WS Chronicle

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

The Women’s Fund of Winston-Salem, a growing community of female philanthropists who seek to improve the lives of women and girls in Forsyth County, has released its 2016 Request for Proposals for programs that create social change for women and girls by focusing on the economic security of women and girls in our community. The Women’s Fund anticipates granting over $100,000 to local nonprofits, including offering smaller organizations an opportunity to compete for funding through a Grassroots Grants Program.

Grants are funded from the pooled contributions of the Fund’s diverse membership of over 800 women and girls. Since 2007, the Women’s Fund has awarded over $1.2 million to local organizations working to improve the lives of women and girls in Forsyth County. The 2016 grants will be awarded at The Women’s Fund 11th Annual Luncheon in November 2016.

“The Women’s Fund recently released A Second Look Through A Gender Lens Report and it has further highlighted our critical role and the importance of our unique funding model plays in benefitting our community,” said Alison Ashe-Card, chair of the Board of Directors. “Our annual grants support organizations and grassroots pro-grams that address the root causes of economic insecurity for women and girls in our community.”

The Fund’s Grassroots Grants Program provides grants of up to $10,000 for eligible nonprofit organizations with annual operating budgets up to $250,000. The Community Grants Program provides organizations of all sizes with grants of up to $30,000. Both programs have a two-step application process that includes a preliminary application and a full proposal. For both programs, the deadline to submit a preliminary application is 11:59 p.m. on June 16, 2016. Invitations to submit a full proposal and declinations will be sent to applicants by July 7; full proposals are due August 4.

The Fund’s Grants Review Committee, made up of Women’s Fund members, reviews and selects a subset of proposals to present to the Fund’s entire membership for voting in September-October. Applicants are notified of funding decisions at the end of October 2016.

The Grant Guidelines and application forms are available on The Women’s Fund Web site at www.wom-ensfundws.org or may be obtained by sending an e-mail to info@womensfundws.org or by calling 336-714-3468.