Upcoming Event
Begins Thursday, February 09, 2012 at 11:30 AM
During collaborative, roundtable sessions WST members will provide our guest entrepreneur, Cyndi Prince, founder of WOOLY ROUNDS, input on how she can increase retail and…
Most Recent
Girls Award $5000 in Social Change Grants
The Midcoast Council of the Maine Women’s Fund awarded $2,000 in Splash micro grants
Grant Partners
Economic Security Initiative
The mission of the Maine Women’s Fund is to create lasting social change by investing in the power of women and the dreams of girls. Our past grantmaking experience has taught us many things. Most importantly, that a woman’s ability to take care of herself, her family and her potential to contribute to her community, depend on her ability to obtain financial security. With financial security, women can break the cycle of violence and access better housing, health care and employment.
As such, economic security is the cornerstone of all aspects of our mission, and we invest in non-profits committed to helping us achieve our goal of economic security for all Maine women and girls. In the 23 years since our inception, we have granted over $1.6 million. The non-profits we support help us by focusing their work on four strategic areas that together will advance economic security:
- Education and Youth Development: Every additional degree of education for women and girls – beginning with preschool – has a direct impact on the ability to avoid and escape the cycle of poverty. Education and youth programming are also essential for building confidence, independence, self-reliance and safety.
- Entrepreneurship, Better Jobs and Wages: A woman’s independence depends on her ability to maximize her earning potential and access good, reliable benefits. Better jobs with health care, paid sick leave and paid maternity leave ensure that health crises do not jeopardize a woman’s employment. Training and wage negotiation are essential to all women. Over 25% of Maine’s businesses are woman-owned. Ensuring their success is a fundamental component of economic security for the community.
- Financial Literacy and Asset Building: Economic security is dependent on a woman’s ability to manage the assets she does have and build them over time. This requires opportunities to both save and accumulate wealth and develop basic financial literacy.
- Policy and Leadership: Strengthening women’s economic security requires research to identify gender-based disparities and the implementation of policies to correct them. It also requires developing and sustaining a critical mass of women leaders across the public, private and non-profit sectors capable of driving change.
The Maine Women’s Fund seeks to invest in programs and organizations that are focused on social change, and not simply service delivery. As such, we look for programs and organizations that creating tangible shifts in society, including:
- Shifts in Definition: The issue will be defined differently in the community or society. Example:Domestic violence is seen as an economic security issue; definitions of women and children’s safety are more comprehensive.
- Shifts in Behavior: People are behaving differently in the community or larger society. Example: Women seek and advocate for women-centered health care; the community provides better care.
- Shifts in Engagement: People in the community or larger society are more engaged in the issue. Example: Creating economic justice for low-income women by building political skills and leadership to help women advocate for and effect change in the welfare system.
- Shifts in Policy: Institutional, legal, organizational or legislative policies or practices change. Example: Paid sick leave is guaranteed for working moms through new legislation.
- Current Position Maintained: Past gains maintained in the face of backlash or resistance. Example: Protecting women’s existing reproductive health choices.
Participate in the grantmaking process
Each year, as part of our public review of our grantmaking process, we invite community members to reviewer up to four applications and make their recommendations to our board via electronic survey. If you would like to sign up to be a reviewer this year (spring 2012), please complete this online form.
