Every day we ask ourselves, how can we continue to advance our mission and dismantle sexism, racism, & structural oppression?

We know that to be impactful in this work, we have to use a variety of tools including: community engagement, grassroots support, increasing consciousness, broad advocacy, and so much more.

We also know that we can't do this diverse work without support from our friends and allies. We need people to invest in women. We need individuals to be part of our philanthropic community dedicated to gender justice in Oregon; where we come together in our vision of an equitable world where all women, girls and gender expansive folks are thriving and free from systemic oppression.

As we enter the last quarter of the year, we have one goal and we need your help. Our WFO team is committed to building a sustainable and impactful gender justice movement. Central to our success in doing this is growing our community of givers. Many of you who receive this email are already committed to giving monthly, but our ask is to think of three friends that you can invite to join you in this sustained commitment.

WFO is committed to advancing Gender Justice! We recognize that in order to have sustainable and effective impact, our work has to be done at all levels. We are proud of our local and statewide efforts, and now we are integrating ourselves into Federal opportunities. Last week, we participated in the first-ever Feminist Philanthropy Day! Advocating for pay equity, child care resources, and reproductive rights.

THANK YOU to everyone who has reached out to support our statewide efforts! We are still working to accomplish our goals, and will continue connecting with folks to ensure that we can advance gender justice across our state.

As a friendly reminder we have multiple grants open until September 26th. Below is additional information regarding each grant. Also, check out our website to apply and for more information. As always, if you have any questions, recommendations, or want to get more involved please reach out to us!

In community,

The Women's Foundation of Oregon Team

This is our "WHY"! We work to dismantle sexism, racism, and structural oppression through the movement of resources and those organizations in our community addressing domestic and intimate partner violence are urgently in need. We are gathering resources to help organizations providing vital services throughout Oregon.

We are so passionate about connecting with as many folks as possible to make a difference! We are asking our community to chip-in now to be part of our efforts to advance gender justice and put an end to intimate partner violence.

WFO is about the ENTIRE state of Oregon! There are over 4 million people who live in Oregon. We are a beautiful and amazing state that is full of diversity from our people to our geography. To meet our commitment to serve the entire state, we are leaning in to our WFO community.

Transformation and impact are our goals. We are already witnessing how our financial support from earlier this year is having tremendous influence. These outcomes make announcements about our new grants even more exciting. Help us spread the word about the opportunities below!

We recognize that the stripping away of the institutional protections and initiatives to address the historical and systemic realities for marginalized communities and individuals was a long-term and strategic effort. This recognition pushes us to continue the fight, to continue to build our movement. A movement that is sustainable, strategic, intentional, inclusive, compassionate, and just.

We are committed to always bringing people together to create a more socially just and compassionate society and state. We focus on these efforts because we believe in the power of people. We believe so strongly in this power because we have seen time and time again that people can resist, can fight, can win. Join us in this work and movement!

Dear Friends,

As we close the fiscal year at the Women's Foundation of Oregon, we also approach my first year as Executive Director at WFO. I am proud of our achievements and contributions. We have a brand new team that has defined our work and strategies with grace and confidence. We distributed over $230k in grant funds across the state of Oregon. We fundraised three times more than the average year of revenue at WFO and we awarded the organization's first multi-year grant. Not to mention a list of internal improvements that will help keep us in compliance, focused and advancing our mission of gender justice.

We are truly grateful for your support and your love of WFO and gender justice. This work is hard because it matters. We must continue to find ways to elevate our community in ways that fortify them and our deep respect of their right to joy, growth, integrity, liberation, courage, collectivity, and justice.

As we continue to realize our mission, and think strategically about "the movement of resources and ideas toward gender justice," we are doing exactly what we asked our organizational partners to do a few months ago... DREAM BIG. After reading so many outstanding grant applications, we now have a new dream and goal: to award a second Dream Big Grant in 2024.

This Spring, we launched a unique grant opportunity: Our Portland Girls Health and Safety Initiative. Our location based grant program aimed to support organizations focused on health and safety initiatives for women and girls in the City of Portland. We had many outstanding applicants! Below are the five recipients of our 2023 grant program. We encourage our community to learn more about these important organizations and stay tuned for the next round of Portland Health and Safety grants later this summer!

Our Dream Big Grant is our new initiative that is breaking down the barriers that have traditionally existed in philanthropy and fostering powerful and transformational relationships. We had a record number of amazing applicants and we are grateful to all the individuals in our state who are working to advance gender justice.

We are excited….no….we are ECSTATIC to announce our first Dream Big Grant recipient, the WomenFirst Transition and Referral Center.

We have three categories of giving this cycle (Dream Big, Portland Safety, Oregon Activist) and we are proud to say the selections are nothing short of excellent. We are grateful for our Grants Committee members who volunteered to review our grant applications and support our decision. We had over 1.5 million in grant applications requested. As a philanthropic agency serving the good of over 50% of our population, we know the need is great!

We are reinforcing our commitment to gender and reproductive justice! We are here for the fight and struggles ahead.

From grantmaking, to research, to community gatherings, and in so many other ways, we are committed to advancing gender justice through our actions!

Celebrate Black stories and support pay transparency in Oregon

Calling all activists! Nominate yourself or someone who is doing the work to abolish gender injustice in our community.

Liberation. Justice. Collectivity. Courage. Joy. Integrity. Growth.

These are our values, and as an organization we work to live and support those living them everyday. That is why our Dream Big Grant Initiative means so much to us. It is the encapsulation of our values and our commitment to allowing organizations to dream big alongside us.

We are launching our first grant opportunity of 2023! We are starting with a location-based grant for the city of Portland. The grant is focused on health and community safety initiatives serving 14-24 year old women and girls.

Our jobs are rooted in the transparency of our actions, the sustainability of our approach and the operationalizing of our values; liberation, justice, collectivity, joy, integrity, growth and courage. The WFO team is deeply committed to this assignment and currently I am focused on reflection.

The end of the year is a time for reflection, a time to take stock, and a time to plan for the new year. We have been encouraged by this exceptional community and cannot wait to continue our path of learning, discovery and momentum towards gender justice.