Economic Justice
Economic Opportunity Grants
Our Economic Opportunity grants support efforts focused on increasing wages, assets and overall economic well-being of low-income and underemployed women, particularly single female heads of households and women from marginalized communities. Grants in this category might fund programs, policy and/or social change awareness-building activities in the areas of:
Creating Better Jobs – Strategies to improve women's wages, working conditions, labor standards, benefits and training opportunities for women workers. Particular priority will be given to programs that help women access non-traditional jobs that have a higher wage potential and on increasing wages in sectors that typically have lower wages and are heavily populated by women.
Examples of potential funding areas: training and apprenticeships for women in skilled trades (particularly green jobs), efforts to increase wages of child care workers or other service providers, advocating for family-friendly policies in the workplace.
Building Entrepreneurship – Programs that promote women's business ownership, microfinance efforts, and/or ways to provide women with access to credit, financial markets and business training.
Increasing Assets and Financial Literacy – Increasing women's financial empowerment through asset-building efforts (home, education, business), matched savings programs, debt reduction, financial literacy and training.
Investing in Girls – Investing in girls is the first step in ensuring they grow up to be economically secure women. Therefore, WFA may support programs that promote girls' education in fields that have the potential to provide higher wages and/or where women are not as represented.
Providing a Solid Foundation – In order to be fully economically secure, a woman and her children need stable housing, a safe environment, adequate health care, transportation, and affordable and quality child care. As such, grants may fund efforts that ensure that women have access to these supports. Emphasis will be on supporting systemic change efforts and applicants must show the direct correlation with increasing women's economic status.
Other Policy, Advocacy or Media Activities – There may be other policy, advocacy, research or media activities that support our overall goal of increasing the economic power of low-income and underemployed women that don't fit into the five categories above. These may include advocating for fairer tax policies or policies that focus on the economic health of refugee and immigrant women.
