“Alabama won’t win until our women do. There’s no organization working harder to make that happen than Women’s Foundation of Alabama. As a leader in Alabama’s business community, I want women to have every opportunity to thrive in our state. The state cannot move forward unless we are working together to create an equal path for all Alabamians to succeeed.”
A Watershed Moment for Alabama
Women’s Foundation of Alabama is uniquely positioned with our statewide footprint to address the needs of Alabama’s unique communities and the women who call them home. We cannot fulfill such disparate needs without expanded resources. Your investment allows us to continue and expand our role as funders of innovation and agents of change.
What we offer is a coordinated approach, one that produces collective impact, that stands to benefit our state by adding substantial talent to the workforce and putting Alabama on the map when it comes to mobilizing the dormant economic and social power of women. Much of what we have already done has rippled throughout our state…
But the time has come to make even bigger waves.
CAMPAIGN GOAL
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0
Women moved into our
state’s workforce by 2027.
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0
$Funding for Watershed.
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0
$
Public investment in women
through policy change.
Watershed: A 10,000-Woman Challenge
Watershed’s goal of introducing 10,000 women into Alabama’s workforce and on the path to economic mobility by 2027 is necessarily aggressive. Aggressive goals require carefully considered plans. The plan for this campaign is comprised of three critical streams of effort. Here’s what it looks like:
Combining our proven practice of data-driven grantmaking and public policy shaping, we will:
- Execute the EssentiAL Plan.
- The EssentiAL Plan is a comprehensive advocacy strategy aimed to permanently change the economic game for women through data driven policy reforms and grassroots community building.
- Central to this plan is an unprecedented call on state leaders to invest $250 million to enhance women’s economic outlook, access to opportunities, and retention in quality jobs.
- Broaden our Portfolio of Catalytic Initiatives, Collaboratives, and Targeted Grants.
- To meet the workforce needs of tomorrow, we must align our grantmaking with our policy efforts. The legislative wins of the EssentiAL Plan will permanently remove barriers to employment for Alabama families, but policy work takes time. Until we achieve these big wins, we must invest in the needs of women today. Grantmaking makes that possible.
- Solidify our organizational infrastructure with the talent, physical space and tools needed to win for women and for our state.
Senior Vice President of Governmental and
“It’s time for real change. Alabama can not win with just band-aid solutions. Women’s Foundation of Alabama understands that and gathers partners who can provide wraparound services, such as child care and mentoring, with educational and job opportunities. This foundation is changing lives—that is what keeps me at the table. The launch of this campaign represents a new opportunity for every Alabamian to join in and make a difference.”
Dr. Nancy Dunlap Johns
Professor Emeritus, University of Alabama Birmingham
The Campaign Cabinet
Dr. Nancy Dunlap Johns
Campaign Co-Chair
Quentin Riggins
Campaign Co-Chair
Dawn Helms Sharff
Immediate Past Board Chair
Lajuana Bradford
2024 Board Chair
Brantley Fry
Campaign Cabinet
Brenda Hackney
Campaign Cabinet
Brooke Coleman
Campaign Cabinet
Donna Smith
Campaign Cabinet
Guin Robinson
Campaign Cabinet
Leslie Carlisle
Campaign Cabinet
Watershed is a capital fundraising effort designed to grow the three streams of impact that make Women’s Foundation of Alabama what it is: Grantmaking, Research, and Advocacy. We have an ambitious goal of raising more than $6,500,000 in order to rapidly advance our impact throughout the state and achieve our ambitious goal of helping 10,000 women enter the workforce by 2027.
