corporate philanthropy and learn by doing.  It would explore new approaches that shift power in grantmaking, reimagine traditional ways of measuring impact, and funnel resources to those with the lived experience who are finding local solutions in their own communities. 

This trust-based, democratized approach to giving and engagement builds on the work of women’s funds that have blazed this trail for many years. The Fund has listened and learned from them and brings this approach to the corporate philanthropy space for the first time.