Grants for Women and Girls: A Guide for Nonprofits

Philanthropy by women

Philanthropy by women describes giving in which women hold the wealth, make the decisions or exert substantial influence over philanthropic institutions. A Short History of Women’s Philanthropy in America, by researchers at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, traces the evolution of women’s funding. This funding may or may not benefit women and girls directly, but always reflects the funding interests of donors in this field. 

Women’s giving circles have historically directed millions to women and girls, often moving the needle at the grassroots and national levels. They include independent groups, giving circles hosted by intermediaries like the Chicago Foundation for Women, and networks like Impact100, a global network; Together Women Rise, a national collective focused on global gender equality; and Philanos, which connects more than 110 affiliates across the U.S. and Australia.

How much philanthropic funding actually goes to women and girls?

Despite philanthropy’s attention to gender equity, surprisingly little research shows how money actually reaches women and girls organizations. Original research in this space remains scarce, reflecting the wider inequalities inherent in studying women across a multitude of fields beyond philanthropy. The strongest national measure, in philanthropy, remains the Women & Girls Index, the only systematically generated, comprehensive U.S. index of its kind.

What are key issues in women and girls’ philanthropy?

Reproductive health and family planning received the most philanthropic support in 2023, at $2.2 billion, according to the 2025 Women & Girls Index. Women and girls’ human services organizations receive $1.8 billion, followed by education ($1.3 billion), economic security, employment ($0.5 billion), violence prevention ($1.7 billion), general health ($1.8 billion), civil rights ($0.5 billion), youth development, sports ($0.6 billion), leadership and the arts ($0.2 billion).

For grantseekers, that breadth creates opportunity. A girls’ STEM program belongs as much to education and science philanthropy as to giving for girls. An organization helping women build assets may find better prospects among funders focused on economic mobility. A group organizing immigrant women may align more closely with foundations giving for immigrant justice or workers’ rights than foundations with a formal “women and girls” program.

The same logic works in reverse: some large foundations apply a gender lens throughout their work without maintaining a stand-alone gender portfolio. In this cross-cutting landscape, you may find issue alignment by looking beyond a program name. 

Similarly, mainstream funding often focuses on women and girls more generally, whereas feminist funding invests in the mechanics of power animating the latter.

What does feminist and gender-justice philanthropy look like? 

Feminist philanthropy prioritizes a power-sharing process. In a Ms. Magazine article titled “Feminist Philanthropy Can Do More to Save Democracy—Here’s How,” Alfonsina Peñaloza defines feminist philanthropy as women-led, locally rooted, long-term and flexible, and focused on systemic change. 

The feminist funder Foundation for a Just Society prioritizes structural change, leadership by affected communities and multi-year general operating support. Global Fund for Women similarly emphasizes flexible, long-term support for grassroots feminist organizations and reports making more than 14,000 grants to more than 5,800 partners in 180 countries.

A shelter, an organizing coalition, and a girls’ mentoring program may all improve women’s lives, but they reflect different theories of change and attract different types of funders. Grantseekers should be able to describe what their organizations do best and seek funders with strategies already aligned to that work. This funding area is most often highly targeted, investing in grantees that have shown previous evidence of feminist and gender-justice work. 

How has feminist philanthropy evolved in the United States?

Philanthropy for women’s and girls’ empowerment has often followed U.S. feminist movements. Wealthy women donors provided critical support to the suffragist movement. But then funding for women and girls declined until the second-wave women’s movement of the 1970s. More recently, threats to reproductive rights and the overturning of Roe v. Wade have prompted a surge in giving to abortion funds and reproductive rights and justice organizations.

Where is funding for women and girls falling short?

Funding reaches women and girls unevenly, with acute shortfalls affecting women and girls of color, gender-expansive communities and grassroots feminist movements. Gaps in data leave fundraisers without a clear picture of who receives support and who gets overlooked. 

While comprehensive giving data for 2025 and 2026 is not yet available, IP’s Martha Ramirez has covered the second Trump administration’s federal funding cuts and philanthropic efforts to fill gaps, even as the administration’s threats chill equity-minded philanthropy.

Women and girls of color remain underfunded

One of the field’s most frequently cited figures comes from research by the Ms. Foundation for Women’s Pocket Change. Using 2017 data, it found that approximately 0.5% of $66.9 billion in foundation giving went to women and girls of color, or roughly $5.48 per woman and girl of color in the United States.

The Ms. Foundation’s 2023 follow-up, Living With Pocket Change, used interviews with grantee partners to examine how chronic underinvestment affects organizations led by women and non-binary people of color. But it did not update the national grant-flow calculation with newer data.

Meanwhile, funding infrastructure has grown. Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC) reports $31.6 million awarded to 416 grantee-partner organizations since 2020. That is meaningful institutional growth, but it does not establish that the national gap has closed. The lack of a comparable benchmark is itself part of the story, and G4GC is advocating for more intersectional research. 

Gender-expansive communities remain at the margins of foundation funding

Many feminist funders now include trans, nonbinary and gender-expansive people alongside cis women and girls, reflecting a broader understanding of gender. But groups serving trans, nonbinary and gender-expansive people remain underfunded.

In 2024, U.S. foundations awarded only 3 cents of every $100 to transgender, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary communities and issues, down from 3.5 cents in 2023, Funders for LGBTQ Issues reported in June 2026.

Feminist movements receive a small share of philanthropy 

A 2026 Bridgespan report found that feminist movements receive minimal philanthropic support, though they hold significant promise to transform the underlying conditions that create inequality and injustice. At this time, dedicated feminist funds – usually women- and nonbinary-led intermediaries or regrantors – are primary movement supporters. 

Women’s health and medical research

Even prior to the funding cuts under the second Trump administration, there was already a gap in government funding for women’s health, with diseases and health issues that specifically affect women, such as PCOS, endometriosis and menopause, underfunded and understudied compared to other health issues. Women’s philanthropy tries to help fill this gap, but further gaps remain.

Women’s funds create an ecosystem 

Megafoundations and billionaire donors may command the headlines, but women’s and feminist funds built the field. These typically public fundraising foundations move money and power toward grassroots organizations and movements led by women, girls, trans, nonbinary and intersex people. 

Many women’s funds pair direct grants with other forms of support. Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds describes this model as one in which funds mobilize resources, make direct grants and strengthen networks among the groups they support.

That infrastructure is substantial. Women’s Funding Network says its members and partners represent about $1.4 billion in annual grantmaking. At the same time, Prospera brings together 47 international, regional, subregional and national women’s and feminist funds that collectively provide more than 2,800 grants annually across 172 countries. 

Beyond scale, these funds often sit closer to local and emerging organizations and leaders, particularly structurally underfunded ones or those outside the orbit of major national foundations. The New York Women’s Foundation invested more than $8 million across 138 community partners in 2025, while Women’s Foundation California prioritizes organizations led by women of color and gender-expansive people.

For smaller nonprofits, women’s funds can act as funders, conveners and field guides. Their grantee lists often reveal partner organizations, influential coalitions and existing philanthropic relationships. In a sector where networks often mediate access to large foundations, grantseekers can peruse those lists for possible connections and introductions.

Women donors’ philanthropy

The Women Give 2024 report and WPI’s 2025 literature review on women and philanthropy both document women’s influence as donors and philanthropic leaders. These studies illuminate who gives and how, not where the money goes.

Some funders in this space are laser-focused on giving for women and girls, while others give more generally across different funding areas.  Melinda French Gates, for example, has made women’s economic and social power central to Pivotal, which reports $2 billion pledged to women and families since 2019. MacKenzie Scott has made transformative gifts to many women-serving organizations, but as part of a much broader portfolio. 

Inside Philanthropy’s reporting found that these donors’ funding tends to emphasize global development and the interconnection of women across borders, with a bottom-up approach to funding.

Prospect researchers should remember that while a donor’s gender can be relevant, it doesn’t necessarily mean issue alignment or define their grantmaking.

Government funding is an underappreciated part of the landscape

The 2025 Women & Girls Index found that government grants provide roughly 20% of revenue at women’s and girls’ organizations, about twice the rate of other U.S. nonprofits.

That dependence leaves many organizations unusually exposed to changes in public funding. Globally, the decimation of USAID starting in 2025 cut more than $1 billion in funding for maternal, child, sexual, and reproductive health, while also slashing programs that supported women and girls’ educational and livelihood opportunities and programs focused on gender-based violence prevention, according to the Women’s Refugee Commission’s report “A Year of Harms: The Impact of US Foreign Aid Cuts on Women and Girls in Humanitarian Crises.” 

Domestically and internationally, Trump administration cuts to government funding have created massive gaps that some philanthropists are trying to address. In this context, flexible funding, general operating support, reserves, staffing and organizational capacity become vital.

How to find nonprofit grants for women and girls?

Start with your organization’s work, mapping each issue, population and strategy. Then assess women-and-girls funders for fit and accessibility. Here are some tips:

• Follow adjacent funding fields. A girls’ STEM program may fit education, science and workforce-development as well as funding for girls. 
• Review the funder’s current priorities, supported populations, strategies and geographic reach. 
• Examine recent grantees and 990s for repeat relationships, intermediaries, fiscal sponsors and coalitions. 
• Compare typical grant amounts, grant types and the organizational stages a funder supports. 
• Determine whether the funder accepts proposals, invites applicants or identifies prospects through established networks. 
• Build authentic relationships with women’s funds, intermediaries and movement organizations that connect grantseekers, donors and field leaders. 

Research-backed funder profiles, grantmaking histories and practical prospect intelligence.