NEW YORK (AP) — Theresa Young’s tenure at the helm of the Women’s Foundation, the first national charity run by and for women, spanned the #MeToo movement and the rollback of abortion rights nationwide and is now ending in Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
“Our current situation is not ideal,” Younger said of the pursuit of political equality for all, which is part of the Ms. Foundation’s mission. But even as she prepares to step down as CEO in June, Younger said she won’t give up the fight.
“I believe feminism is still alive and well,” Younger said in an interview with The Associated Press. “In fact, over the past 12 years, somehow preserving democracy and our constitutional rights has been the only thing.”
As CEO, Younger addressed domestic violence among professional football players, expanded the foundation’s investments in grassroots groups in the South and Midwest, and raised more than $100 million for its endowment. In 2018, the foundation adopted a strategy to advocate for resources for girls and women of color. Younger said change is a long process, but it resonates differently under her leadership as a Black and Indigenous woman.
“The agency has made it clear in our strategic plan that we want to put women and girls of color at the center of inclusion, not exclusion,” Young said. “Now we’re in a position where DEI is perceived as bad. We refuse to accept that.”
As part of this strategic shift, the foundation released a 2020 report, “Change in Your Pocket: How Women and Girls of Color Can Do More with Less,” which called on other philanthropic funders to change not just what they fund, but how they fund it.
The study found that philanthropic foundations donated approximately $356 million to women and girls of color in 2017, less than 0.05% of foundation donations in 2018.
But in addition to highlighting small investments in some of the most marginalized people in the United States, the report also revealed significant divisions between funders and groups led by women of color. For example, many nonprofits use a variety of strategies to provide child care and diapers while advocating for reproductive justice. At the same time, funders may separate funding based on population, strategy, or issue, and may only want to fund some of their activities.
The report calls on foundations to provide flexible, long-term funding, align their strategies with the groups they fund, solicit feedback from grantees and support intermediaries with strong relationships with these groups.
This has always been the role that women’s foundations and ladies’ foundations play in philanthropy. They both supported grassroots groups serving marginalized populations and pioneered new ways of funding and working with these groups, which several other funders subsequently adopted as best practice.
The earliest women’s foundation in the United States began in the 1970s. The Ms. Foundation was the first national funder to support women’s groups and the feminist movement. The company was founded in 1973 by Gloria Steinem, Patricia Carbine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin and Marlo Thomas.
Sunny Fischer, one of the founders of the Chicago Women’s Foundation, said the women who started the foundation around 1983 wanted to serve women in a different way than many of the large social service organizations of the time.
Rather than telling women experiencing domestic violence to go back and save their marriages, she said “there are new groups trying to help women and give them a real understanding of what’s going on at home and try to give women choices about what they can do when they’re being abused.”
Lucia Woods Lindley, a photographer and heir to a wealthy Nebraska family whose fortunes came from telecommunications and coal, was another CFW founder and, Fisher recalled, “a great planner.”
In 2023, Ms. Foundation announced that Woods Lindley had left $50 million in her estate, the largest gift the Foundation had ever received. The foundation accounted for almost half of the $106 million in endowments it ultimately raised.
In an interview at the time, Younger said the foundation woman did not expect Woods Lindley’s gift to be so large.
“She trusts and believes that Ms. (Foundation)’s role as the National Public Women’s Foundation is critical to the thought leadership needed for philanthropy around feminism, challenging the field, growing and asking the right questions,” Young said.
Overall, the amount of money women’s funds control remains small compared with the assets of major foundations and the largest individual philanthropists. One exception is Melinda French Gates, who has invested billions of dollars to benefit women and girls.
The Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy tracked the giving of women and girls and found that over a 10-year period, their share of overall philanthropic support rose from 1.59% in 2012 to 2.04% in 2023 and to 2.18% in 2022.
“The vast majority of philanthropic dollars go to ordinary people and are based on need rather than status,” said Jacqueline Ackerman, the institute’s president. But she said they will track donations to historically underfunded groups to reveal whether those trends are changing.
Ms. Foundation plans to announce Younger’s successor later this spring, but Younger has yet to reveal her next steps. Younger said excitedly that she enjoys the work she does at the foundation but believes it will benefit greatly from new leadership.
“I want to look back and see someone build on what I’ve done and take it to the next level,” she said. “I would be proud of what they have accomplished.”
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