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Since 2001, The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio has given voice and visibility to issues that impact women and girls. The Women’s Fund is a public foundation creating gender equality and influence. As a leader of social change in our community The Women’s Fund addresses gender norms to create equality and to empower all women and girls to reach their full potential. Additionally, The Women’s Fund is committed to creating lasting social change in four priority areas: Gender Norms, Economic Self-Sufficiency for Women, Leadership for Women, and Lifeskills for Girls. Our work is guided by our research, which influences our partnerships, grant making, and advocacy efforts; all while growing women’s philanthropy and raising awareness to educate central Ohio around issues that affect women and girls.
Contents
History
On May 4, 2000, a small group of women gathered on a front porch in Granville, Ohio to discuss the idea of starting a women's fund in central Ohio. Women's funds around the country were being formed, and these women wondered if Columbus and the surrounding counties would do the same. At that time, only 7% of national foundation dollars went to programs specifically supporting women and girls. After a series of conversations and a survey of the community's women leaders, The Women's Fund of Central Ohio convened its first Board of Directors meeting in July, 2001 and opened offices in February, 2002, with 38 donors taking a leap of faith and making significant gifts in support of this brand new organization. This leap of faith created a new culture of philanthropy among women in support of programs that promised social change for women and girls in the community. Today, the original founders continue to contribute to and be a big part of The Women's Fund.
Grants and Funding
The Women's Fund of Central Ohio prides itself in being a different kind of funder-one that attempts to make their grant process as inclusive and accountable as possible. Throughout their grant giving process, they remain available for questions, utilize a unique grant reader process, are active in helping programs form from ideas, and offer feedback on grants, whether funded or not. The Women's Fund makes grants to programs that promise positive social change for women and girls in any of the seven counties of central Ohio, and they invest specifically in programs that serve one or more of their three priority areas:
In addition to serving one of these three priority areas, each program must demonstrate some form of social change through evidence of at least one of five shifts, as are defined by the Women's Funding Network:
- Shift in Definition-the issue is defined differently in the community or larger society
- Shift in Behavior-people behave differently in the community
- Shift in Critical Mass or Engagement-people in the community are more engaged in the issue
- Shift in Policy-specific organizational, local, regional, state, or national policy has changed
- Maintaining the Line-earlier progress made on the issue has been maintained in the face of opposition
The Women's Fund of Central Ohio has supported a diverse selection of grant partners in an effort to reach all women and girls in the community. Previous and current grant partners include Amethyst, Inc., Columbus AIDS Task Force, Community Refugee and Immigration Services, Doma International, Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland, HelpLine of Delaware and Morrow Counties, Inc., Homes on the Hill, Interprofessional Commission of Ohio, John Glenn School of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood, and Rwanda Women in Action.
The Application Process
The Fund currently makes grants on an annual basis of up to $20,000 per funded program. The process begins in the summer with a submitted Letter of Intent. Accepted programs are then invited to submit a grant application, and funded projects are announced each December. In addition, grant workshops are offered in the summer to aid prospective applicants with the process, and technical assistance is available to all grant applicants, should they want feedback prior to final submission. Though programs may be funded indefinitely, each year all programs must submit to a competitive, open grant cycle, no matter their funding status.
The Grant Reader Process
As part of its unique funding process, The Women's Fund of Central Ohio recruits a diverse group of women ages fourteen and up, to read the grant applications. Using a Quaker model of consensus, the grant readers are split into groups to review and grade the various applications. Those recommendations are then passed on to The Women's Fund Board's Grants Committee, where other considerations such as monies available for grants and representation of priority areas are taken into account. Ultimately the grants are presented to the Board of Directors for final review and potential funding. At the end of this process, grant recipients are notified and become grant partners for the new year and enter into a partnership with The Women's Fund to create and continue their prospective programs.
For more information on Grants: What We Fund: Grant Reader Information
The "One Girl" Initiative
The One Girl Initiative is a comprehensive, research-based effort, which focuses on the issues impacting girls in grades 5-12 throughout the seven-county central Ohio region. A funding collaborative made up of The Women's Fund of Central Ohio, The Columbus Foundation, Cardinal Health, and Nationwide Insurance, One Girl is also paired with local non-profit partners-The Interprofessional Commission of Ohio, Ruling Our eXperiences, The Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland, The Mentoring Center of Central Ohio, and YWCA Columbus-in a combined effort to aid the girls of the community. Previous to the initiative there had been no gender-specific study about girls in central Ohio. Undertaken in 2009, the Women's Fund commissioned detailed data collection surrounding eight different factors: population, diversity, economic characteristics, childcare, education, health, sexual health, and safety and risk behavior. The result of the initial research was a report entitled, One Girl: A Status of Girls in Central Ohio, the first comprehensive study on girls and women under 18 in the area. The project has since grown, and in 2011 the One Girl: A Snapshot of Girls in Central Ohio report was released. The report contains research on over 2,000 girls in grades 5-12, who responded to a survey. With these findings, the One Girl non-profit partners have implemented a research-based, proven program centered on the idea that girls must value themselves before they can add value to the world. The One Girl collaborative aligns organizations, agencies, and girl-centered programs within a conceptual framework in order to coordinate the targeted delivery of services to girls in the seven central Ohio counties. The program has thus far been implemented in Franklin and Licking Counties.
Count On Her!
COUNT ON HER! The Status of Women and Girls in Central Ohio, a report commissioned by The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio and The Columbus Foundation, makes evident the opportunity to invest in central Ohio’s women and girls for the benefit of our entire community. The report counts the 805,184 women and girls in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties, highlighting the assets that are specific to women and girls. COUNT ON HER! is being made available for the benefit of the community in order to benchmark community progress, inform public policy, funding priorities, programming, and to inspire community demand for cogent research about the status of women and girls in central Ohio. This was the first gender-specific study conducted for the seven-county region of central Ohio.
Keyholder
The annual Keyholder event is The Women's Fund of Central Ohio's largest fundraising affair. This event features a notable speaker and highlights The Women's Fund's current grant partners and initiatives. More recently, Ashley Judd spoke at the Ohio Theater on May 1, 2014. Previous speakers have included Gloria Steinem, Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz (authors of The Daring Book for Girls), America Ferrara, Sheryl WuDunn (co-author of Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity Worldwide, Whoopi Goldberg, and Diane Keaton. The event also showcases tributes, a tradition of The Fund, where each guest or donor may honor someone who has made a lasting imprint on another in the community. These tributes are then published in the Keyholder program. Over the history of Keyholder, more than 2,500 tributes have been made.
Current Board Members and Founders
Our Board of Directors