Women & Girls of Color Fund

The $20,000,000 campaign will expand the Women’s Foundation of Colorado’s Women & Girls of Color Fund as a community-developed, community-led engine for significant, trust-based, multi-year investment in women and gender-expansive leaders of color statewide. This moment is urgent: women and girls of color remain chronically underfunded by philanthropy, even as opportunity gaps widen and restrictions on DEI grow.

The campaign will deliver direct grantmaking to nonprofits and projects led by women, girls, and gender-expansive people of color across Colorado, prioritizing multi-year, unrestricted support. Funding will back leaders advancing economic security, healing and well-being, civic leadership, and community organizing—enabling them to go deeper, take risks, and build lasting strength.

Success will also elevate grantee visibility, connect leaders to a broader statewide network of funders, and demonstrate a model of investing through trust-based, multi-year, unrestricted support. Donors can partner through a relationship-centered giving conversation with Maggie Stoot, Vice President of Development, at maggies@wfco.org.

This campaign matters now because women and girls of color—and the women and gender-expansive leaders of color building solutions across Colorado—remain chronically underfunded by philanthropy. Nationally, only 0.5% of foundation funding reaches women and girls of color, reflecting a failure to recognize and resource leadership that is already transforming communities.

The urgency is growing. WFCO cites widening opportunity gaps, chronic underinvestment, and growing restrictions on DEI as forces that make the Women & Girls of Color Fund a critical and timely vehicle for change. Waiting risks leaving proven leaders without the sustained, flexible capital they need to go deeper, take risks, and build lasting organizational capacity.

If this campaign succeeds, Colorado will have a stronger, community-developed and community-led engine for resourcing women and gender-expansive leaders of color with significant, multi-year investments grounded in trust. The fund will expand and deepen WFCO’s commitment to leaders whose visions are transforming communities “from the inside out,” correcting a philanthropic gap that has historically overlooked them.

Success will also unlock broader influence beyond individual grants: increased statewide visibility for grantee leaders, stronger connections to a statewide network of funders, and a model for what it looks like to truly invest in women of color through trust-based, multi-year, unrestricted support.

The campaign will deliver direct grantmaking to nonprofits and projects led by women, girls, and gender-expansive people of color across Colorado, with a priority on multi-year, unrestricted grants. Those contributions will translate into larger and longer financial commitments to leaders working across economic security, healing and well-being, civic leadership, and community organizing.

WFCO can track and report progress through clear, fund-level measures already reflected in the fund’s track record and operations: dollars granted and the number of leaders/organizations supported statewide (since 2021, $2.5 million to more than 80 leaders), the share of grants structured as multi-year and unrestricted, and participation in fund-supported convenings and capacity-building opportunities (e.g., the 2024 grantee convening that brought together 29 organizations for two days of healing, storytelling, media training, and policy advocacy).

$4,870,000 of the $20,000,000 has already been fulfilled

Partnership is a direct investment in the Women & Girls of Color Fund’s trust-based grantmaking—fueling multi-year, unrestricted grants to women and gender-expansive leaders of color across Colorado, alongside efforts to elevate grantee visibility and connect leaders to a broader statewide network.

The source material does not specify giving levels or formal recognition benefits. WFCO invites major donors into a relationship-centered conversation about giving; prospective partners can connect directly with Maggie Stoot, Vice President of Development, at maggies@wfco.org to learn more and make a gift.