Grant Center

The Women's Fund of the Wayne County Foundation – Purpose and application

The Women’s Fund was established through the Wayne County Foundation to support creative and innovative efforts to enhance the lives of women and girls. The Fund provides grants that give opportunities, encouragement, knowledge, and hope to women and girls.

With the gifts and grants, the fund strives to empower women and girls to become strong, active citizens. The flexible structure of the Women’s Fund is designed to give credibility to women’s philanthropy and women’s challenges, assure sustainability, maximize community impact and ensure grantee success. Local business and community women who care deeply about the issues of women and girls form the Advisory Board that directs all activities, seeks funding proposals, and facilitates grant awards.

Grantmaking Process for 2012

The Women’s Fund grant guidelines and priorities are simple and straightforward to encourage creative and innovative approaches and ideas.

PLEASE NOTE:  In order to continue serving a wider audience, our 2012 grant awards will be the same as in 2011.

The Women’s Fund recognizes the importance of personal growth for the health of working women in our community.  In 2012, as in 2011, the Women’s Fund wishes to enhance the ability of these women to support and strengthen the mission of the community organizations they serve while renewing their spirit. The 2012 grant awards will provide opportunities for women working in or volunteering for not-for-profit organizations to attend workshops, trainings, conferences or other professional opportunities.  The goal is to offer renewal, rejuvenation, experience, and strength to those who are leading and supporting the not-for-profit efforts in Wayne County.  We encourage organizations to be creative when thinking about these opportunities!  Examples of opportunities might include: fundraising workshops, professional conferences, retreats, etc.  The Women’s Fund will NOT fund personal experiences that are unrelated to the needs of the organization.

Grant limit will be $1,000 per application.

Application Process

The Advisory Board will assess the opportunities for impact and determine the challenges and needs of women and girls in our area. This analysis will be the basis for the annual review of grant requests. Recognizing that some needs may be immediate and urgent, the Advisory Board will also meet as needed to respond in a timely manner to ideas and requests.

To be considered for a Women’s Fund grant, please submit the following:

• A summary of the program, conference, training or other formal experience a woman (or women) in your organization wishes to attend (you may submit brochures and supplementary materials to help us understand the opportunity, but they should not be used as a substitute for a written summary).
• A statement describing why this opportunity is important to the woman and organization
• A description of your organizations history, purpose, and population served
• A statement detailing how this grant will help advance the organization
• A project budget
• Women’s fund grant application cover page (word) (pdf).

The Advisory Board will select appropriate project(s), seek additional and specific application information, and carefully consider each funding opportunity on the basis of merit, need, and impact. The 2012 deadline for proposals is February 15, 2012. Awards can only be made to qualified charitable organizations. Grant Use Report

Your should be submitted to:

The Women’s Fund of the Wayne County Foundation
33 South Seventh Street
Richmond, Indiana 47374