Women's Foundation of Alabama: Competitive Grantmaking

The Women's Foundation of Alabama focuses on granting funds to local organizations committed to enhancing economic opportunities for women. With annual funding requests up to $50,000, they aim to address barriers in three key areas: Women + Work, Women + Leadership, and Women + Wellbeing. Their vision is to foster inclusivity and equity, ensuring women thrive in the workforce, lead in their communities, and achieve holistic wellness.

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.
Focus Areas
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.
Women + WorkThe 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.Women + LeadershipWhere 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.Women + WellbeingSuccess 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.
Funding
Applicants may request funding up to $50,000. The total cost and scale of the project should be reasonable, feasible, and sustainable in relation to the applicant’s overall budget and activities.
Depending on the scale and schedule of the proposal, funds may be requested over a one—or two-year period.