About Us > FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Women’s Fund?

A women’s fund is a charitable fund that receives donor contributions and makes grants to organizations that focus on social, economic, political and/or educational issues impacting women and girls. Some women’s funds are publicly funded charities; some are nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations or foundations; and some, like The Women’s Fund of Essex County, are charitable funds which are part of a community foundation. The Women's Fund is a field of interest fund of Essex County Community Foundation.

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Why a Women’s Fund?

Traditional philanthropy is not meeting the needs of women and girls.  Seventy-eight percent of the nation’s poor are women and their children, but less than 7.5 cents of every dollar donated by organized philanthropy goes to programs which specifically address the needs of women and girls. Here in Essex County, women and girls make up 52% of Essex County’s population but bear a significantly disproportionate burden of poverty, workplace inequity, violence and other barriers to self-sufficiency and self-determination. 

Since 1980, more than 100 women’s funds have emerged across the country.  The complex issues that affect the lives of women and girls are brought to light by these organizations through information and education.  Women’s funds do not replace existing resources; they augment them.  

In January 2011, The Women’s Fund of Essex County joined The Women’s Funding Network (WFN) and its membership of more than 160 women’s organizations around the globe, including public charities, foundations and funds. WFN was established in 1985 as a global network dedicated to optimizing the impact of women’s organizations by giving its members access to a forum of shared knowledge, tools and support.  The WFN knows that investing in women and girls sparks a powerful chain reaction that transforms not only women and girls themselves, but families, communities and nations. For more information, visit www.womensfundingnetwork.org.

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About The Women's Fund of Essex County

What is The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

The Women’s Fund of Essex County is a charitable fund dedicated to improving the welfare of women and girls in Essex County and inspiring philanthropy. Each year The Women’s Fund raises funds and awards grants to selected nonprofit programs in Essex County that serve women and girls in need.    

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What are the mission and vision of The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

The mission of The Women’s Fund of Essex County is to promote philanthropy as we raise and distribute funds to organizations that provide opportunities and solutions for women and girls in need throughout Essex County.

We envision a future where the women and girls in our neighborhoods and surrounding communities are no longer challenged by the issues of health and safety, financial insecurity or societal barriers that today may impede their ability to lead secure, strong and fulfilling lives. 

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What are The Women’s Fund of Essex County’s values and beliefs?

We believe that:

• Women and girls have the right to lead secure, strong and fulfilling lives.
• Strong women and girls foster strong families and communities.
• Social change is best sustained when it begins at the community level.

We believe in the power of women’s philanthropy and the power of women to lead in creating positive social change.

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What is the work of The Women’s Fund of Essex County? 

We have two strategic priorities for our efforts:  Social Change Grantmaking and Philanthropy Education. In addition, we may participate in projects each year that enable us to extend our community support beyond our grant award guidelines or respond to an urgent need.

Social Change Grantmaking

Our primary focus is to raise funds and award grants to selected nonprofit programs in Essex County that serve women and girls through one of the following fields of funding:

• Economic Self-Sufficiency and Security
• Health and Well-Being
• Leadership and Empowerment

For maximum effectiveness,

• We target programs with proven track records, measurable objectives and established budgets. We evaluate and monitor program success through on-site visits and by requiring written interim and final reports from the grantee agencies.
• We rotate our field of funding each year to reach as many women and girls as possible.
• We make 1-3 year grant commitments. Multi-year funding is contingent upon successful evaluation each year of the program’s alignment and progress to goals.

We pool individual donations maximizing the impact of each donor’s contribution across a range of issues. 

Donors can take satisfaction that they are helping to improve the lives of women and girls on a more permanent basis. 

Philanthropy Education

As our second strategic priority, our philanthropy education goal is to promote philanthropy in Essex County, with a particular focus on youth philanthropy.  Philanthropy education efforts are led by The Women’s Fund Education Committee.

Our approach is to partner with nonprofits, schools and/or community groups to educate students in the philanthropic process and provide opportunities for student community service. In 2012 we are partnering on two initiatives:

• Play It Forward Giving Circle’s Sister School Program
  
• Manchester Essex Regional High School’s Youth in Philanthropy Pilot Program 

Additional philanthropy education opportunities are being evaluated.

Community Projects

In addition, we may participate in projects each year that enable us to extend our community support beyond our grant award guidelines or respond to an urgent need. 

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How long has The Women’s Fund of Essex County existed?

In 2003 eight visionary and passionate women created The Women’s Fund of Essex County, a philanthropic fund dedicated to increasing resources, expanding opportunities and promoting positive social change for women and girls.  Today we are a vibrant organization providing support to nonprofit agencies serving women and girls in need across Essex County and working to inspire philanthropy.  

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What is the organizational structure of
The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

The Women’s Fund is a volunteer organization of dedicated, energetic women. 

An Advisory Board oversees the activities of The Women’s Fund. The role of the Advisory Board is strategic and advisory. Advisory Board members serve a term of three years and may be elected to serve as many as three successive terms.  The Advisory Board elects a President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary, each of whom typically hold a term of two years. An Executive Committee comprised of the officers and various Standing Committee chairs makes additional policy recommendations to the Advisory Board.

The Women’s Fund maintains no paid staff members. Committees are established by the Advisory Board to conduct the business of the Board and to engage donor volunteers.  It is the intent of the Advisory Board to broaden and refresh its membership to include women wishing to become more actively engaged. The current Standing Committees are: Grants Allocation, Philanthropy Education, Development, Board Development, Communications, PR/Marketing and Technology.  Additional committees work with the Standing Committees to provide project management and operations.

As a board of women working on behalf of women and girls, the Advisory Board strives to exemplify the values we promote: leadership, accountability, strong financial oversight and compassionate stewardship.

• Our Executive Committee and Advisory Board have broad philanthropic, community and professional experience ensuring strong governance and oversight. 
• Our mission and decisions are guided by written bylaws, a disciplined and transparent grant process, and periodic strategic reviews. 
• We maintain a strong and growing endowment for additional support when needed to meet our mission.

What is The Women’s Fund of Essex County’s relationship to Essex County Community Foundation?

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How does The Women’s Fund of Essex County raise funds?

Individual, business and foundation gifts may be made on our secure website at any time. In addition, we raise donations through our Annual Appeal, our Annual Grant Awards Luncheon and our “Power of the Purse” evening, among other activities.

Our fundraising events are celebrations of the collective power of women’s philanthropy. Our very popular Annual Grant Awards Luncheon motivates and inspires as we share in the success stories of many of our grant recipients. Our “Power of the Purse” party is a spirited evening of raffles and is inspired by the Victor Hugo quote, “As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.”

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Does The Women’s Fund of Essex County have an endowment or a reserve fund? What is the spending policy?

The primary purpose of the Reserve Fund will be to maintain level grant funding from year to year, at a minimum. Additionally, and at the sole recommendation of the Advisory Board, monies from the Reserve Fund may be used to fund specific agencies that do not meet the current grant funding criteria, special or one-time projects that fall outside of our current granting guidelines, or emergency relief situations in Essex County.

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What is the expense structure of The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

Because we remain a 100% volunteer organization, we have no physical or staffing overhead and incur minimal expenses ensuring high efficiency for donations. We pay to Essex County Community Foundation a small investment advisory fee for professional management of the fund and a nominal administrative fee.         

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Donor Contributions

Why should I give to The Women’s Fund of Essex County? 

In Essex County over 2,500 nonprofit agencies provide valuable community service.  The Women’s Fund simplifies donor decision-making. Our extensive due diligence enables us to find targeted, effective programs that have significant impact on the lives of women and girls. Many of these programs are “hidden gems” which may not be on the radar of most donors. We fund programs where our donors’ support really makes a difference.

For maximum effectiveness,

• We pool individual donations maximizing the impact of each donor’s contribution across a range of issues. 
• We target programs with proven track records, measurable objectives and established budgets. We evaluate and monitor program success through on-site visits and by requiring written interim and final reports from the grantee agencies.
• We rotate our field of funding each year to reach as many women and girls as possible.
• We make 1-3 year grant commitments. Multi-year funding is contingent upon successful evaluation each year of the program’s alignment and progress to goals.

Donors can take satisfaction that they are helping to improve the lives of women and girls on a more permanent basis.

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Is there an average or minimum donation size?

Donations of any size are gratefully appreciated and are tax-deductible.  We have sponsorship opportunities for corporations and local businesses, and a women-owned business membership program.

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What is the impact of The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

Thanks to the generosity of our individual, local business, corporate and foundation donors, The Women’s Fund has awarded over $500,000 through over 70 grants to nonprofit programs across Essex County.   

Our program funding has directly benefited thousands of women and girls, and indirectly benefited their families, peer groups and communities. Strong women and girls become strong mothers, friends, mentors, employees and role models.

In addition, our funding and grant requirements frequently help to improve the strength of the nonprofit organization, including enabling the agency to leverage additional monies, support collaboration with new partner organizations, increase the visibility of the organization and support goal setting and strategic planning.            

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Grantmaking

Who is eligible to receive funding?

The Women’s Fund of Essex County will consider the grant request from any established 501(c)(3) organization for a program or programs that focus on issues impacting women and/or girls in Essex County.  Organizations must be located in and serving Essex County. The Women’s Fund is limited to nonsectarian programming for women and girls of all religious, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. 

Grants will not be awarded to:

• individuals
• state or local government agencies
• agencies with pending 501(c)(3) status or using fiscal sponsors

 or for:

• debt or deficit reduction
• political purposes
• sectarian or religious purposes
• endowment or capital campaigns
• research

How does The Women’s Fund of Essex County decide
which programs to fund?

The Women’s Fund of Essex County looks for programs or projects which offer the most significant impact for the grant dollars.  Priority is given to organizations that involve women and/or girls in program development and organizational leadership.

The Grants Allocation Committee extensively reviews proposals, conducts site visits and prepares a quantitative assessment based on a multi-factor score sheet which removes subjective bias.  The Grants Allocation Committee then meets to vet proposals and make a committee recommendation for discussion and vote by the Advisory Board. The decisions of the Advisory Board are forwarded to Essex County Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees for final approval.

The Grants Allocation Committee welcomes suggestions of qualifying agencies in the county.

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What is the grantmaking process? 

The Women’s Fund of Essex County awards grants to selected nonprofit programs in Essex County that serve women and girls in need through one of the following fields of funding:

• Economic Self-Sufficiency and Security
• Employment and career readiness
• Access to employment opportunities
• Financial planning
• Homelessness

• Health and Well-Being
• Safety and security
• Gender, language and cultural barriers
• Self-esteem
• Prevention of abuse, harassment, bullying
• Health promotion
  
  
• Leadership and Empowerment
• Leadership skills for girls, teens and women
• Gender barriers
• Mentoring
• Engaging women and girls in leadership roles

We rotate our field of funding each year to reach as many women and girls as possible. Grant proposals are accepted in the fall (see Grant Information on our website for deadlines). Each spring, The Women’s Fund will make grants with a 1-3 year commitment to agencies within that year’s field of funding.  Grants will be awarded up to a maximum of $15,000 per program request. 

All grants are contingent upon satisfactory completion of the program or associated progress.  Agencies awarded multi-year grants will be required to submit a written interim report to be eligible to receive the next year’s funding allocation. 

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Why doesn’t The Women’s Fund of Essex County fund 100% of
a program’s expenses?

Our goal is to ensure that an agency builds its strength by developing a diverse funding base. While we may provide repeat funding to an organization over a few years based on the merits of the program and outcomes, we do not want any agency to become solely reliant on our funding.

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How does The Women’s Fund of Essex County measure
the effectiveness of programs funded?

We believe that our nonprofit agency partners, who are closest to their client constituencies, are best positioned to define and measure the success of their programs.  Rather than set standardized metrics for all grantee agencies, we ask each organization to set their own success criteria. This has the combined impact of providing more relevant measures and helping the agencies in their own strategic planning. 

As part of their grant proposal, we require each agency to identify in writing their performance objectives and anticipated outcomes, as well as their evaluation methodology. Each agency’s evaluation criteria and methodology must be an effective measure of the level of success of the program and use of the grant dollars.    

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How can I contact The Women’s Fund of Essex County?

Website: www.thewomensfundec.org

Email: thewomensfund@gmail.com

Telephone: 978-777-8876

Fax: 978-777-9454

Address:

The Women’s Fund of Essex County
c/o Essex County Community Foundation
175 Andover Street, Suite 101
Danvers, MA 01923

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