Women's Foundation of Minnesota

We are so excited to announce the Young Women's Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN) Greater Mankato Cabinet! We’re so excited to expand the YWI of MN Cabinet to Greater Minnesota Mankato! If you know a young person you’d like to nominate for the cabinet please use the links below. This is such a great opportunity to get involved in public policy and advocacy work. In partnership with the YWCA Mankato, the YWI MN Greater Mankato Cabinet is open to young women and gender-expansive youth between the ages of 16 and 24 and meets twice a month on a weeknight evening with in-person and online sessions that explore policy, advocacy, and community change topics. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/gSYyNPZB Consider nominating a young person here: https://bit.ly/3WcaQqc

🌟 Join Our Team at the Women's Foundation of Minnesota! 🌟 We are excited to hire a Director of Advocacy & Innovation! This vital role is responsible for driving our policy, advocacy, and strategic innovation efforts, including the Young Women's Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN). By partnering with our dedicated staff and external partners, this role will elevate WFM's leadership for gender and racial justice in Minnesota and across the nation. If you are passionate about making a difference through youth-centered programs and advocacy, ensuring work is steeped in research, WFM's Intersectional Equity Framework, and aligned with community-identified needs., we want to hear from you! 🔗 Apply now and be part of our mission to create a more equitable future: https://lnkd.in/gc4JyYRb

🌟 Welcome Jackie Chavez, our new Wenda Weekes Moore Intern! 🌟 We are thrilled to announce that Jackie Chavez has joined us as part of the prestigious Wenda Weekes Moore Internship. Hailing from Houston, Texas, Jackie is currently pursuing her undergraduate degree in sociology with a minor in psychology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. Her passion for understanding social dynamics and systems, and her commitment to improving the lives of women and gender-expansive individuals make Jackie shine in this role. Join us in welcoming Jackie to the team! She is already making a positive impact!

✨We're so excited to announce our new Director of Institutional Partnerships, Lorena Armstrong-Duarte!✨ Lorena has over 20 years of experience working with Minnesota's largest mission-centered organizations including The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Public Schools, and Twin Cities PBS. She is an institutional storytelling and strategy expert and is passionate about helping individuals and organizations see their vision for a better world come to life. She is a published poet and experienced spoken word performer alongside her professional career. She was born in El Salvador, raised in Minnesota, educated at Harvard University, and now lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two sons. Lorena will lead all aspects of WFM funding, engaging with a wide range of institutions, including corporations and foundations. Lorena is eager to build meaningful relationships through outreach, impact storytelling, solicitation of philanthropic support, project management, and content writing for customized grant reports. "I'm thrilled to join WFM in the vital work of protecting and advancing the rights and opportunities of women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in Minnesota. At a time when the rights of women and marginalized communities are being threatened and stripped across the country, WFM is a beacon of hope and I love knowing that every day, I will be working towards something I believe in so passionately – all alongside an incredible team. It's a privilege and an honor."

WFM believes in the leadership and ideas of young women and gender-expansive leaders in our state. Through the #Innovators program, WFM provides microgrants of $3,000 directly to young women and gender-expansive people (ages 16-24) to fuel their ideas and support their development as leaders with microgrants, cohort-based learning, and individual leadership coaching. Innovators leadership, ideas, and solutions advance key recommendations in the Young Women's Initiative of Minnesota's (YWI MN) Blueprint for Action. We've extended the application deadline until Monday, July 1, at 11:59 p.m. Please know that when applying, it takes 1-2 business days to gain access to the online portal and complete the application. Apply at https://lnkd.in/gpd4VCXc

Thank you to Ellen (Ellie) K. for having Gloria Perez, our President and CEO, join her podcast, Ellie 2.0, to share the latest and greatest about WFM. "At the Women's Foundation we are on a mission to end systemic inequities and drive innovation so that women and girls and gender-expansive folks across Minnesota can thrive. Forty years ago, our founder and other mothers of this women's funding movement decided they wanted to start their own foundation. They wanted to be the ones making decisions of where we were going to invest in the inequities across the state and amplify the voices of people who really had solutions. And we've been doing those kinds of investments philanthropically, we've been doing some research, we do some advocacy, and certainly bring people together to better understand how women girl and gender-expansive folks experience Minnesota." Listen to our conversation at https://bit.ly/4c92m8C In addition to her podcast, Ellie recently joined WFM's Board of Trustees!

We are excited to invite you to our next in-person Community Connect, hosted by the Rochester Area Foundation, on Wednesday, July 24, from 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Community Connect is an informal biannual gathering for community members from across the state to meet and find serendipitous connections to their next funder, accomplice, or co-conspirator. This event is not just for the outgoing and social— we're confident it will be a meaningful and welcoming experience for extroverts and introverts alike. Even if you are not based in Rochester, MN, we encourage you to share this invitation with your colleagues and contacts in the area who might benefit from this unique networking opportunity. Register at https://lnkd.in/g2CSJvpz

To further Blueprint recommendation 15: to increase access to women's healthcare and services built on cultural and community strengths so that young women know about their bodies and can make appropriate and healthy choices as they grow and age, Lay Lay Zan used her #Innovator grant to support the development of the Karen Football Association (KFA)'s youth academy. As a board member of KFA, Lay Lay helped encourage girls in the Karen community to have a welcoming space to pursue their soccer talents. Girls and women of color are frequently underrepresented in the field of soccer, and soccer clubs can be expensive. Lay Lay wants to change this for girls of color by making soccer clubs more accessible and diverse. "For me being a WFM Innovator means to care. To care about issues that affect girls, and women of color. Even more than caring, being an Innovator means to act upon these issues that face our communities." -Lay Lay Women, girls, and gender-expansive people are underrepresented and under-supported in many fields. How can you use an Innovator grant to help remove these barriers? Apply to be our next Innovator today at https://lnkd.in/gpd4VCXc.

🏳️🌈Happy Pride Month 🏳️🌈 The Women's Foundation of Minnesota proudly supports the LGBTQ+ community. We believe everyone deserves to live as their authentic selves. Our role in philanthropy gives us the positional power to support our grantee-partners who are directly in this work. Together we're building a world where the LGBTQ+ community feels safe, supported, and accepted. Learn more about our grantee-partners and find out how you can support them Annex Teen Clinic, Telling Queer History, OutFront Minnesota, The Link Minnesota, RECLAIM!, Family Tree Clinic, and One Heartland. https://lnkd.in/gxNBXm-T

Weslyn Harmon, from Coon Rapids, used her #Innovator grant to teach a SIS-stainable Fashion sewing program. Through a series of classes, she shared her creative expression in sewing and design, the importance of sustainability, values alignment, and upcycling, with a goal of preparing participants for ethical leadership. Now that she can design and sew her own clothing, Weslyn has begun to use clothing as a statement to express herself and her ideals. Weslyn's vision is to support young women in Minnesota to become empowered in their fashion as a stance of activism against fast fashion and stand in global solidarity with women exploited by fast fashion retailers. "I connected with so many inspiring young people and I got to share my story and teach them about sustainability." - Weslyn You can lean on your creativity and showcase the impact you're making in the world. Applications for the Innovator grants are open till Monday, June 24. Apply at https://lnkd.in/gpd4VCXc