Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM: (The United Nations Development Fund for Women) supporting our conference in 2001
....In the context of our efforts to advance the full realisation of women's human rights and the elimination of all forms of violence against women, the special concerns of widows are of paramount concern to UNIFEM.
FUNDERS FOR GENDER ISSUES The Women’s Funding Network (WFN)
The Women's Funding Network, based in USA, is a world-wide membership of over 100 women's and girls' funds. Our members support the solutions of women and girls through local, national and international grants. WFN advances this movement by supporting these funds through innovative programs and capacity-building expertise. Together, we are creating a safer and more secure world by investing in women and girls.
WFN's programs are some of the most innovative in philanthropy. They help women's and girls' funds:
• Raise more money through our fundraising training
• Run their organizations more effectively through our Smart Growth tool
• Collaborate and capture peer-to-peer knowledge on key initiatives through WFN's conferences, shared training sessions, and access to our cutting-edge research
• Measure results on how women's funds make a difference through our innovative Making the Case: Social Change Measurement Tool
• Reach out to new donors and the media with the shared fund>>forward brand logo and messaging.
We also bolster women as leaders in society and in philanthropy by
• Raising the profile of women as spokespersons in the media through the SheSource campaign
• Raising the profile of women in philanthropy through our fund>>forward brand and buzz initiatives
• Broadening the leadership base in philanthropy and social change through our Women of Color/International Development Incubator
OUR MISSION
As a worldwide partnership of women's funds, donors, and allies committed to social justice, the Women's Funding Network seeks to ensure that women's funds are recognized as the "investment of choice" for people who value the full participation of women and girls as key to strong, equitable, and sustainable communities and societies.
OUR VALUES
Our core values guide all endeavors of Women's Funding Network. Furthermore, we believe that in order to create a just and sustainable society we must:
• Fully engage women and girls in defining societal goals and strategies to reach those goals.
• Promote and support women and girls of diverse classes, races, sexual orientations, and other identities/experiences in shaping, leading, and implementing economic and social change.
• Make use of women’s and girls’ creative, financial, intellectual, and spiritual resources in change processes.
OUR GOALS
To accomplish our mission, Women's Funding Network has set these specific long-term and short-term goals. In partnership with women's funds, donors, and allies, we will:
• Promote recognition of the essential role of women's funds, women, and girls in influencing philanthropic, economic, and social systems' work to foster equity.
• Test and share strategic grantmaking models by and for women and girls.
• Increase the assets of Women's Funding Network members' funds to $250 million by 2004 and to $450 million by 2008.
• Sustain WFN's core values in its operations and in its members.
Founded in 1985, the Women's Funding Network (WFN) is an international organization with over 100 member funds (and 20 associate members) that are committed to improving the status of women and girls locally, nationally and globally. WFN works to strengthen and empower member funds.
Women’s Funding Network
1375 Sutter Street
Suite 406
San Francisco
CA 94109
USA
Tel: 415.441.0706
From WRI Newsletter 7