The Women's Foundation raises, invests and grants funds to promote equity and opportunity for women and girls.
Vision
Women and girls at their personal best
Values
Self-determination: We believe that Women should have freedom, power, and choice as architects of their own lives.
Philanthropy: We work to inspire,
prepare, and support a new generation of Women and
Girls engaged in charitable giving.
Leadership: We seek to inspire and encourage Women and Girls to imagine and create positive changes in their personal, political, and public lives and communities.
Diversity: We hold that to value diversity is to embrace the full spectrum of womanhood. We seek the voices that speak for Women and Girls, from all walks of life. We are respectful and inclusive in all we do.
Spirit: We support initiatives that celebrate the spirit, nurture inner strength, and increase self-esteem in Women and Girls.
Vision: We strive to effect positive,
systemic social change by learning from our past; then casting
our eyes forward to recognize an innovative, collaborative
future for Women and Girls.
History
The movement toward separate women’s funds began in the early 1980s with the creation of the Ms. Foundation. Today, more than 100 funds are at work across the country. Their common goal is to replace the “feminization of poverty” with the “feminization of philanthropy.”
The Women’s Foundation of Greater Kansas City is the result of the vision and hard work of two organizations: the Metropolitan Women’s Roundtable, a consortium of more than 30 local women’s organizations; and the Central Exchange, a professional women’s organization. Representatives of these two organizations began discussions in May 1989. The dream was a new foundation created, supported and managed by Kansas City women for Kansas City women of all ages.
The Foundation was officially launched in June 1991 with four
major objectives.
• To promote the long-term stability of organizations
serving women and girls in our community.
• To fund innovative programs addressing key issues facing
women and girls.
• To think strategically with other community leaders
about the importance of women’s issues, and to increase
support from other funders for those issues.
• To encourage women to recognize “the power of
their purses,” to be thoughtful givers putting their
dollars where their values are.
The Women’s Foundation exists because of numbers like
these.
• 80 percent of people living in poverty are women and
their children.
• Two-thirds of all minimum wage jobs are held by women.
• 40 percent of women who work outside the home still
earn incomes below the poverty level.
• Three-fourths of all poor, elderly people in this country
are women.
From our earliest days, other numbers told us that we had struck a chord among the women of our community…
In March 1990, fundraising began to cover the initial expenses of opening an office. The First Step Funder Campaign raised almost $94,000 from more than 100 people. By June 1996, the Charter Endowment Investor Campaign had raised $3,053,485. And in December 2000, the Campaign for Change 2000 had doubled the endowment by adding another $3,400,000. These campaigns represent the financial commitment of more than 2,000 women and men who believe in this vision: women and girls at their personal best.
