The mission of the Ms. Foundation for Womenis to build women’s collective power in the United States to advance equity and justice for all. The foundation works to achieve this mission by investing in and strengthening the capacity of women-led movements to advance meaningful social, cultural, and economic change in women’s lives.
To that end, the foundation invites proposals for its Ms. South program, which aims to support the leadership of Women and Girls of Color (WGOC) and strengthen its ecosystem of leaders. The program provides targeted funding in 14 key states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Through the program, grants totaling $1.5 million will be awarded to support WGOC-led groups in the U.S. South across the spectrum of movement building and organizing. Program goals include strengthening the organizational and financial sustainability of an ecosystem of WGOC-led organizations; increasing connectivity between WGOC-led organizations; and positioning WGOC leaders as key experts and decision-makers in shaping policy and culture change. The strategy also supports the leadership of Southern WGOC through capacity building, networking, communications to amplify the work of their organizations, and advocacy within the philanthropy community to increase giving to grants of up to 45 WGOC by a significant margin. General operating support of up to $50,000 per year for up to two years will be awarded.
Applicant organizations should be led by Women and/or Girls of Color, i.e., the executive director (or one co-director, for those that use a co-director model) is a Woman and/or Girl of Color; 75-100 percent of the financial decision makers for the organization must be Women and/or Girls of Color; and more than 50 percent of the people on the board (or the people who have fiduciary responsibility for your organization) must be Women and/or Girls of Color. Applicants must be doing work focused in one or more of the 14 states listed, and applicants must be 501(c)(3) organizations or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization.
For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Ms. Foundation for Women website. Deadline: January 13, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. ET
