Ms. Foundation for Women
 http://www.ms.foundation.org


Contact Information:

120 Wall Street, 33rd Floor
New York, NY 10005
Sara K. Gould, President and Chief Executive Officer
Contact: Ellen Braune, Vice President of Communications
Phone: 212/742-2300 Fax: 212/742-1653
Email: info@ms.foundation.org
sgould@ms.foundation.org





CENTER DESCRIPTION

The Ms. Foundation supports the efforts of women and girls to govern their own lives and influence the world around them. Through its leadership, expertise and financial support, the Foundation champions an equitable society by effecting change in public consciousness, law, philanthropy and social policy.


Our work is guided by our vision of a just and safe world where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, sexual orientation, disability or age. We believe that equity and inclusion are the cornerstones of a true democracy in which the worth and dignity of every person are valued.


AREA(S) OF EXPERTISE

Activism & Organizing, Economic and Social Status of Women, Entrepreneurship & Small Business Development, Diversity, Equity Issues, Grants & Scholarships, Health – AIDS, Leadership & Leadership Development, Non-traditional Employment, Pay Equity, Philanthropy, Poverty, Reproductive Rights, Sex Education, Unions, Violence Against Women & Girls. Other: Child Sexual Abuse, Youth. RECENT PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES


The Ms. Foundation for Women is dedicated to building women’s collective power to ignite change. We seek opportunities to both proactively and reactively inform public policy, and obtain policy wins at the local, state, tribal and national level, with the ultimate goal of transforming the systems that govern women’s lives.

We also aim to change the language, beliefs and behaviors that continue to hold women’s oppression in place—particularly at the intersection of race, class and gender—and to shift public debate on key issues so that the perspectives of, and impact on, low income women and women of color are visible and addressed.

We support both cross-issue organizing and organizing within four broad areas of impact:

Women’s Health

Ending Violence

Economic Security

Building Democracy

Examples of funding initiatives across these broad and interconnected issue areas include:

Katrina Women’s Response Fund: The Ms. Foundation responded immediately to the destruction and massive displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina by creating the Katrina Women’s Response Fund. The Fund provides strategic support to meet the immediate needs of women of color and low-income women in the Gulf Coast region and ensure that their leadership and priorities are central in both short and long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts. By making grants to organizations throughout the region, the Katrina Women’s Response Fund invests in the crucial infrastructure that promotes the health, safety, and economic well-being of women, their families and communities.

The Women and AIDS Fund: The Ms. Foundation for Women created the Women and AIDS Fund (WAF)to support organizations that advocate for policies and services that meet the needs of women with HIV/AIDS. WAF remains the only national fund that supports advocacy and self-determination by and for women living with this disease. By providing grants, technical assistance and networking opportunities to community-based organizations led by and for women who are HIV-positive, we contribute to the development of model approaches for women’s HIV/AIDS advocacy that can be shared across the country. Our work has also helped create a national network of HIV-positive infected and affected women, called the National Women and AIDS Collective (NWAC), who strive to influence the ways in which policies are determined at the federal level. 

The Reproductive Rights Coalition and Organizing Fund: The Ms. Foundation for Women’s Reproductive Rights Coalition and Organizing Fund (RRCOF) has been a strong, responsive resource for state reproductive rights organizations across the United States since 1989. RRCOF provides grantmaking, technical assistance, and networking activities to strengthen state-level infrastructures and build critical, broad-based support for reproductive rights. RRCOF aims to increase the capacity of state and local reproductive rights organizations so that they can: 1) expand and mobilize their base of support; 2) reach a broader and more diverse audience; 3) frame reproductive rights and health in a broader health and social justice context; and 4) more effectively advocate for positive – and avert restrictive – reproductive health policies and programs.

TheCollaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development: The Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development provides support to organizations across the country that help low-income women start and expand micro-enterprises and cooperative businesses.  The Fund’s grantee organizations link these businesses with lucrative local, regional, and national markets, facilitating the flow of much needed capital into low-income communities and creating an important means of women’s economic self-sufficiency.  Since 1990, the Ms. Foundation has partnered with more than 40 institutions and individuals to leverage upwards of $10 million in funding to support grantmaking, technical assistance and learning in women’s enterprise development. 

Additionally, over the coming years the Ms. Foundation will focus a significant amount of funding on its “Movement Building” initiative, which seeks to revitalize the women’s movement by bringing race, class, age and sexuality to the center of feminist organizing - a concept we called social justice feminism - and to revitalize progressive movements by bringing gender to the center of broader progressive organizing - a concept we call feminist social justice. For more information on our Movement Building work, please visit: http://ms.foundation.org/wmspage.cfm?parm1=480



PUBLICATIONS

Stir It UP: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy.  Written by activist and trainer Rinku Sen, this publication examines the work of economic justice organizations funded by the Ms. Foundation and applies the lessons they learned to other community organizations.  Sen also provides models and tools that any organization can use to successfully create social change and influence public policy.

Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies that Work for All of Us . Most Americans believe a job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. Raise The Floor shows us how we can translate that belief into reality by raising the minimum wage. In addition to telling workers’ stories, presenting original data, and proposing comprehensive policies, Raise The Floor spotlights businesses large and small that demonstrate how good wages are good business—in good economic times and bad.

Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs: How Eleven Women Escaped Poverty and Became Their Own Bosses. This publication tells the inspirational stories of eleven low-income women who have marshaled the creative energy, confidence, and capital necessary to start their own small businesses.  These women, who have used their entrepreneurial skills as a route out of poverty, give an American face to an economic empowerment tool that has enjoyed great success in developing countries.