Mary's Pence

Mary’s Pence’s stated mission is to invest in women across the United States, Mexico, and Central America by funding community initiatives and fostering collaborations to create social change. Its website describes a focus on dignity, justice, solidarity, women’s participation, and solutions shaped by people most affected by injustice.

For U.S. grants, Mary’s Pence supports organizations or groups working with a fiscal sponsor. Its stated criteria include being based and working in the United States or a U.S. territory, having an annual budget of $250,000 or less, and being led predominantly by cis women, trans women, and nonbinary people. Funded work must address issues women face or gender justice, primarily benefit those communities, and pursue sustainable systems or structural change. The organization says it does not fund individuals, businesses or LLCs, capital expenses, organizations with large government grants or service contracts, or direct-service work without a strong systems-change component.

Examples from the 2025 grantee list illustrate the range of supported organizations. DemocrASHé describes its work as empowering intersectional female-identifying high school students to become future elected leaders. Project Rainbow Utah says it works to uplift LGBTQ+ people through visibility, inclusion, and community support. Atlanta Doula Collective describes work to address Black maternal and infant mortality through affordable perinatal services and community-based education. These are the grantees’ stated missions, not Mary’s Pence’s.

Mary’s Pence also describes ESPERA as a micro-lending and accompaniment program with women’s organizations in Mexico and Central America. The organization’s 2024 filing described partnerships with 14 groups in five countries, locally owned lending pools, business-skills training, and coaching. It reported that more than 1,400 women had benefited from loans over time.