OVERVIEW: The Vermont Women’s Fund supports the economic self-sufficiency of women and girls throughout Vermont.
IP TAKE: The Vermont Women’s Fund, which conducts all of its grantmaking through a gender lens, focuses only on supporting organizations in Vermont. While this is a modest funder, its influence seems to be growing. It has been able to increase its total grantmaking over time—not every year, per se, but growth has demonstrably trended upwards. VWF is a great resource for organizations working in these areas because in addition to its issue areas, it also invests in capacity building and organizational sustainability with both single-year and multi-year grants.
This funder awards single or multi-year grants that support programmatic expenses for pilot or established programs and/or general operating costs. It will also consider funding proposals that supports work at any phase of development (including pilots). Both an accessible and transparent funder, VWF welcomes contact. It’s also worth nothing that VWF permits nonprofit organizations and community groups without their own 501c(3) status to apply if an eligible organization serves as fiscal sponsor.
Overall, grant seekers should look at VWF as a philanthropy focused on gender equity and justice, with economic security as a central pathway rather than an exclusive concern. VWF’s broader definition of women also includes people who identify as women in a meaningful way, including trans women and those who are nonbinary, gender nonconforming or gender expansive.
PROFILE: Established in 1994, the Vermont Women’s Fund is a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation. VWF, the first fund in the state to focus on the needs of local women and girls, is advised by a council of women from across the state. The Fund is on a mission to “fund structural change to advance gender equity and justice in Vermont” with a strategy that supports organizations that “advocate for economic security, provide job training, promote self-sufficiency, and address the intersectionality of race and gender equity.”
Overall, grantmaking addresses economic security, housing, childcare, health access, reproductive freedom, domestic and sexual violence, mental health, recovery, immigrant communities, youth leadership, pay equity and policy change.
Grant for Women and Girls
The Vermont Women’s Fund conducts grantmaking for organizations and programs that make a difference for women and girls. It also aims to develop “a consciousness of giving among all women.” VWF funding prioritizes grantseekers that are committed to:
working with women and girls who are disproportionately impacted by systemic racism and sexism (BIPOC individuals, trans women, and non-binary people, women living with disabilities, older women).
demonstrating how the proposed work will influence change and address systemic barriers and root causes.
strategies grounded in research or best practices.
projects that exhibit a collaborative approach.
Grants for Economic Opportunity
Financial literacy, job training, and life skills training are at the heart of recent giving patterns. VWF funds organizations that work with teenage girls in order to create pathways for their successful careers.
- In its grantmaking, it currently prioritizes organizations that “make pathways to economic well-being,” for instance through career development, financial literacy, livable-wage employment, entrepreneurship support, economic security for unemployed women and career advancement for women earning below a living wage.
- VWF has historically invested in research and nonprofit programming around women’s entrepreneurship; its dedicated This Way UP! research project has been complete as of 2024, and current competitive grants do not fund businesses or startup capital.
Additionally, in July 2026, VWF released the Vermont Women, Work, and Wages 2026 Report in partnership with Vermont Works for Women and the Vermont Commission on Women.
- The report examines women’s economic success in the state, with particular attention to occupational segregation, parenthood, educational attainment and the gender wage gap.
- Don’t mistake this as an application-based grant opportunity. It’s representative, however, of research findings that trickle down to grantmaking activity.
Grants for Human Services, Domestic Violence and Reproductive Justice
The Fund also provides grants to groups that raise public awareness about the needs of women and girls.
- It supports work that “addresses systemic barriers to economic well-being,” such as education, transportation, family centers, health care, or childcare.
- The most recent grantee cohorts include domestic-violence services, housing and economic supports, reproductive access, mental-health services and recovery programs alongside policy and organizing work.
- The fund explicitly accepts both work meeting immediate needs and work pursuing longer-term systems change.
- Recent grantees include Green Mountain Camp for Girls, Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center, Janet S. Munt Family Room, and Janet S. Munt Family Room, Capstone Community Action, Champlain College, Community Asylum Seekers Project, Downstreet Housing and Community Development, Green Mountain Birth Center, and Lund Family Center.
Important Grant Details:
Vermont Women’s Fund’s competitive grants typically reach up to $15,000. In a recent year, VWF gave away a total of over $400,000. Given that VWF does not have independent 990s, the Fund’s own annual recipient lists are much more useful than the tax records of its parent organization, the Vermont Community Foundation.
- Although the fund and community foundation are based in Middlebury, Vermont, this women’s fund makes grants all throughout the state of Vermont.
The Fund prioritizes the economic well-being and self-sufficiency of women and those who identify as women in Vermont. For VWF, an emphasis on intersectionality is crucial to receiving a grant.
Grant seekers may apply through the Vermont Community Foundation’s online portal.
VWF generally accepts applications from January to March, with decisions announced in May. Check the foundation’s grantmaking overview for this year’s deadline, which also mentions the critical components of supported grants.
- Deadlines tend to occur in early spring, while grantees are typically notified in May.
Review the Fund’s past grantees for more information on the types of organizations it supports.
Grantseekers can direct general questions to the fund’s Director, Emily Bush, at ebush@vermontcf.org or (802) 388-3355 ext. 301.
If you have questions about the grantmaking process or would like to discuss an idea, please contact the Fund’s grants team at grants@vermontcf.org
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