COMPETITIVE GRANT CYCLE

Community-Powered.
Women Focused.

Each year, Women’s Foundation of Alabama accepts proposals from local, community-based organizations across the state, representing greater potential for even broader impact towards gender and economic equity for women in the state. Through this process, Women’s Foundation of Alabama aims to support high-impact organizations and projects working to usher women and girls along the path of greater economic opportunity and to remove the complex, interconnected barriers women face along that same path.

Our three grant focus areas are Women + Work, Women + Leadership, and Women + Wellbeing – reflecting the foundation’s interest in holistic, innovative approaches to women’s economic opportunity. We fuel organizations that address the barriers to entering the workforce.

The Fall 2024 Competitive Grant Cycle is open now through August 23. For questions or more information, please reach out to us at community@wfalabama.org.

Click Here to Apply Now!

Grant Timeline

The initial phase of the grant cycle opens online on Friday, August 2, 2024. The deadline for submitting brief applications is Friday, August 23, 2024 at 11:59 pm.

For this cycle, we are following a two-stage process (brief proposal and full proposal). All applicants will be notified whether or not you are advancing to the full proposal stage in September. For applicants advancing, site visits will start in October and final decisions will be in December.

For more information about how to use the application portal, Foundant, click here.

August 2

Applications Open

August 23

Deadline for Brief Proposal Application

October

Site Visits for Applicants Advancing to Full Proposal Stage

December

Final Decisions

A catalyst for change.

As of October 2022, Alabama had 143,000 job openings, but only 53 workers for every 100 vacancies. It hasn’t gotten appreciably better. Now, consider the fact that more than 80,000 Alabama women are missing from the workforce because of barriers that prevent them from holding a job such as child care, training, maternity leave, and pay. To address these problems, we must mobilize an army of organizations, and that is what our grantmaking does. We fuel the organizations that address these barriers to entering the workforce for women.

Only 52% of Working Women

Participate in the Economy, vs 63% of Men

Alabama has a 40% Supply Gap

in Affordable, Quality Childcare

Alabama has the 3rd Highest

Maternal Mortality Rate in the US

Women Are Paid 67 Cents

for Every Dollar a Man Makes

WOMEN + WORK

The future of Alabama’s workforce depends upon inclusion and equity for women. In 2022, over 80,000 women were missing from the state’s workforce, placing Alabama dead last in labor force participation for women in the South. This doesn’t have to be Alabama’s fate. Through this focus area, the foundation plans to fund nonprofit organizations providing education, skills training, credentials, critical supports, and public policy initiatives that enable women to access quality jobs and advance along their career path.

 

Previous Grantees

  • Athens Limestone County Family Resource Center – Workforce Development
  • Birmingham Corps – Place for Purpose
  • Community Care Development Network – CCDN Mothers Matter Initiative
  • Hope Inspired Ministries – Workforce Development
  • Legal Services Alabama – Income Protection Project
  • Pathways, Inc. – Early Learning Center
  • Vincent’s Foundation of Alabama – Jeremiah’s Hope
  • United Women of Color – Career Certificate Scholarship Program

WOMEN + LEADERSHIP

Where women lead, change follows. Whether on the job, in the community, at the highest levels of power, or in the home, decades of studies show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, and improve fairness for everyone. Through this focus area, we aim to support programs and public policy efforts that invest in the personal and professional leadership development of women and the implementation of women led solutions.

 

Previous Grantees

  • Alabama Justice Initiative – AJI’s Reimagine Community Fellowship
  • Breakthrough Birmingham – Thrive Teachers Program
  • Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama – Girl Scout Leadership Experience
  • Girls Inc. Huntsville – GEL-Girls Excelling in Leadership
  • Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama – Elevating Hispanic/Latinx & Immigrant Women in Leadership
  • Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema – Women in Film Week 2024

WOMEN + WELLBEING

Success at work and personal well-being do not have to be mutually exclusive. At Women’s Foundation of Alabama, we believe good jobs and living wages are only the beginning. For this focus area, we are focused on funding programs and public policy solutions that enable women to thrive, within and beyond their career, along the eight dimensions of wellness with a focus on the following three: financial, physical, and mental wellness.

 

Previous Grantees

  • Alabama Prison Birth Project – Advancing the Emotional, Physical, and Financial Wellness of Incarcerated, Pregnant Women
  • BirthWell Partners – Leveraging the Power of DOULAS to Improve the Health and Wellbeing of AL Women
  • Diane’s Heart – She Knew There Was More Coaching and Mentoring Program
  • Global Ties Alabama – Refugee Resettlement Women’s Program
  • One Place Metro Alabama Family Justice Center – Developing Agency and Pathways to Hope for Survivors
  • Shelby Emergency Assistance- Thrive Together Shelby County
  • West Alabama Women’s Center – Prenatal Care & Support for Uninsured Patients
  • Women Under Construction Network – What I Learned At Home Project
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