Philanthropy
Women’s Foundation of Alabama leader helping to shape the new face of philanthropy
PHILANTHROPY
Women’s Foundation of Alabama leader helping to shape the new face of philanthropy
In every family it is the hope that legacy passes from one generation to the next – never to be forgotten.
Zhaundra Jones and her family are no exception.
In the last century, Jones’ great-grandmother was a midwife to women in areas spanning the Black Belt to Birmingham, helping mothers give birth without ultrasound machines and other medical equipment. Jones’ paternal grandmother was a vocational education teacher of cosmetology, bestowing knowledge that gave women students the power to learn, earn and develop financial stability. Sometime later, Jones’ mother worked in community development for the city of Birmingham – all three women foreshadowing issues that would eventually become a huge part of Jones’ work.
And now Jones herself continues this legacy of community-centered work leading the philanthropic and programmatic strategy for the state’s only public women’s foundation.
For more than two decades, the foundation has been a catalyst for change and an engine for women’s philanthropy in the Greater Birmingham area, granting more than $9 million to local community partners focused on moving women forward. In recent years, the organization has strategically expanded its power and influence both geographically, beyond the five-county radius, and programmatically, by leveraging legislative advocacy and groundbreaking research alongside its powerful philanthropy to create systemic change for women and the communities they call home.
And it was this legacy being built that got Jones’ attention.
In 2022, inspired by the leadership vision and sweeping transformation of Women’s Foundation of Alabama led by Melanie R. Bridgeforth, the foundation’s president and CEO, Jones knew exactly where she wanted to take her talent and ideas for building innovations that move people and places forward.
And the rest is history. Jones heeded Bridgeforth’s call to action and came on board to help shape an even bolder philanthropic plan of action to catapult women in Alabama to greater economic, social and political heights.
Since that time, under Jones’ leadership, the small but mighty Philanthropy and Learning team and a committed cadre of community volunteers have elevated the foundation’s grants program from a local footprint primarily focused on workforce and 2Gen work to a statewide, multidimensional portfolio of competitive grants and strategic initiatives poised to move the needle on entrenched issues in the Yellowhammer state.
One of Jones’ first courses of action was honing the work into three key focus areas: Women + Work, Women + Leadership, and Women and Well-being, emphasizing the necessity of a holistic approach toward solving these myriad, interconnected issues. One such issue, the lack of access to quality, affordable child care for working families, captured her imagination early on. While the foundation’s External Affairs team was hard at work advocating for child care tax credits, the organization’s Philanthropy and Learning team was working with partners to develop solutions on the ground. As a result, later this month, 12 women will complete the inaugural Advancing Alabama Childcare Business Accelerator, with the potential to add a few hundred childcare seats in the Jefferson, Walker and Chilton counties.
According to Jones, you can expect to see an even stronger alignment between the foundation’s policy advocacy and grantmaking work as the team continues to balance the need to address immediate challenges with the imperative to also address the structural barriers that created those same challenges and, in many cases, cause them to persist.
Building on a momentous statewide expansion, Jones’ team helped take the foundation’s community grantmaking efforts statewide through the opening of its fall 2023 grant cycle just last year. Marking the largest grant cycle in its history, $1.2 million in grants were awarded to 46 programs and organizations across 44 of Alabama’s 67 counties. While this was not the foundation’s first competitive grant cycle, it was the first time the grant cycle was open to local, community-based organizations across Alabama, representing greater potential for even broader impact toward gender and economic equity for women and families in the state.
“This was an exciting milestone for us as we extended our impact and partnerships across Alabama. These new focus areas gave us the chance to meet and partner with organizations that are aligned with our vision of equitable economic opportunity in the state,” Jones said. “We firmly believe in the power of local, community-based organizations and the profound impact philanthropy can have on women’s lives; and with our most recent grant cycle, we unleashed it like never before.”
A specific sector of the philanthropic community, women’s funds uniquely use the combined power of collective giving and community investment to address the most pressing gender, racial and economic issues. Philanthropy that addresses women’s issues is essential, yet only 1.9% of all charitable contributions in the country support women and girls.
Additionally, Jones remarked on the power of the foundation’s approach to align grantmaking with its strong public policy chops to create even deeper, systemic change.
“Under Melanie’s leadership the foundation has landed some of the most historic wins for women in modern history from the passage of the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act to the recent legislative win procuring the state’s first tax incentives for increasing access to quality childcare,” Jones said. “Now I get to take those policy wins made possible in Montgomery and partner with local community organizations to translate those wins into tangible outcomes for families.”
The foundation’s focus on childcare access as a barrier to workforce participation began several years ago, most prominently with a research report called Clearing the Path in 2017. Then in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the Women’s Foundation raised funds to give grants to the owners of close to 30 childcare businesses, funding that played a critical role for these providers keeping their doors open at a time when it was desperately needed. Wielding philanthropy as a tool for change is necessary, and the foundation believes philanthropy is at its best when it can both respond and anticipate community needs.
Putting ‘puzzle pieces’ together
According to the foundation’s most recent Clearing the Path report, labor force participation rates for women in Alabama are among the lowest in the United States and in the South.
While nearly 74% of households in Alabama have a female breadwinner – indicating the critical economic role mothers play – the wage gap between men and women in the state stubbornly persists and sits as one of the widest gaps in the nation. Social and human issues are complex as are the solutions that cure them. Jones is eager and proud to bring a critical piece to the puzzle – the power of community-driven philanthropy.
Just like her foremothers, the women she leads, and the women who lead her, Jones understands the road ahead will not be easy. But like the courageous women who came before her and whose legacies she works to extend, she hopes to create opportunities for women to build proud legacies of their own.